Why Travertine Stands Out as One of the Most High-Performing Natural Stones

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Navona Travertine (Vein-Cut, Honed and filled) – Balmain House

Travertine is a unique sedimentary stone renowned for its distinctive pitted holes, often left unfilled to highlight its natural beauty. This classic stone is celebrated for its earthy hues, a result of millennia of sedimentary processes that capture movement and history within its layers. The tactile, earthy aesthetic of travertine, reminiscent of warm sandy beaches, has ensured its enduring popularity through the ages. Highly sought after as a timeless feature stone, travertine adds warmth and natural elegance to any project. Despite its relatively low density, travertine performs exceptionally well in various applications, including floor and wall tiles, as well as slab applications for benchtops and wall cladding.

At Worldstone, we pride ourselves on importing the highest quality travertine into Australia. Carefully sourced from, primarily from Italy, our travertine showcases a stunning range of unique colours and textures. Each piece is selected with meticulous attention to detail, ensuring it meets our stringent standards of excellence from quarry to finished product.

Understanding Travertine

Travertine is a beautiful natural stone formed when minerals, particularly calcium, from hot springs or underground rivers, build up over thousands of years. This slow process creates layers of stone with unique textures and light, warm, earthy colours. Characterised by its distinctive surface full of tiny holes and subtle patterns, travertine has a natural, timeless charm that sets it apart from other materials. Historically used in iconic structures like the Roman Colosseum, travertine has a legacy of adding elegance and durability to any commercial or high-end residential project. It is a highly versatile stone and can be used in many ways, including flooring, wall cladding, countertops, and even durable outdoor pool surrounds. One of the best features of travertine is that, with good care, it gets even more attractive as it ages, developing a rich patina that adds character over time. Besides its timeless beauty, travertine is also known for its durability, heat resistance, and eco-friendly nature, making it a practical and sustainable choice for modern design.

Navona Travertine (Vein-Cut, Honed and filled) – Balmain House

The Timeless Elegance of Travertine

Travertine’s timeless elegance lies in its ability to capture movement and history within its intricate layers. This stone’s earthy aesthetic, characterised by its light warm tones and natural veining, makes it a favourite among interior designers. Whether showcased in modern minimalist interiors, rustic farmhouse-style kitchens, or Mediterranean-inspired outdoor spaces, travertine seamlessly enhances any environment with its versatile classic charm. Designers appreciate how travertine’s organic texture and colour palette can bring a touch of nature indoors.

Travertine from Worldstone has been used creatively to create statement kitchen islands that serve as focal points, stunning feature walls that immediately draw the eye, and inviting outdoor pool decks that blend effortlessly with natural landscapes.

The Camilla and Marc Chadstone Store showcases our exquisite Navona Vein Cut Travertine, selected by the renowned interior design studio Akin Atelier. To achieve a more organic and textured appearance, they opted for a honed and unfilled finish. This dramatic use of travertine is prominently featured framing the store entry and the prominent window reveals, the shelf background, and the coffee table, creating a striking and sophisticated aesthetic throughout the store.

Navona Travertine Vein Cut (Honed and Unfilled) – Camilla and Marc Chadstone

Travertine illustrates its ability to elevate spaces with a refined yet approachable elegance, making it an enduring choice for both contemporary and traditional designs. From sleek urban residences to cozy country homes, travertine’s enduring appeal ensures it remains a cornerstone of sophisticated interior and exterior design.

Different Types of Finishes of Travertine

Travertine offers a variety of finishes, each providing a distinct look and texture to suit different interior design preferences and applications.

Honed and Filled

This leaves the stone with a smooth, matte surface that highlights its natural veining and colour variations, making it ideal for formal interiors and spaces requiring a touch of elegance.

Honed and Unfilled

This features a matte finish but the natural holes characteristic of travertine are left unfilled. This finish retains some of the stone’s natural texture while offering a more subdued appearance, perfect for contemporary and modern designs. Holes are left unfilled, usually for applications where travertine is used as vertical cladding material.

Classico-OM Selection-Vein Cut Travertine (Honed and Unfilled) – Village High project

Tumbled

Processed to create a weathered, aged look with rounded edges and a slightly rough surface. This finish imparts a rustic, antique charm, making it a popular choice for traditional or farmhouse-style settings but less popular for modern interiors.

Sawn

To highlight the natural beauty of travertine, a sawn finish can be chosen, meaning no additional treatment is applied. This enhances the stone’s character, making it ideal for both interior and exterior applications where a tactile, organic look is desired.

Each finish brings out different aspects of travertine’s inherent beauty, allowing it to complement a wide range of architectural and design styles.

The Durability and Practicality of Travertine

Travertine is a durable stone made up of layers that have been compiled through millennia. Its natural pores can be left unfilled, ideal for applications like vertical cladding, where the stone’s texture adds character and depth to surfaces. When the holes are honed and filled, travertine becomes even more practical for various uses, offering a smooth, easy-to-clean surface suitable for high-traffic areas. Renowned for its resistance to heat and moisture, travertine is a low-maintenance option, making it perfect for both interior and exterior applications. Its ability to remain cool under foot makes it an excellent choice for patios and pool surrounds, providing a comfortable and stylish surface in outdoor settings. Travertine’s durability is exemplified in high-traffic commercial environments such as offices, museums and art galleries and retail stores, including the NSW Art Gallery, where it serves as a resilient and aesthetically pleasing flooring material. Its combination of strength, ease of care, and timeless beauty ensures travertine remains a versatile and enduring selection for a wide range of architectural and design projects.

Find out more about how travertine can be used in commercial projects.

Suitable applications

Travertine is an excellent selection for both interior and exterior applications due to its versatility and aesthetic appeal. Notably, travertine does not retain heat, making it an ideal material for patios and pool surrounds. It can be used in various applications, including floor tiles, wall tiles, wall cladding, kitchen benchtops, vanity tops, and bath surrounds.

Floor Tiles
Travertine is suitable for both interior and exterior flooring, providing a durable and elegant surface that can withstand high traffic and various weather conditions.

Floor in Silver Shadow Travertine (Honed) – VILLA D’ESTATE

Wall Tiles
Travertine wall tiles can enhance the beauty of both interior and exterior walls, offering a sophisticated look with practical benefits such as durability and ease of maintenance.

Wall Cladding: For vertical applications, travertine’s natural holes are often left unfilled, adding texture and visual interest. This approach is commonly used in exterior cladding to create a distinctive, classic appearance.

Silver Vein Cut Travertine (Honed and Unfilled) – Lurline Bay House

Interior Applications: Travertine is also a popular choice for kitchen benchtops, vanity tops, and bath surrounds.For wet areas, it is advisable to use honed and filled travertine to ensure longevity and maintain its pristine condition, however it is generally not recommended for commercial wet areas due to the rigorous and often uncontrolled use of harsh cleaning materials.

An excellent example of travertine’s versatile use is seen in the Balmain House project, where our Navona Vein Cut Travertine is featured as the kitchen island and splashback. The beautiful cylindrical supporting leg to the breakfast bar is produced using 20mm slab and this is a good example of the versatility of travertine when it comes to manufacturing curved shapes. In this application, the stone was honed and filled to preserve its integrity. The same travertine was used for the feature wall in the main living area and as wall cladding in the ensuite, demonstrating its cohesive and elegant application throughout the home.

The Different Cuts of Travertine Worldstone Carries

At Worldstone, we offer an extensive range of travertine varieties, tailored to meet diverse design needs.

Vein Cut

Among our selections, vein-cut travertine stands out for its striking linear patterns that clearly show the layers of the travertine that have been compiled through millennia of sedimentation. This cut showcases a more dramatic look, emphasising the stone’s stratified composition, making it ideal for statement pieces and feature walls.

Classico-OM Selection-Vein Cut Travertine (Honed and Unfilled) – Hill House

Cross-Cut

Contrastingly, cross-cut travertine provides a more uniform appearance by slicing across the stone’s natural layers, revealing a swirling, cloud-like pattern that imparts a softer, more subdued aesthetic, suitable for a wide range of applications.

Classico Cross Cut Travertine (Honed and Filled) – Family Oasis

Because of the characteristic of the sedimentary stone, a travertine block can be processed/cut in two orientations which present differently – vein cut and cross cut. The current trend is vein cut.

We offer a wide selection of travertine in various colours. We currently stock the following slabs:

And the following tiles:

View our full range of Travertine.

Transform Your Project with Worldstone’s Premium Travertine Selections

Worldstone proudly imports high-quality travertine into Australia, offering an extensive range of finishes and aesthetics. We collaborate closely with architects and interior designers to source the ideal travertine selection, ensuring it meets the project’s requirements for durability, practicality, and visual appeal. Our expertise is sought after for high-end residential and commercial projects across Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, and Melbourne.

If you’re looking to incorporate the timeless elegance of travertine into your next project, we invite you to contact us today. Fill out our form or call us at +61 2 8335 0700. Our showroom is open by appointment only, Monday to Friday from 9 am to 5 pm. Please contact us to schedule your visit.

Our team is ready to provide you with the finest selection of stone and marble, supported by our unwavering commitment to quality and exceptional service.