Knoll Marble Tops: Beautiful, Functional, Historic

August 15, 2012 · Posted in Interior design trends, Knoll furniture

One of our designers came across a great article the other day about the marble tops Knoll, Inc uses in several of their designs such as the Saarinen Table series.

Justin Pratt, a studio manager for Knoll UK, provided the original author with some great facts about the marble Knoll sources.

“The white marble that Knoll uses comes from caves high in the mountains in northern Italy and is considered to be the most pure of all the different marbles. It is the same marble that Michelangelo used for his sculptures. Of this most pure of natural materials Knoll selects only the top 4%. So when you buy a Knoll Saarinen table in marble you own one of the great designs of all time, produced in the finest of materials.”

As if you didn’t have enough reasons to appreciate your Saarinen table from Knoll! Think about it, the top 4% of some of the best marble in the world. If it’s good enough for Michelangelo, it’s good enough for us!

Pratt goes onto to describe the process Knoll goes through to create its marble pieces:

“One of marble’s defining qualities is the beauty of the raw material so we do very little tampering with it. Once the piece of marble has been cut and shaped and finished by hand, a polyester coating is added to the surface. Only Knoll uses polyester to protect the marble and the result is a table that cannot be stained by tea, coffee, wine, lemon juice and most other household stains that could permanently mark the marble without this protection. This polyester coat allows children to do their worst during the day and then with a quick clean the table is ready for a formal dinner party.”

We’ve always loved the durability and iconic status of Knoll’s Saarinen tables. Check out the photo gallery below to see how we’ve used marble-topped pieces from Knoll in past projects!