The largest stone slab selection North of Toronto is located right here, in North Bay.
Bella Terra Stone is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. From very humble beginnings as a husband-and-wife partnership in a 500-square-foot shop at the rear of the Red Cross parking lot, this local business has grown into an 8-acre extravaganza of stoney beauty, with 15 employees, on Highway 11 North in North Bay.
Colby Douglas, who started the business along with his wife, is very excited about the selection of slabs Bella Terra Stone offers. “We call it Slabland,” he explained.
“We have taken three acres of the property and formed it into streets, all named after places in Italy; for example, there is Pisa Avenue and Roma Boulevard. We have displayed all the slabs in this area, and we can take customers on a tour of Slabland, in a golf cart. There are 1600 beautiful slabs of stone for them to look at and choose from,” he completed.
Bella Terra has all the stone you would ever want to choose from, including marble, quartz, and granite.
“Overall, the more variety you get to see, the more chance your kitchen will be truly unique to you and unique to your personality,” said Douglas. “We want you to pick the stone that speaks to you, and the more options we have, the more likely we are to have that stone for you, that’s really what we’re about,” he finished.
Douglas explained that it’s this creativity and that chance to help someone make their kitchen truly special, that drew him to stone slabs, and to starting this business. “We want to make this a truly enjoyable experience for people. Renovating, or building a new house can be a stressful process with so many decisions to be made, and sometimes things going wrong and people’s projects are delayed as well. We come in near the finish line and we want to show our customers that this can be fun and exciting, and a chance to show their creativity, and make their kitchen truly theirs. We want our part of their process to be the most enjoyable” he said.
Future plans for Douglas and Bella Terra are continuing to hone in on making Slabland a destination. Douglas wants to add in a Jurassic Park style gated entryway, and maybe even put a virtual tour up on the website, for those rainy or snowy days.
“For our tenth anniversary on June 10, we are planning a big bash!” he said. “We are going to have a variety of vendors, raffles, extra golf carts for more tours through Slabland, BBQs, and fun activities for the kids. We also hope to do a silent auction and raise money for a local charity.” Douglas added that the new Bella Terra Stone website will be live by June 1, with photos of all 1600 slabs that are currently in stock.
“It’s all about making the process fun, and bringing the stone, the work, and the business to North Bay,” he said. “We believe in this community and in making shopping locally a wonderful experience for everyone.”
Learn more about what Bella Terra has to offer online here and connect with their team to start your creating your space.