Copacabana

A deep aubergine-black ground crossed by a single broad white-cream wave that runs diagonally corner to corner and splits into fine bands at its ends. There is nothing else on the slab — only that contrast, and it is enough.

A slab like this is very nearly a painting, and it should be cut the way a picture is hung: decide where the wave falls, and plan around it. It is meant for an island or a splashback, not a whole kitchen. The leathered finish drops the shine and leaves the contrast softer and easier to live with.

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.