A house where no two rooms share the same porcelain, and a budget spent exactly where it counted most

The brief

This private residence in Battle was a complete renovation project, with Aura Surfaces supplying materials across the entire ground floor, multiple bathrooms, the staircase and a substantial external entertaining area.

The client had a very clear eye for design and wanted each area of the house to feel considered and individual, while still maintaining a sense of consistency across the property. As with many large residential projects, the challenge was not simply finding beautiful porcelain for each room. It was making sure the budget was used in the right places, allowing the client to invest more heavily in the key spaces without compromising the rest of the scheme.

The ground floor

The main downstairs areas were finished in 1200 × 1200mm Cervino Polished, creating a strong, continuous marble-effect floor through the kitchen, dining room, living spaces and WC. To add definition and structure to the layout, Night Lux Polished was cut and incorporated as a contrasting border.

The Cervino continued onto the staircase, where the porcelain was fabricated to form the steps and paired with integrated lighting beneath the treads. It became one of the standout details of the project and helped connect the floors visually rather than treating the staircase as a separate element.

The main ensuite

The principal ensuite became one of the most technically demanding areas of the house. The feature walls were specified in Mirage Jewels JW12, using a vein-matched slab kit designed to continue the marble movement around the room.

When the first kit arrived, however, the vein alignment did not meet the client’s expectations. Rather than accept something that wasn’t right, we worked through the issue with the supplier, reviewed the available options and agreed a solution that allowed the slabs to be replaced.

The result was worth the additional work. The JW12 now wraps around the room with the level of visual continuity the client originally wanted, complemented by Mirage Glocal GC03 on the floor and behind the his-and-hers basins. It is a good example of why specification does not always end when the material is ordered. Sometimes the most important part of the job is what happens when something arrives and it isn’t quite right.

The other bathrooms

Each bathroom was approached individually rather than repeating the same palette throughout the house. One bathroom used Flaviker Hyper Silver Lappato, paired with a black penny mosaic across the heated bench within the steam shower.

For the daughter’s bathroom, the client wanted a softer marble aesthetic with less pronounced veining, so Mirage Jewels JW04 was selected. The room was then finished with glitter grout at the client’s request, adding a more playful detail without changing the overall quality of the specification.

The downstairs cloakroom took a completely different direction, using ABK Interno 9 Rust to create a much warmer, more dramatic space.

The exterior

The external works were substantial in their own right. Approximately 500m² of patio areas were supplied, together with fabricated porcelain slabs for the outdoor BBQ and entertaining area. The scale of the exterior meant it had to be considered as another major part of the project rather than an afterthought, and the material selection was developed to sit naturally alongside the interior scheme.

Using the budget intelligently

One of the most important parts of this project was balancing ambition with budget. The client had exceptional taste and knew where he wanted the biggest impact. Instead of trying to force the same level of spend into every room, we worked with him to prioritise the areas that mattered most. Larger budgets were concentrated into spaces such as the main ensuite and feature areas, while more cost-conscious specifications were developed elsewhere without making those rooms feel secondary.

That approach allowed the client to achieve the look he genuinely wanted in the key spaces while keeping the overall project commercially sensible. For us, that is a huge part of good specification. It is not about pushing the most expensive material into every room. It is about understanding where the money makes a difference and where an equally strong result can be achieved in another way.

Craftsmanship

A specification is only as good as the installation behind it. The tiling throughout the property was completed by award-winning tiler Josh Jupp, whose workmanship played a huge part in the finished result. From the fabricated staircase to the vein-matched slabs, steam shower detailing and extensive external areas, the standard of installation across the project was exceptional.

The result

The finished house is a brilliant example of what happens when a client with strong ideas, carefully selected materials and high-level craftsmanship all come together. The client came to us with ideas rather than a fixed shopping list, and our role was to help turn those ideas into a workable specification across a very large renovation.

Some rooms required statement materials. Some required problem-solving. Some needed the budget pulling back without losing the aesthetic. That mix is exactly where Aura Surfaces works best — we are not interested in simply supplying a tile because it happens to match an image. This house gave us the opportunity to understand what the client was trying to achieve across almost every type of surface in the property, and the end result is one we are extremely proud to have been part of.