Start with your color world
Dream-It-Yourself
Bring the magic and design a custom terrazzo recipe for your next project.
Dream-It-Yourself
Bringing your custom terrazzo recipe to life.
Your custom recipe
Terrazzo is a composite, not a print. Aggregate is set into a binder, then the surface is ground flat so it cuts straight through the chips. What you see on top is genuinely what is inside it, all the way down.
Around 500 years ago, Venetian stonemasons were left with marble offcuts too small to sell. They set the scraps into clay outside their own homes and ground the surface smooth. The Italian word for what they built was terrazzo, meaning terrace. The technique of scattering chips at random has its own name too: seminato, sown, like a field.
Roman floors at Herculaneum, buried alongside Pompeii in 79 AD, were made the same way: crushed stone set into a binder and finished flat. Some have now survived roughly two thousand years. Setting stone into a binder and grinding it level is simply a very good way to make a floor, which is why civilizations kept arriving at it independently.
For roughly four centuries terrazzo was leveled by hand, dragging a weighted stone called a galera across the surface. In 1924 the electric grinder replaced it. A floor that took a crew days could suddenly be finished in hours, more evenly and more precisely. That single tool is why terrazzo went from a Venetian specialty to the floor under American train stations, schools and department stores within one generation.
Long before it came to homes, terrazzo was infrastructure. Some of the most walked on surfaces in the world are terrazzo. Just look down!
Every one of the 2,700 plus Walk of Fame stars is a terrazzo inlay rimmed in brass, set into a charcoal terrazzo sidewalk. Terrazzo was chosen because it can take roughly 75 years of foot traffic. Los Angeles is also where HAUS terrazzo lands at the end of the journey above.
Wright specified terrazzo for the spiral ramp after seeing it across Italian airport terminals. He needed a surface that could run a continuous curve without seams breaking the form, at a price that could still cover that much floor.
After its American debut at the Vanderbilt mansion, terrazzo became the signature surface of Jazz Age design, because it could hold an enormous public floor plan without visible seams and still read as genuine luxury.
Tap a surface to see why it works there.
The smallest surface in the room with the most eye level attention, which makes it the cheapest way to try a bolder recipe than you would put on the floor.
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Less prone to staining than marble and comfortable near normal cooking heat, which is why it has become one of the most requested countertop materials.
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A surround is the decorative stone around the opening, not the fire rated material inside it, the same role stone has always played next to a firebox.
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It reads as one continuous surface with the floor. Waterproofing comes from the membrane behind it, not the tile itself, the same as any tiled wet area.
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The same recipe on your counter can be cast into the basin, so the sink stops being a separate fixture and becomes part of the slab.
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Daily contact without cooking heat or foot traffic, which is often where people try their boldest recipe first since the stakes feel lower.
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Tap a recipe card to see what magic it holds:
Deep and a little dramatic. Different, but not a drama queen.
Even and clear. A "leader" some would say.
Warm and companionable, a precious sight to see.
Industrial and reliable. Holds a special place in our hearts.
Warm gold, and bold. But still humble.
The open canvas. Least color, most range. Smart, really.
Watch your design grow up in our worldwide production.
Terrazzo is low maintenance, but not maintenance free. The routine is short, and the mistakes that actually damage it are specific and easy to avoid.
Living rooms, bedrooms, hallways and other dry areas with normal household traffic.
Bathrooms, shower surrounds and anywhere standing water is routine. Water is the reason to reseal sooner, not wear.
Entryways, kitchens and commercial floors. Grit carried in on shoes does more damage than footfall itself.
General guidance for cement based terrazzo from HAUS
The questions that come up most before a custom terrazzo project starts.
Color and stone are cast all the way through, not printed on, so it does not wear thin or fade the way a laminate can. Each HAUS recipe uses a validated pigment and aggregate mix, which is what keeps a colorway consistent from the first box to the last. It also wears better day to day than people expect: less prone to staining than marble, and the care routine is short. One honest note since HAUS ships handmade tile rather than a poured slab: expect minor lines between pieces, the same as any tiled surface.
Yes—Epoxy terrazzo is generally NOT recommended outdoors, since it is sensitive to UV and heat, which is why HAUS works in cement based terrazzo instead. Cement terrazzo tends to hold up better outside, but exact suitability still depends on your climate, sealer and installation method. Talk to your installer about your specific outdoor project before you order.
Material. The estimate above prices your recipe at $15 per square foot. Freight and anything specific to your project are separate and confirmed by HAUS when we review the request, before anything is invoiced. See our shipping policy for freight zones and delivery timing.
No. Send any square footage through. HAUS reviews quantity, availability and freight on every project individually, then comes back with a real number rather than an automatic one. See our shipping policy for freight zones and delivery timing.
Among the longest of any flooring material. Roman terrazzo floors at Herculaneum have survived roughly two thousand years, and closer to home, the terrazzo stars set into Hollywood Boulevard have held up to roughly 75 years of daily foot traffic. HAUS terrazzo is cement based, not epoxy, which is part of why it ages this way: properly sealed and cared for, it is built to outlast a renovation, not get replaced by one.
Not on its own. Slip resistance comes from the sealer and finish, not the stone itself. Avoid wax based products wherever it is installed. Wax builds up and dulls the surface over time.
No. Terrazzo is also tile, which means it goes wherever tile goes, not just the floor. The same recipe is already validated for shower walls, kitchen countertops, integrated sinks, backsplashes, fireplace surrounds and vanities, so you can carry one recipe through a whole room if you want to. See Where terrazzo actually lives above for what each surface actually requires.
HAUS reviews your recipe, quantity, freight and availability, then follows up by email. Nothing is charged and no order exists until you approve a quote. See our shipping policy for freight zones and delivery timing.
After creating your recipe, you may purchase a $5 sample of your mix. Flat $10 sample shipping applies at checkout. The normal 90-day sample credit guarantee still applies to your order. Terrazzo samples are limited to 5 pieces per customer.
Yes. Our in-house design team reviews every request personally, not an algorithm matching colours. Once you submit your square footage and recipe, HAUS confirms the pattern, quantity and any layout questions with you directly before anything is invoiced, so what you approve is what actually gets produced.
