Natural Stone Slabs: Serious Stone for Serious Craftsmen
If there is one kind of worktop installation which really sorts out the men from the boys (or whatever the current idiom should be) it is the use of delicate natural-stone slabs with a challenging vein-match to deliver.Â
We have just such a job on at the moment: Brecchia Fantasy (or Brecchia Fantasia) marble, for one huge kitchen project involving vein-matching and some book-matching. (For the difference between vein-matching and book-matching, you need look no further than our article. )
Check out the difference between these first two images! They come from the same slab – just different areas. That only goes to show how irrelevant and useless small samples can be. And with such wild patterns there are huge choices to be made when the stone is cut – what do we want to lose and want do we want to highlight?! For natural stone kitchen worktops you must choose a worktop firm which:
Takes good photos of slabs
Allows you to visit and inspect the slabs for yourself
Allows you to visit after templating and before cutting so as to decide how to use your slabs to best effect in your kitchen.
As it happens, this Brecchia Fantasia job is a collaboration with Nick Geard Furniture and is one of our biggest and most prestigious projects this year. Like all marble, the material is relatively fragile and will change colour further in use. It needs careful treatment and skilled handling to really deliver.
Just to give you an idea, here are the six slabs as bought for the project:
The stone shows all the signs of repeated fracturing and refilling over the aeons before it was quarried. It is amazingly patterned, stunningly coloured and a real challenge.
You can see from the images that the bookmatching is not perfect in the slabs – Ben and other stonemasons will need their wits about them to really get the best out of these natural stone slabs.
We look forward to installing this natural stone as kitchen worktops – and I look forward to photographing the finished project in due course!
We are Affordable Granite, the leading installer of granite, quartz, and ceramic worktops across Surrey, Sussex, and the South East. If you have any questions about our worktops or need specific advice on splashbacks, we’re here to help.
It’s easy to get in touch — call us on 01293 863992 or email us at sales@affordablegranite.co.uk.
