How to Clean Natural Stone Shower Walls

Natural stone can be a beautiful choice for your shower, and you can maintain that brand-new sparkling look for years if you keep it clean on a regular basis. People often think that showers stay relatively clean, because, well, that’s the place we get clean ourselves. 

 

However, this isn’t the case. Showers that don’t get cleaned regularly can build up soap scum, mildew, and develop hard water and mineral stains. If you haven’t cleaned your shower in a while (or at all), we’ve got some tips that will get rid of the gross stuff, and that will keep your shower clean will no effort every day at all.

Before you start any type of cleaning with chemicals, make sure you are wearing rubber gloves and clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty. While it’s unlikely that you’ll ruin your clothing, it’s best that you don’t wear anything fancy or that can’t be replaced. Now you’re ready to start.

If you have an excessive build up of soap scum in your shower, don’t fool yourself into thinking you can just wipe it off with a sponge. Use a natural cleaning solution that won’t ruin the stone and spray it all over the soap scum. Use a plastic squeegee to wipe the dirty areas clean. 

If the soap scum is stubborn and won’t come off, it can help to use some ammonia on the stone to lift the dirt. Mix ½ cup of ammonia with one gallon of warm water. Carefully spray the solution onto the stubborn soap scum and wipe it off with a rag or microfiber cloth. 

Soap scum isn’t the only cleaning issue when it comes to the shower area. Because hot water is constantly spraying around the area, condensation and moisture often build up, creating mold and mildew spores.

Spray a good quality mildew remover around your shower and leave the product to sit for about an hour. This will allow the solution to sink into the mildew and really work it away from the stone. Then simply rinse the wall using the shower head.

You can also remove mildew and mold from your shower using a degreaser. Make a mixture of 1 part degreaser and 10 parts hot water. Scrub the solution onto the affected areas and rinse. 

Once you’ve gotten rid of all the strenuous cleaning, it’s time to finish the rest of your shower. You can buy an everyday natural stone cleaner at any home improvement or multi-purpose store. It’s important not to skimp on these cleaning solutions, as a cheap one can ruin the finish on natural stone. 

Even if you buy a high end cleaner, it’s a good idea to test the product in a small corner of your shower if it’s one you’ve never used before. Apply with anything you feel like, whether it’s a cloth, a spray bottle, or a scrub brush. After letting it sit and removing it, if your stone doesn’t have any reaction, you should be good to use it on a regular basis around the whole shower area.

Stone-Inspired Easter Eggs

Easter is rapidly approaching, and before you know it, you’ll have children running around the yard for the traditional Easter Egg Hunt. 

There’s nothing more fun on Easter than enjoying the outdoors with friends and family, especially for a friendly (and sometimes competitive) holiday game. However, if your kids are getting older, they may not enjoy an egg hunt quite the way they used to.

Well, we’ve got a way to spice it up this year, and if you do it well enough, you’ll have kids and adults alike hunting for the Easter eggs until the sun goes down.

Bring the level of your hunt from easy to hard, or at least harder than usual. Instead of painting your eggs the traditional bright, pastel, springtime colors, give them a camouflage look by painting them similar colors to ones in your yard.

And by yard, we specifically mean stones, of course!

This will require a little research ahead of time. Take a walk in your yard and pick out good places to hide your eggs. Note what color every stone in your yard is, whether it’s a pathway or a fountain, or a multi-colored stone wall. This way you’ll know what paint colors to get from the store. Most likely you’ll end up with a lot of browns, creams, grey, and even some green if you want to hide them in the grass!

Once you've painted your eggs and they've dried, place them discreetly around your yard before your guests arrive. When everyone is ready, let the hunting begin! Just make sure to grab all the eggs by the end of the day, you don't want any stragglers laying around your yard.

Not only will the eggs be harder to find this year, but you’ll get to tie the holiday in with your beautiful landscaping, and you should take any excuse to show off your stone décor!

How to Maintain Slippery Stone

We don’t get many rainy days here in Arizona, but when we do, it pours. 

There’s nothing better than staying home on a rainy day, but we don’t always have that luxury, like today. People still head out to work, run errands, even visit friends when it’s raining, which heightens the opportunity for accidents not being careful.

Everything gets slippery in the rain, especially your driveway, outdoor natural stone pathways and pavers. And since we’re pretty sure the last thing you want to do is step out of your home and slip on your wet stone, we have a couple of ideas that will keep the outside of your home as safe as possible on a rainy day.

The easiest way to keep a stone pathway or stepping stones from becoming too slippery in rainy weather is by keeping water off them the best you can. While it may seem almost impossible to keep water off your pathway during a rainstorm, there ARE ways to reduce the amount of standing water on the stone. 

If there’s a break in the rain, or you’re getting ready to go out, take a bristled broom and quickly sweep all the standing water off of any areas that are walked on. While constant rainfall will prevent the water from completely staying off your stone, this will reduce the amount of water buildup, and the chance that you’ll slip. 

There are also ways you can prevent your stone pavers from getting slippery even before it starts to rain. Moss and weeds can become VERY slippery when wet, so by keeping your pathways maintained, there will be less of a chance that plants will add to the danger a rainstorm brings. 

There are also a number of anti-slip products you can buy from practically any home improvement store. These products come in a variety of ways to be used, including sprays, paints, and even sheets of anti-slip grip material. This allows you to choose the best type of product for your home and type of stone. These should be reapplied on a semi-regular basis to increase their effectiveness, the best time for re-application being after you clean your stone pavers. 

We hope these tips help you on rainy days like these. If you don’t need to go anywhere, curl up on the couch and enjoy some TV!

DIY Trivets and Coasters

There are tons of ways you can use natural stone in your home, whether it’s for building or decorating. When you complete a home project using stone, it’s recommended that you purchase extra product in case something breaks or needs to be replaced for any reason. 

While it’s a comfort knowing you have extra materials, sometimes you end up not needing them. The question is: what do you do with the leftovers? We’ve got an idea that will get rid of that stone and bring your family together at the same time.

One weekend, turn a regular day into a DIY craft day and make homemade trivets and coasters. Natural stone is a great material to put hot items, glasses and plates of food on. 

Read how we can turn your extra material into home décor in a fun and safe way for the whole family.

What You’ll Need

Glue gun

Thick craft felt

Scissors

Extra stone tiles

Hammer

Thick beach towel

Parental supervision if the kids are helping out

That’s all! Once you have all these materials assembled, you’re ready to start.

This project actually begins outside. Grab your extra stone, hammer and beach towel and set up camp either on your driveway, backyard, or anywhere you can work without being bothered by cars. 

Lay the beach towel flat and place the stone in the middle. Wrap it up, and using the hammer, gently break apart the stone until it’s in small, irregularly-shaped pieces, about the size of a half dollar. Once you’ve broken up the desired amount of stone, carefully gather it up and head inside to start crafting.

Using your scissors, cut the craft felt into the shape and size that you want your trivet or coasters to be. This is where the fun comes in. Let your kids pick designs, like hearts and stars. They can design their own coasters that are for their own individual use!

After the glue gun is done heating up, take pieces of the stone and simply glue it onto the felt. A small amount of glue goes a long way, so don’t go too crazy. You don’t want the glue to soak through the felt and make a mess. Give the design depth by flipping some upside down and twisting them so the pieces of stone don’t fit perfectly.

Word of caution: Don’t leave too much space between each piece of stone; otherwise your final product won’t be sturdy, but floppy and not very effective. Once you’ve covered the felt, set the finished product aside and let everything dry.  

You now have brand new trivets and coasters for your home! The best part about this project is that you’re using a pattern or color that you already love. By adding splashes of the product in your kitchen, living and dining rooms, your coasters and trivets are guaranteed to tie the entire look of your home together.