Via Lattea

A deep black through which fine silver and white trails move — feathery, layered and running horizontally one bed over another, with a few diagonal lines cutting across them at the foot of the slab. The name describes it exactly: up close it reads like the Milky Way, thin clusters of light on a dark ground.

From across the room the surface reads as an almost even black, and only on approach does the texture open — which is precisely what makes it useful in a kitchen. It gives the drama of a black without being flat, and the pale trails scatter the light and ease what a polished black usually gives away. It works well against white, pale timber or grey cabinetry, and against brass and stainless steel alike.

This stone arrives from the quarry as it is — every slab is one single piece of rock, and no two 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.

Natural stone is porous: the slab is sealed before delivery, and resealing every year or two keeps oil, wine and coffee from soaking in. Heat does not harm it the way it harms engineered quartz, whose resin scorches. How this particular stone behaves against kitchen acids is worth asking us before you order — not every natural stone behaves the same way, and it is a one-minute question on the phone.