Botanic Green

A pale, cool sage green spread with a white vein net at sharp angles — straight lines that meet and cross rather than flowing veins. Towards the edges a pinkish-grey cast warms the green.

A true green is rare in natural stone, and a surface like this sets the character of a whole kitchen. It works well against pale timber, broken white or brass, and less well against cold grey. At 295 by 170 this is one of the smaller slabs in stock — suited to an island or a splashback rather than a long run.

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.