Stone Masterclass with Dan Nelson: Everything You Need to Know About Natural Stone
Dear Alice | Interior Design
Dan Nelson, a veteran in the stone industry with decades of experience, shares expert insights on natural stone selection, sourcing, and app
Key takeaways
- Custom stone projects often require selecting entire blocks from quarries rather than individual slabs.
Main topics
- Natural stone types: marble, quartzite, granite
- Polished vs. honed finishes
Notable quotes
Luxury is when your expectations are met.
Conclusion
Dan Nelson emphasizes that true luxury in design comes from thoughtful
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:00) We are very much a trendy country. It keeps coming in and coming out. Is precast like a swear word for you? Here's where I feel the misconception is. Is Speaker 3 (0:08) there like a stone you're just like, oh my gosh, I remember the first time I saw that. Speaker 2 (0:11) The wonderful thing about stone is you haven't seen the last piece and you haven't seen the prettiest piece. The best design, just like food. is the most simple design. Hello Speaker 4 (0:19) everyone welcome to Dear Alice. Today is a special one. A really special one. We've got Dan Nelson on the podcast who we've had for we've probably known him for about 20 years. At least yeah. He's been in the marble business, the stone business. Speaker 3 (0:33) Yeah Speaker 4 (0:33) and it's just grown into something that is so huge. The thing that I think you guys are going to absolutely love is just the history of stone. There Speaker 3 (0:42) was a real just like romance, like understanding just all the different types of stones and the application and how much we're under utilizing stone. in design. We Speaker 4 (0:51) even talk about some of the little things about stone like 2cm or 3cm. How often should we steal it? What the next superpowers in stone are. Dan has seen it all. He's got quarries all over the world and they all mean different things to him. We even talk about the different types like quartzite versus marble. It was really fascinating to learn his answers. Also what are the next and like Speaker 3 (1:12) upcoming stones that he's foreseeing? As far as like trends go. Well, Speaker 4 (1:17) let's not wait any longer. Let's get into it with Dan Nelson. Speaker 2 (1:20) How'd you get into the field? Like stone? You know, it's a good story. I think desperation is probably the right way to say it. You know, I grew up on a farm first and foremost, at least part of my life on a farm. Our family were farmers, but my mother's side of the family grew up in a part of Mexico that there was a lot of stone. You know, my father being a farmer in the summer and then not a lot to do in the winter, he would... I'd like to say he would peddle stone. He never made money at it. He thought he could bring stone up and sell it to individuals. For me, I was trying to figure out how to get into school and pay for school. And I'd had an uncle that I'd worked with in the past, and I thought, you know what? This is something I can do to make some money, go to school. Well, long story short, it became a lot bigger than I thought it would, and it was growing. doing okay and then and it kind of never turned back so Speaker 4 (2:13) you're a student at the same time you're doing this no Speaker 2 (2:15) i i never even went to school at that point i mean i student of stone student of stone this you know it's it's a lot of people ask me that's you know what did you study you know the reality is is i haven't stopped studying it's not it's an always moving thing but it yeah it became very very busy i wouldn't say they grew fast but opportunities came, you know, within three or four or five years, it was humming. But I think more than anything, it opened me up into some interesting things because I was working right off the bat with other countries, quarries, fabricators. I had lived in Brazil as a missionary for two years. So I was... very much introduced with that part of the world, in Brazil in particular. Speaker 1 (3:02) And Speaker 2 (3:02) that was right kind of where Brazil was really taking off in the granite. You know, they hold all these kind of exotic granites that everybody used to have in their homes. I went back in the late 90s and opened up an exporting company to export blocks and slabs into North America. And it took me down there and I spent some time really kind of getting the fundamentals of, you know, quarry to, you know, quarry to slab, slab to, you know, fabricators. And so there's a lot of things that were happening and that helped a lot. I did open a fabrication shop, you know, within a year of me starting. I was doing installations and I opened up a fabrication shop and it. Did a lot of work myself for a lot of years. But at the same time, I was doing other things that really kind of led to where I'm at now. Speaker 3 (3:49) I know, obviously, we've done residential stuff because that's what we primarily do. You do mostly commercial, though. Yeah. Speaker 2 (3:55) Right now? Yeah. Would you say? Yeah, as far as, I mean, Global Stone. Okay. Yeah, 100 % commercial. Occasionally, we'll do residentials, but it's when they're required some cladding or something that's... that maybe doesn't fit a traditional residential company. Speaker 3 (4:12) Massive amounts of stone. Yeah. That's when we use you. Yeah. Well, Speaker 2 (4:16) look, honey, when it comes to home, I mean, that's MGS by design. We try to cater to the high-end home. We want to treat everybody good when they walk in. It works for some, it doesn't for others. But at the end of the day, we are kind of pushing to those people that are looking at stone as something that's... it's a focal point of their home, something that they really care about. And it requires time. You know, when we say custom, a lot of people don't know what custom means. And I think the best description of custom is something that's been well thought out. It's something that makes sense for its application. Something that, you know. fits a design, still has a usefulness, per se. And in stone, there's things you need to avoid and things that you need to think of when you do that. And it's not as simple as here's Speaker 1 (5:06) a Speaker 2 (5:06) set of plans, here's the stone I like, this is my edge and I'm done. That works in some cases, but kind of projects we like to be in, we want to talk about a lot more and what stone can do versus what people don't understand. Can we Speaker 1 (5:21) go in depth on that a little bit? I was just Speaker 4 (5:23) going to say, maybe illustrate this project that we did with Dan. And this is obviously on the very, very small end that Dan's done, but we just had experience with him on a really large residential kitchen and it required, how many slabs was it? 20 something slabs? Speaker 2 (5:39) Yeah, 27 slabs. Speaker 4 (5:42) So if you're going to go to a normal slab yard, you're not going to see a bundle of 27 slabs. Speaker 2 (5:47) And so Speaker 4 (5:48) it was really cool that we happened to be talking with Dan because Dan was educating us to get this type of bundle, we really need to get a block of marble. This blew our mind that we were needing to work with blocks and really ideally that the client would fly out to Italy and or wherever the quarry is and that they would approve the block because once you choose your block they slice it up like bread and then that becomes your whole kitchen. Speaker 3 (6:13) So Speaker 4 (6:13) this is on really large projects and I think this is interesting because Even if you're just a design enthusiast, but if you are an interior designer, Dan has this type. This is the type of work he's doing when he's talking about resorts and he's talking about temples. These large scale projects, you have to have blocks of marble that you're working within. You're not going to your average slab yard to buy six slabs to do a normal kitchen, you know, Speaker 2 (6:38) which Speaker 4 (6:38) is really wild. But I don't know. Can you speak to that a little bit, Dan? Because that was a new experience for us as designers. I know there's a lot of designers out here. that are working in large scale kitchens. Yeah, Speaker 2 (6:50) I mean, the reality is what would determine that is the amount of slabs you're going to use. Speaker 1 (6:55) And Speaker 2 (6:55) one thing we did in this particular project is we did some dimensional work, right? So some cubic work. And so the idea was how are we going to tie these different elements, right? These different stone elements, where they fit and work together. And the reality is, you know, there's a lot of great suppliers, wholesale suppliers in our area, and I think they do a great job. For the most part, for a lot of people, I think that works. But when you start talking about larger homes and you start talking about stone, you know, it starts layering different things. And we can talk about that a little bit later. But there is a lot of options out there that people don't understand. And, you know, everybody has to make a margin. And so when you have some, you know, middlemen involved, well. there's markups there and so this particular job but i think what was interesting is there was an idea of hey let's bid this using local slabs and what's around there and sure we could we could accomplish that and we we there was a price there and that you know that price was x amount we found out that as you know i i knew what happened but in that in that process like look let's let's look at everything you've got some dimensional stuff you've got some really unique things that you're going to do in your home let's let's go overseas and let's do that and in that process what you end up doing really is getting a lot more for what you're paying because you're pulling some of those middlemen out, but you're also introducing other elements that you wouldn't otherwise. So slab, you can do a lot of things with slab. You can layer slabs. You can create profiles and you can layer things for that. It looks really dimensional for say, but then there's the limitations and then the type of equipment you can use on it starts to be limited when you're doing it local. But when you start thinking, okay, look, let's let's think in advance here you know we we participate a lot in this design assist side of things i think that's that's Speaker 1 (8:41) the Speaker 2 (8:41) way things really go in the high higher end and the bigger stuff because you've got to think about things early on and if you can do that you actually save money in that process you get a better product and you get more options define Speaker 4 (8:53) early on um because Obviously, good question. Yeah, I just think it'll be good for designers to know the answer to what early on means to you. Speaker 2 (9:01) So, I mean, whether it's a designer or architect team, I think it's important to, you know, there's a process, right? where are we in the design? Well, we've got some space. We know we got space here and we got some dimensions for say, but then it's like, let's start to layer this with what potential would be those finishes that will define what we're trying to create. I think that's about where you start talking about is when you've defined the spaces, you know that you're going to do. you're going to do something here. But as you start thinking about, well, what can we do in here? That's where I think you'd want to bring someone in. So I'd say really early on. Speaker 4 (9:36) Is that a year out? Speaker 2 (9:38) Well, depends how long the build is. If you say, hey, I'm going to build a, you know, I'm wanting a client that wants to build this beautiful home or this, you know, this one of a kind project, I would assume they're going to be there before everybody starts talking about. paint color and things like that. You got to start with something. And so I think early on in that aspect, I'm saying right when you start talking about, we've got a space, we've got space we know, and now we're going to fill that space with things. I think that's the time to start Speaker 1 (10:07) talking about it. So like cabinetry layout, because I would say like, let's say your standard like builder grade type of home, I think everything gets thought of. And then when the cabinets are in place, they're like, all right, let's go pick out countertops now. And then That's like you're limited to whatever's in stock and whatever slabs you can find. So this, you're talking about involving the decision-making of stone when you're even talking about the cabinetry layout and design. Speaker 2 (10:32) Yeah. And look, I think that can work. I mean, a lot of people do it. In fact, most people do that. What I'm talking about really is using stone the way it was intended to be used from the beginning. Teach us. Yeah. Look, Speaker 1 (10:47) I Speaker 2 (10:47) mean, obviously I'm a... I'm passionate about stone, but we have to understand historically what stone is. And that's really kind of where I like to start because stone is the most fundamental part of architecture there is. I mean, if you go back 11,000 years ago, right? Probably the first building material. Oh, absolutely. And so, I mean, the first cores that we know were in Turkey and they were 9,000 to 10,000 BC, right? And those elements were there for... for structural issues for say but in that there was obviously some finishes and stuff that would represent whatever they needed to represent as things went on that never left stone became kind of that foundation of architecture you you'll see in the you know then they had other elements where they were bringing in brick or even steel and all these things came they're creating uh structures but the facade themselves came back to stone because stone represented what? It represented wealth, power. Yeah, those things. And the reason it does, and that kind of leads back to, well, why is stone expensive? Well, what is stone? and from its state of, you know, from a quarry all the way to your home, there's a lot of things that are going on. So historically, you'll see that you'll see and we see that a lot in Europe. You'll see that maybe more in the back east than maybe in the west. This stone is kind of is a fundamental part of the design. And so, you know, we've talked before. I like if if you're really trying to build something that that that last in the sense that means and represent something today, tomorrow and you know, for as long as the structure there, stone needs to be well thought about. It wasn't meant to be, oh, we're going to rip this off and put something else on. You might do that in countertops, but there are elements in your house, dimension elements that I think could be put in there for say that would, as someone that cares and understands and would walk in there and say, okay, this is this fireplace for here. It's not going to be here just. the next decade, 200 years from now, when someone walks in here, they're going to see this fireplace. And to me, you know, I'm suspect for saying anything I say about stone, I get it. But at the same time, you tell me a place that's not like that. You tell me, I mean, let's, you know, I've been all over the world. I've seen everything. Stone, I mean, there's other elements for sure. You know, glass, you know, beautiful stained glass, obviously the millwork, those things are all part of that also. But stone's the foundation. Speaker 3 (13:16) And I feel like when you do travel, like the places that you go that's on the tourist list, they're all stuff. You go to the Boston Library, you go to Europe, everything is based in stone. And you kind of see what that demographic is kind of famous for. And I just wanted to clarify, when you said dimensional objects, when we're talking about homes, when we're designing, and we're thinking, okay, we're looking at all the fireplaces in a home. And we know that like the living room or the library and the primary are going to be carved marble. That's when, that's a dimensional object. The big thresholds that have like molding carves all around, you know, these different entrances and stuff, that's dimensional. So when he's referencing that, that's what we're talking about. Not just the countertops, thresholds, fireplaces, tubs, sinks, like all the things that like really set you apart. I Speaker 1 (14:02) have a question about bringing in a block. And this might be different depending upon what quarry and what part of the world. If you're going to bring in a block, do you have it like cut into pieces there or you're the whole block and you're doing that fabrication here? That's a great question. So the reality and there's a lot behind that. So what Speaker 2 (14:20) we try to do is we try to identify the best option for for the client, best option for the project. And so can we bring block in? Of course, can we