Limestone Fan / Scallop Honed Mosaic Tile

The shape has a long history. Overlapping arcs appear in Roman paving and again in the 1920s, when Art Deco interiors took up the fan as a way of putting movement into a floor without putting colour into it. That is still what it does here. Because every piece is the same stone, the pattern is drawn by light rather than by contrast: each arc catches a slightly different angle and the scallops emerge as soft shadow lines. It is a quieter effect than a two-tone fan and a more forgiving one in a small room.

Limestone suits the curve. It is a sedimentary carbonate with an even, fine grain and no bedding voids, so a curved edge can be cut without the chipping that a porous or heavily crystalline stone risks along an arc. The fossil content, visible as pale flecks and small shell sections through the body, supplies interest at close range that the geometry does not have to provide.

Honing leaves a flat matte face, which is the right choice here, since any reflection would compete with the curves. Seal before grouting, and set out from a centre line rather than from a wall: a fan that meets a corner off register is impossible to unsee afterwards.