A NEW ADDRESS, another milestone for StoneLeaf.
Ten years after its creation, StoneLeaf opens its very first showroom in a 150m2 space designed by architect Maxime Perron in the heart of Paris's Rive Droite.
StoneLeaf is the result of an innovative process. What exactly is it?
Emmanuel Dahdi : We don't cut stone; rather, we peel it. Generally, when you use stones like marble or granite, you have very large blocks that are extracted from quarries and then sliced. These products are heavy, thick, and difficult to transport. At StoneLeaf, we apply fiberglass sheets to the stone block, followed by several layers of resin. The resin infiltrates the fiberglass and adheres it to the stone block. After drying, we manually peel the fiberglass sheet from the block, and in doing so, the natural tensile force acts like a suction cup, pulling several thin layers from the block with it. These layers remain fixed to the substrate, and we obtain a stone sheet averaging 1.5mm in thickness. We repeat this process over the entire thickness of the stone block. This method allows us to preserve the stone's inherent characteristics, its original structure, and its natural layers without recomposing or altering the product.
What does the finished product consist of?
Alexandre Dahdi : The blend of resin and fiberglass in the substrate provides unique flexibility to the product. Our stone sheet can be bent very easily, offering unprecedented possibilities compared to traditional stone. StoneLeaf can also be applied to all types of surfaces (tiles, ceramics, concrete, plaster, wood, etc.), without any preparatory work.
What types of stone do you prioritize?
Alexandre Dahdi : For 80% of our range, we work with schist stones. These are slate or mica stones, which are very brittle. In their natural state, they resemble a mille-feuille in very thin layers, and with our process, we need stones that are not too dense so that they can be manually peeled. The remaining 20% of our range are raw, unpolished marbles. Otherwise, it would be impossible to make them flexible without breaking them.
Practical Information
“ For us, this showroom is an achievement. It allows us to offer our clients all of our StoneLeaf solutions through a carefully designed and specific scenography for our products. ” Emmanuel Dahdi.
Open by appointment, the showroom is organized around several spaces. At the front, a material library, where samples and large formats of the 34 StoneLeaf references are presented. In the middle, a majestic arch in Translucent Stoneleaf opens onto the second part of the showroom, featuring a temporary office covered in Nairobi pink marble, a kitchen in Ankara sanded slate, a bathroom clad in Riga mica, and toilets fitted with two Prague and Montreal stones in their translucent versions.
23, rue de Cléry, 75002 Paris. T : +33 1 43 96 49 59
