Patagonia

A cream and white ground holding large black-grey pockets, half-translucent and ringed with fine rust and gold lines. These are not veins but genuine bodies within the stone, and each one looks different. Patagonia is among the rarest and most recognisable stones on the market.

With a pattern like this there is only one right approach: choose the slab, photograph it, and mark exactly where the island falls and where the sink is cut. At 315 by 200 this slab is nearly square and unusually wide — suited to a large island, which is where it looks its best.

Granite is a crystalline igneous rock — quartz, feldspar and mica cooled slowly at depth — and among the most durable things you can put in a working kitchen. Everyday use does not scratch it, kitchen acids do not touch it, and a hot pan will not scorch it. It is porous to a degree, so the slab is sealed before delivery; resealing every year or two is what keeps oil marks from settling around the hob.

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.