19 Elegant Types of Marble for Your Flooring

Marble has always been on the more expensive end of the spectrum, and historically, the wealthy and rich were the only ones who could afford it. It was also a highly desired and preferred material used by the Romans and Greeks for creating architectural marvels and sculpting. Eventually, different types of marble became a symbol of royalty, tradition, and culture.

Depending on the type of marble you pick out for your counters, you’ll notice that it comes in different patterns, shades, and types, and this makes it a very popular decorative element. It’s also a top material pick for anyone who wants to renovate the interior, and it works to add a touch of class and elegance to any room you introduce it to.

However, there are dozens of types of marble available, and it’s next to impossible to tell them apart at a glance. The type will vary depending in the marble’s impurities, location, color, pattern, and the veining intensity. The price of every type of marble will also fluctuate based on the factors we listed.

Below, we’ve put together a master list of the most popular types of marble, and we’ve broken them down by color categories. You can use this carefully curated list to pick out the perfect type of marble for your home.

There are many colors of marble that work well for your flooring, and they’re a great way to bring warmth into a room. La Lonja by Steve Curati / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

1. Arabescato

Arabescato marble is a pretty type of marble that is a white-colored or off-white, and it usually has black or dark brown veining. The marble is sourced from Carrara in Italy. Additionally, Italy is one of the biggest quarrying and marble sourcing countries in the world, and it exports different types of marble on a global scale.

Only very experienced people will be able to tell the difference between the Arabescato, Calacatta, and Carrara marble types since they all have a virtually identical appearance to them. However, this type of marble also has several subtypes to it that include Arabescato Arni, Arabescato Faniello, and Arabescato Mossa.

2. Bardiglio

Bardiglio is a type of marble that has several subcategories to it, including Bardiglio Scuro, Bardiglio Imperiale Chiaro, Bardiglio Nuvolato, and Bardiglio Bluette. Generally speaking, this marble has a brown coloration to it or grey, and the subtypes of this broad category come in varying hues with several different design patterns.

3. Beige Marble

If you think that white types of marble are too bright, beige is a great compromise. It adds a warmth to the immediate surroundings while preserving the marble’s natural luminosity. This happens due to the toasted tones the marble has. They also have bright streaks that can change the overall appearance of each type of beige marble, and we’re going to outline four popular subtypes below.

Botticino Beige

This is a calcitic beige type of marble that has a very soft beige coloring as the base and lighter golden streaks running through it that mimics the look of sea foam. It also offers white shadows that are the trademark look of Boticcino beige. This creamy marble originates in the border between Veneto and Lombardy Italy.

Moscato Beige

This is a very light type of marble that is calcitic. This means that it has calcium carbonate in the material, and this is a big element in sedimentary rocks, including limestone. This beige marble subtype has a homogenous background, and you’ll typically get a nice combination of warm colors for the base. The veins are also relatively brighter and span the surface, and this makes it more popular in luxury kitchen designs.

Premium Beige

This is another name for calcite marble that offers a very subtle beige coloring homogeneous background. It’s a nice combination of broken white and white that makes it have a very luminous look in certain environments. It’s a very pretty alternative to white marble if you’re trying to find one. It looks crisp and clean, and it looks fantastic used in kitchen worktops or in your bathroom showers.

Travertine

Travertine is a type of marble that mimics the look of sandstone, and the colors have a very earthy look that resembles dirt or sand. The colors can be anything from white to darker beige to ochre. You can have the appearances change drastically, depending on the treatments they get and the cut.

4. Black Marble

There are two common subtypes of black types of marble available, and they offer a very sleek and stunning look and feel to your space. They include:

Levadia Black Marble

This is a Greek marble type that comes with a very dark black coloring to it. You’ll get very fine greyish-white veins that have a smoke spot pattern for a very eye-catching look. You may also hear people call it Titanium Black Marble due to the richness of the black coloring.

Nero Marquina

Better known as Nero marble, this is one pick that explodes with color intensity and fantastic strength. Nero Marquina marble is one type that can also offer you irregular white streaks that run through the surface. It was originally quarried in Basque Country, and this very rich black marble type is Spanish. The darker coloring gets beautifully complemented with prominent white veins that pop from the black surface.

5. Blue Marble

You may think that blue types of marble actually get stained to get the very vibrant, saturated, and rich colors and striations on it, but you’re wrong. They’re all-natural, and the most popular subtype is:

Blue Sodalite Marble

Like many other types of marble, this one features calcite. However, it’s a very pretty azure blue lazulite material throughout it that gives it a gorgeous glass-like sheen. You’ll also find pyrite presenting through it in a gorgeous contrast that mimics the look of the darker parts of the ocean with the sun glinting off the ripples.

6. Brown Marble

Brown is one of the most versatile types of marble colors, and it’s a very common bathroom or kitchen tile color. Many people choose to use it because it’s a nice decorative element that will pair well with other colors, and it’s fantastic for anyone who has a more rustic look and feel in their home.

Because this type of marble helps add charm to your space, many designers recommend that you use it to highlight the other features in your space. To pick out the correct type of marble, let’s look at the most popular subtypes below.

Dark Emperador

Dark Emperador is also known as Marron Emperador, and it’s a very dark colored type of marble that has a stunning elegance and beauty that enhances a room. It has a very dark brown coloring to it with streaks of white veins and crystals that are concentrations of white and clear calcite, or non-foliated metamorphic rocks.

Light Emperador

Light Emperador is a marble subcategory that has all of the characteristics you’ll get with Dark Emperador but it has lighter veining with a light brown tone.

Brown marble flooring is a very popular option that adds warmth to a room while being very versatile. Loft floor by Josh and Melanie Rosenthal / CC BY-SA 2.0

7. Calcutta Marble

As the most popular type of marble of all of the categories, Calcutta marble is very rare, and this adds to the luxury. Many people accidentally mistake it for the Carrara marble because it looks extremely similar with the veining and colors. Also, it gets quarried in the same areas that Carrara marble does in Italy.

However, there are a few big differences between the two that help to set them apart. For example, this marble is known to have thick and dark veining in it, and it has a very bright white coloring. Carrara is also a white color, but it has very intricate grey veining running through it. Calcutta marble is also more rare, and it has several subcategories, including:

Calcutta Borghini Marble

This is a very pretty marble type that has a thick, unique, grey veining pattern that runs through it with a sporadic undertone of gold. The base color will be a consistent white coloring.

Calcutta Crestola Tedeschi 1

This is another subtype of marble that has a very neutral tone to it, and most of them are an off-white color with black or brown darker veins running through them to create a stark contrast.

Calcutta Crestola Tedeschi 2

This subtype is very similar to Tedeschi 1. However, it has a big difference in the veins and markings with the coloring since they’re so much darker.

Calcutta Gold Marble

This particular type of marble is widely considered to be very spended and grandiose due to the tones in the coloring. This marble is very visually stunning, and this makes your price tag go up quite significantly. As the name suggests, it’s a white background with gorgeous gold veining.

Calcutta Grey

This subtype gets the name after the whitish-grey marble coloring, and it has very light brown veining running throughout it.

Calcutta Michelangelo Marble

This type of marble has very delicate grey veins that run throughout the piece, and it has a very white background to help highlight them. This is a very popular marble type to put in your home if your design aesthetic leans more toward minimalism.

Calcutta Oro

This is a beige-whitish coloring type of marble that has a pretty medium-brown veining that runs throughout it.

Calcutta Vagli

You’ll get a very unique appearance in this marble subcategory, and it has a medium-brown hued backdrop to it. You’ll also see light shaded spots that are very large and scattered all over the marble.

Calcutta Vagli Rosata

The final type of popular Calcutta marble is the Vagil Rosata, and it is available to buy in two shades. You can get an off-white or brown dominant color, and it has splotches or splashes of black or dark brown.

8. Talathello or Silver-Beige Marble

Silver-beige or Talathello marble is a type of marble that features deposits in several shades of silver with light beige veining running throughout it. The background is a very light grey color.

The silver coloring on the floor can be very eye-catching, and it really stands out as the light hits it. Italian Marble Epoxy Floor by Decorative Concrete Kingdom / CC BY 2.0

9. Carrara Marble

When you go to shop for marble, Carrara is the most common type you’ll find available on the current market. This makes it some of the most cost-effective options to use when you remodel your kitchen. It has a whitish-grey background to it with feather-like grey veining that is very intricate. The vein pattern is very light colored and it’s normally linear.

10. Cream Marble

Another popular marble subcategory is cream, and it’s one of the biggest variety ranges available. It’s also one of the most popular and widely used type with five popular subcategories.

Crema Beige

This marble type comes from Turkey. As you’d get from the name, the marble has a very light creamy beige coloring to it. The color you’ll see running across the entire surface of your slab or marble is uniform and consistent, and you won’t see any veins running through it or discoloration. This lends an almost flat appearance to the marble, but it has a very subtle hint of depth where you’ll see a slight color variation.

Crema Cenia

This is another subtype of the Crema type of marble. It’s a very fine-grained marble type, and it’s very popular for coloring. The coloring can vary from rose or tones of cream, and the background is very consistent. It comes from Tarragona.

Crema Marfil Marble

This is another very well-known type of marble that comes from Spain. It has several different beige tones with varying veining intensity and irregular patterns. This subcategory also has a uniform background with a very light color. It also has a very distinctive natural tone with the different shades. You’ll get a strong uniformity and consistency throughout the tone.

Crema Marfil (b)

This subcategory isn’t technically a marble, but it’s a limestone. However, it imitates how real marble looks so well, including showing the veining patterns that real marble displays. This makes it a great marble alternative that is more cost-effective. This marble comes from a region in Spain that is very close to Alicante, a popular city. You’ll see a very light cream color  with very slight darker color variation

Crema Valencia

This marble has cream tones to it with very delicate and intricate red and white colored veins that run through the surface. This small detail allows you to use the marble both indoors and out without any damage.

11. Emperador Marble

This marble can be either a dark or light brown colored marble that comes from Spain. The brown hues you see are wonderfully complemented by grey and stark white asymmetrical veining patterns. You’ll see irregular veins with fine grains.

12. Green Marble

Green marble is another type of marble that comes in varying tones and shades. A few popular subcategories include:

Verde Indio

The first green marble subcategory gets directly sourced from mines located in India. On a commercial level, this marble can be called different names, including Oasis Green Marble and Verde Guatemala.

Verde Oasis Marble

This marble is a very dark green serpentinite marble type, and it comes from Greece quarries. You get a very dark green background with irregular white and light grey streaks throughout.

Verde Tropical Marble

This is another type of green marble that has a very dark green coloring to it with darker veins. You’ll find it sourced from several areas around Greece. You can find it under the names Verde Tropicus Marble, Green Wave Oasis, and Tinos Oasis Marble.

Green marble is very eye-catching, and the white veins stand out with the darker green coloring to add great depth. 2018-12-FL-201527 by ACME / CC BY-NC 2.0

13. Grey Marble

Anyone who wants to get a grey type of marble is trying to present their offices, buildings, or homes as neutral and calming. You get a range of darkness to lightness in the grey color range that is very vast, and it can project a serious or serene feeling.

Fior Di Bosco

This marble variety has a very dark grey base color that you could describe as smoke plumes going across it. The vein coloring is usually white, but it can also have amber or clay coloring to it to make them pop.

Milan Gray

This type of marble is sourced directly from Milan, Italy, as the name suggests. It has a dark, deep grey coloring with very light grey colored veins that run across it. They go in a linear position across the marble’s surface. It offers a very pretty matte, clean finish. You can also quarry it from Turkey.

Pacific Grey

This type of marble is one of the more unique types available, and you get a complicated but consistent background. This is an extremely detailed marble type with white veins that run through it. The veins are extremely thin, but there are so many of them that it looks very uniform when you see it from a distance. The closer you get to it, the more delicate they look.

Picasso Grey

This is another interesting type of marble, and the name is a trade name. It has a very light grey coloring for the background, and it blends very well with the darker spots. However, it’s the veins that run through it that make it stand out. There are a ton of veins that are thicker, and the color can range from mole to grey to amber and anything in between these shades. You’ll get a look that mimics a cracked, highly-polished concrete surface.

Pietra Grey

Like all of the grey types of marble we touched on above, it offers a huge amount of detail with a very consistent coloration when you look from a distance. However, if you take a close look, you get a slightly darker glaze running throughout it. The most noticeable thing is the white veins that flow through the coal colored base color.

14. Pink Marble

Pink is the symbol of positivity, fragility, and tranquility. You can use pink marble for a huge range of things, but it’s very popular in interior rooms that you use to rest, like in the bedroom. There are several subcategories, including:

Rosa Levante

This is a very subtle pink color, and it has a reputation for have blotches of fossil predominates in it. You’ll primarily source this marble from Lorca in Spain from Zarzilla de Ramos. It’s called several different names, including Rose Girona and Crema Levante in Spain.

Rosa Portugués

This is one of the most widely used and well-known types of marble in the pink subcategory. It comes in different tones and shades of pink, and it usually has a more subtle pink, grayish pink, or orange shades that stand out. This marble is unique due to the brown or gray streaks that run through it. You can also find it without any veining or streaks.

Rosa Zarci

This subtype comes in a light and soft pink shade. It’s a natural stone that has blurry, subtle streaks and veining. Other than this, you’ll get a very uniformly shaded look and feel.

15. Red Marble

This type of marble isn’t as common as other types due to the very high price tag attached to it. However, it has a few well-known categories, including:

Rojo Alicante

This is a famous type of marble because it’s very unique and features extremely rich hues. The red background has intricate and irregular white veining throughout the surface. This makes it extremely attractive.

Rojo Bilbao

Because of where it originates, this subtype of red marble has shellfish and coral fragments in it that lend light red hues. This marble category is one of the least quarried out of any on the list, especially amongst other red marble types.

Rojo Coralito

Rojo Coralito has much less intense and lighter shades of red than other subcategories, and it has more bright white streaks running through it.

Rojo Levante

You can differentiate this type of marble by the three distinctive and different tones of red, and it also has white streaks. This marble will originate in Spain in Murcia.

16. Statuary Marble

This marble comes with a very uniform look to it. However, the thing that sets this type of marble apart from others is that it has very dramatic, irregular veining throughout it. Generally speaking, this marble comes in lighter grey tones, and it has larger and darker veining in it while keeping the glossy, polished, and highly reflective surface. Many people may confuse this marble with Carrara or Calcutta marble since the colors are very similar.

There are also different subtypes to consider, like Statuary Carrara 1. This has almost a pure white coloring to it. Statuary Calcutta 1 has a more yellowish-tone to it, and Statuary Mossa has a very even beige coloring.

17. Talathello or Silver-Beige Marble

Silver-beige or Talathello marble is a rock type that features deposits of different shades of beige and silver in the veining. The background color is a very light grey.

18. White Marble

When most people think of marble, they picture white marble with different colored veins running through it. Fleeting by Joybot / CC BY-SA 2.0

White is an extremely popular choice for marble colors when it comes to homeowners because you can use it with virtually any marble type. The most popular types of marble subcategories in this color are:

Blanco Carrara

This type of marble originated from Italy in the Alpine region. It is usually one of the most appreciated marbles in the world. It’s also considered to be a symbol of distinction and quality. You’ll typically use this marble indoors, and it’s very popular in living rooms, bathrooms, and kitchens.

Bianco Himalaya

Despite what you’d think about the name, it comes from Greece instead of the Himalayas. It’s very similar to Carrara types of marble, but it has a broad color range. You may find streaks of grey, brown, or purple set against a brilliant white background. It’s a very popular flooring choice, especially around the bathtub in the bathroom.

Blanco Ibiza

This is another popular type of marble to put in high-traffic areas because it’s extremely strong and durable. It also has more plain coloring with grey streaks randomly splotched all over it.

Blanco Macael

This white marble subcategory has a very consistent look and feel to it with the bright white coloring and very defined bluish-grey streaks. The streaks stand out against the white beautifully.

Blanco Thassos

This dolomite marble variety got its name from Thassos island in Greece. The island is known for having white housing structures that stand out, and it has gorgeous white sandy beaches. Saliara beach has the nickname of Marble Beach. This type of marble is so brilliantly white that it has no particles, veins, or blemishes. This makes it a lovely sight to see, but you can also get the same effect at a fraction of the cost with non-marble alternatives.

Blanco Tranco

The final popular white marble type is Blanco Tranco. It has prominent dark grey veins, and it’s a popular alternative to White Macael marble.

19. Yellow Marble

Many people believe that the color yellow has links to optimism and joy. Despite this, yellow types of marble aren’t extremely popular. The most popular subcategories of yellow marble include:

Amarillo Triana

The first subcategory of yellow-colored marble has a very pleasant look. It’s a very fine-grain marble type that has occasional, irregular streaks that go all over the surface.

Spanish Gold

Another well-known yellow marble is Spanish Gold. It’s a bright yellow marble with reddish-colored streaks running through it. Most people use this marble for decorations indoors.

Mineral Composition and Types of Marbles

You can classify marble into three different subcategories based on the mineral composition. These subcategories include:

• Calcite Marble
• Dolomite Marble
• Magnesium Marble

Each of the three categories can contain other minerals like Garnet, Quartz, Forsterite, or Talc. The classification of your marble depends on the region it gets quarried or sourced from. Marble naturally occurs in a range of colors from beiges and whites to browns, reds, greens, blacks, and pinks. Each type of marble can have different streak widths, patterns, grains, and porosity.

So, this extensive list of marble types only scratches the surface of what is available. However, many of them are so rare that they’re not worth mentioning. If you need to redecorate your home or add an elegant touch, you can take a look at the different marble types we outlined and decide which one will work best for your needs.