I most certainly think of stone as the king of hard surfaces. I do use ceramic and porcelain tiles but a room with stone in it has a more quality feel to it. Stone is a fabulous product. I started becoming aware of it for interiors in the 1990s, mostly by seeing it at renovation and home exhibitions. 

I considered it for my own home when I moved to Monmouth, where I still live, in 1996. I wanted it for some of our six bathrooms but we couldn’t afford it. There were fewer people supplying it at that time and it was more expensive. The price point has certainly fallen – Mandarin sell a ‘classic’ range only available to the trade, not the public, for £15-20 a square metre – although there is also the higher price point for people who want exclusivity. 

If clients appoint an interior designer they have the money but not the ideas, or they want someone else to take care of it because they don’t have the time.

It was not until 1999 that I first used stone. I put a slate floor into our utility room, where I also used reclaimed wood for an aged, rustic look. The slate tiles were 300x300mm and cost £35 a square metre. Ten years on that floor still looks fantastic, although I have maintained it. Each year I’ve had someone come along and clean it, regrout it and reseal it. We have several investment properties now and I would always use stone in them because I know it will add value.

I was in marketing in 1999, although my husband and I have been renovating houses since we got married 20 years ago and I have always helped friends and family out with work on their homes. But it was not until 2003 that I established Andrea Sholl Interiors after I gained my Diploma from Nottingham Trent Design Academy. It was a very intense, full-time course, with a year’s work crammed into three months. I feel you learn a lot more that way, being there every day.

I opened a showroom in Raglan, Monmouthshire, that stocks a beautiful range of decorative accessories such as mirrors, vases, picture frames and gift products. Since I started I have worked in more than 30 houses. And once you have done one room clients always come back when they want other rooms designed. My showroom is a niche outlet that only opens for private appointments. You call us on Tel: 01291 691063 to book your viewing time (also see the website www.andreashollinteriors.co.uk).

The business has done well. The past year has been a bit rocky but confidence seems to be returning now and people are spending money again – and they are improving rather than moving. Low interest rates mean mortgages and borrowing are less expensive, so this is a good time to have work carried out. And there are plenty of special offers and price reductions available as suppliers reduce their stock holding to make way for next season’s range. 

Mandarin Stone have always been extremely helpful to me. When I started they gave me a list of tilers they knew and from them there are four I would now use on a regular basis. I don’t tell them how to do their work. They are the experts and should know what is needed. If it’s a wet room they should deal with the waterproofing and so on. If they say the floor needs to be taken up and relaid I know it does. I trust them 100%. I know they are not trying to get extra work out of the job because I know they have plenty of other jobs they want to be moving on to. 

One thing I always say to my tilers after they have laid a stone floor is that they should return a year later to regrout it if necessary, clean it and reseal it. It’s good for customer relations. It shows we care even after we have been paid and it puts our name back in front of them.

I don’t consider putting in a stone floor without underfloor heating. As I am involved in restoration and redecoration work, not new build, I use electric underfloor heating systems, which are not expensive to buy and install. Stone is ideal for use with underfloor heating. It produces a nice, ambient temperature – and a warm stone floor is heaven.

The beauty of stone is that it is not all the same, but you have to convey that to clients. Mandarin help with that because they give me three different samples to indicate the range. They put them in a lovely sample box, while their brochure includes pictures of rooms so you can see what a large area of floor or wall looks like. 

Clients can also visit the Mandarin showroom to see larger areas of the actual stone. Most people are more than happy to make a decision based on the samples but others need a bit of encouragement and want to see what a 600x400mm tile looks like. About 25% of our clients will visit Mandarin. Perhaps more look at the website – Mandarin have a good website. If they go to the showroom I would normally go with them, but I know Mandarin will look after them even if I’m not there.

For kitchen worktops, I have been recommending Granite Planet to my clients for the past two years. The service is fantastic. They take a template, fitting in around my schedule, and a week later install the worktops. Granite worktops used to be only for the wealthy but now the price is right and they’re for everyone. I can be quite clever designing a kitchen, so it looks as if you have spent £25,000 when in fact it only cost £6-7,000.

The stone or any other materials I recommend to a client depends on what’s right for the property – the architecture, the age – and the room it is going into.

The first thing is to look at the space. Then you find out the wishes of the client – especially what they don’t like – and what demands are going to be put on the space from the family. From that you develop a space plan that shows where furniture, sockets, water supply if it’s a bathroom… where everything needs to be. 

You have to forget about the way it is because it is always possible to move a soil pipe, or water supply, or anything else. People living in a property are too close to be able to see another way of looking at it. They haven’t got the skill to be able to do it.

I start off by producing a ‘mood board’, which is a colour scheme that includes all the fixtures and fittings. Then I put together a sample board that contains a sample of all the materials I’m recommending with sizes, such as the sizes of tiles. It’s very much for the client to touch and feel – and people do like the texture of stone as well as the look of it.

I don’t think stone is really a fashion product. There are elements of fashion about it – Mandarin have some very decorative stone at the moment with a lot of swirly patterns in it; some has silver in it. That’s a very here and now feature that might date a design in a few years, but limestone, travertine and slate – the serious stone – that’s not going to go out of fashion.

People like a natural product, particularly people who are becoming more ecologically friendly. They don’t want a man-made product that has put who-knows-what chemicals into the environment.

I have never had a customer ask the question about child labour in the quarries in India or China or about the CO2 emissions involved in bringing the stone from far away places. Clients never mention using a local product instead. If the product could be made locally at a price they could sell it on to us for, I’m sure Mandarin would buy locally. If we could buy local stone as cheaply as imports we would use it. Mandarin are a very respectable company and I’m sure from an ethical point of view they wouldn’t buy from a supplier who used child labour. Anyway, I can’t imagine children are involved in the production of such a heavy product and I’m afraid CO2 is just the way of the world.

Designing rooms is enormously satisfying when, at the end, everything’s gone to plan and the overall look is exactly as I wanted it to be at the beginning. The most challenging part of achieving that is managing all the trades people. They are always worrying about getting on to the next job. Some will take on too much and let people down. I have to keep a very tight rein on them to make sure I’m not the one being let down, because my customers don’t blame them, they blame me. To gain respect from the trades you have to make them know you know what you’re doing. 

My suppliers do it just about right, which is why I choose them. They are spot on from a delivery point of view and product choice and both Mandarin and Granite Planet have fantastic showrooms. There’s only one thing Mandarin could do better and that’s have more room sets because some customers want to see how stone looks in the context of a room. What people see in showrooms can make the difference between a decision to buy or not.

I do go to other suppliers – Original Style in Exeter are another company I use and I have their brochures and samples. I use them for price comparison and if they have something slightly cheaper I would have to look at that. If I have to use other suppliers then that’s what I do, although 90% of the time I would buy tiles from Mandarin and granite worktops from Granite Planet.

Andrea Sholl of Andrea Sholl Interiors in Raglan, Monmouthshire, is a graduate of the National Design Academy for interior design and a qualified chartered marketer. She takes a practical, common sense approach to property design and development, for which she has always had a passion. Over the past 10 years Andrea has bought and renovated many properties – her own home appeared on BBC2’s Hot Houses and featured in 25 Beautiful Homes. Throughout her training and experience in property and interior design, Andrea has built up a network of tried and trusted suppliers. When it comes to stone tiles she tends to buy from specialists Mandarin Stone, who are based in Monmouth, Wales, and have eight showrooms in the South with another planned for London. She buys most of her granite kitchen worktops from Granite Planet in Evesham, Worcestershire. She says she only uses reputable and established suppliers.