Cielo

A pale grey leaning towards lilac, carrying a dense web of fine white lines that cut across one another in every direction — closer to crazed glass than to marble veining. There is no repeating pattern and no single focus; the whole slab is texture.

The hydro-jet finish leaves a brushed surface that is pleasant under the hand and throws back no glare, and with this cool tone the result is a very quiet worktop. It suits a minimal kitchen in white, grey or concrete, and hides dust and fingerprints well.

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.