As of July 2021, all NativeStone products are available in Charcoal—a rich matte black finish. This means there are now five finishes to choose from in the NativeStone family. Each delivers the same silky-smooth, eco-friendly concrete product the industry has come to love:

• Ash: A light, naturally mottled gray
• Slate: A soft, medium gray
• Pearl: A glowing off white
• Earth: A warm, natural brown-gray (introduced in 2019)
• Charcoal: A rich matte black (introduced in 2021)

Note that every NativeStone is hand-made and comes with one-of-a-kind coloration.

Native Trails debuted the NativeStone collection of kitchen, bar, and bathroom sinks, tubs, and mirrors in 2014, proclaiming it “Concrete Done Better.” Ever since, the product line has been a huge hit with showrooms, interior designers, and homeowners alike.

Artisan-made from a sustainable blend of natural fiber and cement, this eco-friendly concrete is 40 percent lighter than traditional concrete products. And sealed with NativeStone Shield, it’s also extraordinarily stain, scratch, and crack resistant.

Charcoal is the new black

NativeStone originally came in three finishes: Ash, Slate and Pearl. But Native Trails has continued to add finishes—and additional NativeStone products—to meet consumer demand.

Seeing a need for a black finish in their NativeStone concrete collection, Native, Native Trails began working with artisans in Vietnam last year to develop the right hue. The resulting Charcoal finish plays well with both warm and cool hues on the color wheel. It complements a range of accessories, faucets, and design styles—from rustic to brutalist, contemporary to transitional—and coordinates with faucet and accessory finishes including matte gold, matte black, chrome, nickel and mixed metals.

And the room for creativity and customization doesn’t stop there.

While black has never, and will never, truly go out of style, the color is trending within many of today’s design aesthetics. The Wall Street Journal reports that Pinterest searches for “black houses” and “dark houses” have both tripled since 2017 and that Behr Paint Company’s sales of black interior and exterior paint grew almost 40 percent from 2019 to 2020.

From glossy to matte, from black exteriors to black faucets, fixtures, drains and toilet seats, the color provides an easy way to make a bold statement.

Designers on decorating with black

“Black is such an elegant, bold, and beautiful color to use in design,” says interior designer Katherine Carter, who makes a case for its versatility by pairing it with everything from nude and blush to navy tones.

Joelle Smith, a designer based in Jamaica, advocates for pairing black with teal and forest green. “Earthy tones can create an ultra-modern aesthetic when paired with black,” she says.

Having risen to fame as Ralph Lauren’s director of store design, interior designer Dan Mazzarini now runs BDHM, an interiors firm praised for its commanding use of black. Mazzarini likes to juxtapose black and white in his designs, using black to “camouflage” elements he wants to recede. And to create contrast, he also regularly paints architectural elements like window frames and fireplaces black.

As he says, “Black is always dramatic, no matter what. Every room could use a little black.”