Finding the right Lebanese marble mosaic for our house
and garden
Picture this - choosing mosaics for your home
Mosaics are the latest addition to our home. We bought 2 from
a UK company but found they were, in turn, just buying them from a
Lebanese company and adding something like 300% to the price so we
decided to go direct to them. I confess that both my wife and I were
considerably apprehensive about giving our credit card details in this
manner but that turned out to be a needless concern and, as it turned
out, the Lebanese company was far more straightforward than the UK one
which was a bit 'sharp' at times.
Lebanese marble makes superb mosaics and I was delighted to see just how
little it actually cost us in the end. (Yes, you can buy mosaics locally
- they make them just up the road from us in Assisi but they aren't as
colourful, nor do they have the same quality and texture as their Middle
Eastern counterparts.
In the end it cost us just over $3,000 for 6 mosaics - two of which were
large terrace types with one well over 2 square metres in size. That
price included delivery but not the dreaded import duty which we had to
pay before they were delivered. On that subject, we both felt sorry for
the DHL man who had to single handedly carry each mosaic into our home -
a total weight of over 200 kg.
We chose a selection of different mosaics - here is a list with our
reasoning why.
A large circular 'medallion' style mosaic with a sun and moon pattern
which has gone on our main terrace - a large paved area which we use to
catch the sun in the afternoon and for barbecues in the evening.
A large rectangular 'flower' pattern mosaic which sits on one of the
small rectangular terrace just outside our patio doors - this is an
all-year-around terrace and we wanted something bright and cheerful.
Three stretched 'vertical' mosaics of flower arrangements which we feel
complements the vertical format of our home (we have lots of columns).
One of these is set on the wall adjacent to the front door.
A medallion of fish swimming which has gone above our indoor swimming
pool.
A mosaic medallion of a compass is set in the floor of our large option
room - this orientates the view of the valley and the mountains from our
windows as well as breaking up the large expanse of tiles which
otherwise might be a bit much.
Finally, and partly for a 'talking point' we have set a mosaic of a lady
looking out of a window picking flowers on the wall of our bathroom
making it appear like she is leaning into the room!
This was money well-spent and we are very pleased with our mosaics.
|