Marble and granite PBR textures carry most luxury interiors: kitchen islands, bathroom floors, reception desks, and feature walls. The maps must read as stone under any HDRI, not as a flat photo glued on a box. This guide covers how to pick marble versus granite, how to set roughness for polish, and how to scale veins so a 4K tile does not look like wallpaper.

Marble versus granite in a real scene

Marble is a storytelling material. Veins should travel across a slab with a clear direction. If you tile a dramatic Calacatta-style albedo on a 4-meter floor, the same white river will repeat every two meters and the client will see it. Granite is more forgiving: the grain is smaller, speckles break up repetition, and you can cover a lobby floor with a 2K tile if the camera stays mid-distance. Choose marble for one hero plane (island, vanity, elevator lobby). Choose granite or a quieter stone for large floors and secondary walls. Browse marble and granite on Locker3d, then compare both against other stone if you need slate or limestone instead.

Maps that sell polished stone

A usable stone pack is more than a pretty albedo. Albedo must stay lighting-free: no baked window highlights, no photographer shadow. Roughness is the map that tells polished from honed. Polished marble sits very low (often 0.05–0.18) with slight variation in the veins. Honed or leathered finishes sit higher (0.35–0.55) and kill the mirror look. Normal or height should describe crystal facets and pits, not fake grout lines unless the surface is tiled stone. Metalness stays at zero. If a pack ships a shiny JPEG as “specular,” ignore it and drive gloss from roughness. For how those maps work together, read the complete PBR textures guide.

  • Hero countertops: 4K albedo + matching 4K roughness and normal.
  • Floors seen from standing height: 2K is enough if the grain is dense.
  • Background walls: 1K–2K, then hide repetition with furniture and rugs.

Scale, veining, and tiling

Measure a real slab. Kitchen islands often use 120–160 cm modules; bathroom tiles may be 30 or 60 cm. In Blender, unwrap the top face as a single island, then set Mapping scale so one texture repeat equals one real slab—or so veins do not loop twice on the same island. If you must tile, pick a granite or a marble with short, broken veins. Offset UVs per cabinet door so neighboring pieces do not share the same vein crossing. For large floors, mix two similar Locker3d stones at a low Mix Shader weight, or rotate every other tile 90 degrees in the UV editor. Seamless sources still need human variation; a perfect wrap with identical veins is the giveaway.

Lighting and roughness for kitchens

Polished stone fails in two ways: it looks like plastic (roughness too even and too low) or it looks dusty (roughness too high, albedo too gray). Light the kitchen with a window HDRI plus a soft interior fill. Check the island at camera height, not from a top view. If reflections smear like chrome, raise roughness slightly in the veins only. If the stone looks matte in a daylight still, lower the roughness and confirm the roughness texture is Non-Color. Apply the set with the node path in how to apply PBR textures in Blender. Pair stone with wood cabinets and metal taps so the roughness contrast reads as a real kitchen, not a material ball.

Where to get CC0 marble and granite

Locker3d publishes photoscanned PBR stone as CC0. Download from the texture catalog, use the maps in client stills, and edit color or roughness without asking. Attribution is optional; see what you can and cannot do with CC0. Related interior guides live on the blog. Do not upscale a phone photo of a showroom slab and call it PBR: you will bake lights into the albedo and fight them in every new HDRI.

Frequently asked questions

Should I use marble or granite for a kitchen island?

Use marble when you want bold veins as a hero surface. Use granite when you need a tighter grain that tiles more quietly across a large island or floor.

Which PBR maps matter most for polished stone?

Albedo carries the veins or speckles. Roughness sells polish versus honed. A sharp normal (or height) adds crystal and pit detail without extra geometry.

Can I use Locker3d marble and granite commercially?

Yes. Locker3d textures are CC0. You can use, edit, and ship them in client archviz and product stills without attribution or royalties.