Well, about concrete, which is making a strong comeback for a material that typically gets the short end of the pretty stick. It’s always had substance, but its make-up matters, and this dense version, gleams. The fact that its color range would make a chameleon jealously prepare to defend their territory is testament to its range, but even if you decided to stay firmly rooted to its color of origin, its anything but average.

There are few things I like as much as supporting a family-owned business, one owned and operated by three sisters seams steeped in some mystical meaning. I can’t help but think of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas – Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen singing, “Sisters, Sisters, lord help the mister who comes between me and my sister”…. I’d revise it to say, lord help the mister that comes between me and my design. My sister may have discovered the Concrete Collaborative on Goop – she’s obsessed with anything Gwenie picks, and GP picked a pretty pink terrazzo called Venice Alabaster Large Pink Chip Tile for her Hawaiian store. Big island indeed.

Admittedly, it was only a few months before that I was introduced to the company, on a cold fall day, as I stood outside, investigating the materials for our new office headquarters, covid-style. I honed in on it like a sharp shooter picking their target out of a crowded arena. I could pick a diamond chip out of a stretch of beach a mile long. I’d like to think that it has everything to do with my sense of refined elegance rather than my nose for money, but honey, I’ve never been able to determine whether it was a gift or a curse. Someone has to pay the bills after all, and this concrete doesn’t come cheap, but if statement making is what you are after, you’ve come to the right place.

Countertop, tabletop, paver, breezeway barrier, tiled or poured, raked, ribbed or formed with a board, be prepared to be impressed.