Self Build BlogDecorative stone cladding designed to add some extra style to a feature wall
Give your feature wall, fireplace surround or exterior walling some style with stone cladding and brick slips.
Whether you're redecorating your home, restoring an old property or self building a new home from the ground up, creating a warm homely feel for the finished project is essential.
Stone cladding will provide natural stone textures and colours from nature's own palette, to give a soft and comforting feel to any room in the house. Using natural looking materials such as stone and rock, as well as brick, will make a real feature and focal point out of a plain wall or chimney breast.
Depending on the size of the room - or exterior space if using on an outside wall of the house or garden - and depending on the style and feel you are looking for, there are dozens of stone wall cladding available. Some stone cladding panels are very comptemporary with clean lines and sawn stone effects, whilst others are more rustic or traditional.
Stone panels and stone tiles
Most stone cladding products are sold as a pre-formed patterns on panles or tiles which interlock together to make up a 'randomised' layout, so you cannot see the joins. Other stone cladding are supplied as individually moulded rocks or stones, which can mounted to your wall in any layout you wish. These 'faux stone panels' are basically moulded from a fairly lightweight concrete and then coloured to give a very natural and realistic finish.
Other stone wall cladding products are formed using real natural stone components. These are also usually made up into panels (and corner assemblies) which can be easily mounted onto any sturdy wall construction, in a similar manner to tiling a bathroom. Some required pointing with mortar, to finish the overall look, while other are designed to give a dry-stone wall effect with no mortar pointing required.
Brick slips
A very similar cladding product along the same lines as the natural stone effect panels, are 'brick slips' or 'brickslips'. These are basically fake bricks or decorative facing bricks, designed to be mounted onto your interior or exterior walls in the same way, but they resemble brickwork. Again, they come in numerous colours and styles, so you can create whatever brick walling effect you're looking for.
Where to buy stone cladding and brick slips
We can recommend to two UK stone cladding suppliers, who can provide a wide ranch of styles and installation accessories.
Century Stone
A great UK company supplying decorative stone cladding for indoor and exterior walls.
Find them here www.century-stone.co.uk
ZClad
Interlocking Z-shaped panels of preformed decorative stone wall cladding.
Find them here www.zclad.co.uk
