Terrazzo is having a long moment, and it has earned it. It's one of the few surfaces that can be genuinely playful without tipping into novelty — which makes it a useful tool when a scheme is getting too serious!
The scale of the aggregate changes everything. Fine chip reads almost as a solid colour from a distance and behaves like a quiet textured neutral, which makes it a good floor across a large area. Bold, large-aggregate terrazzo is a statement and wants space around it — a splashback, a powder room, a laundry, somewhere the pattern gets to be the idea.
Terrazzo is hard-wearing and takes traffic well, which is why it turns up in commercial fit-outs and schools as often as in homes. Check with us on sealing requirements for the specific product, as this varies between cement-based and porcelain terrazzo.
Designers tend to use it in one of two ways: as a full surface where it carries the room, or as a small flash of pattern against calm materials — a terrazzo laundry floor under plain white joinery. Both work! What rarely works is terrazzo competing with another busy material in the same sightline.
Neutral chips on a white or bone base are the safest starting point. The green, terracotta and black bases are where it gets interesting!
