Everest Blue

A cool white with a blue cast, drawn over with very fine rose-rust and grey veins that branch like capillaries. The ground is almost bare, and the veins look as though they were drawn with a fine pen on damp paper.

It is one of the most delicate stones in the book, and a large slab — 336 by 195 — from which a whole island comes without a joint. It works well against white, pale grey or oak cabinetry, and the leathered finish keeps it fully matte and free of glare.

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.