Azul Macaubas

A soft, even purple-grey crossed by two fine white horizontal bands running the length of the slab, with a very delicate layering above and below them in the same tone. The stone is quiet and restrained, and the colour is all there is to it.

Azul Macaubas is among the best-known quartzites in the world, and this look — a grey leaning purple — is essentially unobtainable in a manufactured material. In a kitchen it suits white, pale grey or bleached oak cabinetry; the polished finish deepens the tone and brings the translucency out.

Quartzite is a metamorphic natural stone: quartz sand compacted under heat and pressure until it became a single crystalline rock. It is harder than marble and usually harder than granite — a knife, salt or a ceramic plate leave no mark — and unlike marble it does not etch from lemon or vinegar. It is porous, though: the slab is sealed before delivery, and resealing every year or two keeps it that way. There is no resin in it as there is in engineered quartz, so a hot pan will not scorch it — a trivet is still a good habit, particularly near an edge or a joint.

Every slab is one single piece of rock, and no two slabs of the same stone are ever identical. So we drive out to the supplier's yard with you, choose the actual slab there, and mark the layout on it before it is cut.