A FEW CHANGES TO OUR STOCK GRANITE RANGE

It has been a while since we first sold Indian Black – the wildly-patterned stone, deep-sealed by Cosentino of Spain under their Sensa brand. At a time when people are returning to natural materials and looking for big statements from worktop stones, Sensa Indian Black punches way above its weight. It is NOT expensive, but has an impact in pattern and colour to match stones at twice the wholesale price. We love it – a truly affordable granite, with real wow factor.

A full slab of Sensa Indian Black Granite

A close up of Sensa Indian Black Granite – please forgive the reflections off that high polish!

A recent installation in an Oxted, Surrey, bar with Sensa Indian Black Granite worktops

The continuing popularity of light-coloured worktops and the swing back towards natural stone worktops has left us looking for good, reliable white granites. With Kashmir White and River White granites both in somewhat erratic supply in terms of both availability and quality, we wanted to bring another stone in alongside Sensa Colonial White.

Sensa Siberia Granite is a very white stone, with very clearly defined black speckles breaking it up every so often. Close in, there is far more going on in terms of beautiful crystalline structure, with creamy tones and cool whites interleaved to form a beautiful, bright whole.

We don’t know how porous this material would be without the Sensa sealing process – but as that seal comes with a long guarantee, you can be confident that you are buying a solid and safe choice for your granite worktops when you go with Sensa Siberia!

A full slab of Sensa Siberia Granite

A close up of Sensa Siberia Granite 

Sensa Siberia Granite – an official Cosentino photo

As a result of the trend to whiter and wilder natural stones, we have seem some reduction in black granite sales. Black Pearl and Black Galaxy granites are still very popular, but we have not sold enough Stargate to merit keeping it on as a stock material. This saddens me; I was responsible for our first instalations in Stargate, and I have always liked this black stone. With its softly edged, silvery flecks, it is a great monochrome alternative to Black Galaxy, and a harder-wearing aletrnative to black mirror chip quartzes like Silestone Negro Stellar.

However, needs must. We should still be able to get hold of Stargate on a bespoke basis, and for many installations it shouldn’t work out ridiculously expensive.

Stargate Granite

Every so often, one of our supply companies sends us some slabs on a sale or return basis. Often, these are to introduce us to a new material, with a view to our either stocking it, or doing more work in it. The strategy works – one pair of slabs may be seen by a string of customers, who end up ordering far more than the original consignment. Add in the yet further customers who then see the later oprders, and you can see how stones can go from zero to hero. We saw very much this process with Cosmic White granite.

Mainstream Granite recently sent us two slabs of a stone they are calling Cristallo. We think it is a quartzite, and it is absolutely stunning. Not least, the quality of the polish on it is the best I have ever seen, bar none. The surface is like glass! If you like real stone, with relatively muted tones and pattern, but still lots going on, these slabs could be of interest. With this kind of material, every batch may be quite different, and we have no guarantee of further availability. So… first come, first served…

Cristallo Granite

Part of the slab of Cristallo Granite

Close-up of Cristallo granite

Of course, with materials that are completely new to us, we have as yet no insight into how the stuff cuts and polishes, or how it will work out in the kitchen. This is the reality of natural stone worktops! We would expect to have further discussion with Mainstream as and when a customer is after these slabs, to talk through how they see the stone’s suitability, its strengths and challenges.