This month’s experts are the team at employee-owned Morningstar Stone & Tile

Q. What does your business do to make countertop production as sustainable as possible?

A. We realize that we can’t solve all the world’s problems, but we take seriously our responsibility to help and address the things we can. Seventy percent of the energy that we consume is generated through solar power. We recycle the water we use, and our scraps are recycled by Crooker Construction in Bowdoinham. 

Q. Do you carry locally quarried Maine granite? 

A. We carry Freshwater Pearl granite, which is quarried by our friends at Freshwater Stone in Frankfort, Maine, on the Penobscot River. It’s a national brand and one of our most popular materials. It gives people an opportunity to have a piece of Maine in their homes and to match their finished interior stonework with their exterior hardscapes—or even just the rocks that are found naturally on their land.

Q. How do you curate your unique selection of national, international, and artisanal tile?

A. We attend stone and tile shows across the country. This allows us to stay on top of the latest trends and to meet and partner with boutique tile artists at both the local and national levels. Internationally, we have relationships with high-end slab importers all along the East Coast and several vendors in Italy. Buying from the Italian market gives us access to stone slabs and tile from all over the world.

Q. What types of stone and tile immediately elevate a space?

A. Natural stone—marble specifically. It’s time for people to stop being afraid of a marble countertop and enjoy the aesthetic value it brings. Engineered quartz is nice, but side by side it doesn’t stand the test of time that a natural marble surface will.

Q. What types of materials are trending right now?

A. We feel that COVID has really highlighted the need to bring more natural materials into our homes: marbles, limestones, and quartzites that help us feel more connected to the natural world. It seems like the white kitchen trend has peaked, and we are seeing brighter colors and richer textures used in stone and tile surfaces. We’re doing more showers where we’ve installed slab accent walls mixed with tile, and also dog-wash showers are hot right now.

Q. What makes Morningstar’s installation process unique?

A. A good job starts with good people and good tools. We try to stay humble and honor the craft—those are among our most important values. Our teams spend a lot of time researching and investing in tools. We always plan our moves out very meticulously during an install, and that starts in the shop with a morning huddle. We take a collaborative approach so that our countertops or tile work well for other trades working on a jobsite—we know our work is often just one piece of a bigger picture. Most important, as an employee-owned company, we take culture very seriously. We have a team of people who are invested in what they do, and when people are invested, that’s when good things happen.