If you are taking timeout to surf the web for your new kitchen worktop, perhaps your web-browsing session will extend to planning a foreign holiday. For this Blog, we’ll take a brief tour to discover where some quartz and granite worktops are sourced from.
Northern Europe
Starting closest to home, Unistone distribute natural stones and quartz from Belgium. Their extensive range of unique designs draws inspiration from natural stones such as Diamant and Carrara Misterio. Others leaning towards a warmer colour palette include Eramosa Moca, Crema Marfil & Silver Sea.
Hopping over the border finds Quartz Forms in Germany. Their Forest & Planet ranges offer strong colour designs such as Sughero, Magnolia, Betulla or Neptune, Jupiter & Pluto. Whereas the Ocean range include nautically inspired Arctic, Lagoon and Reef.
Venturing further east, Technistone is based in the Czech Republic. For black & white colour quartz with minimal pattern, ranges such as Terazzo & Starlight are a good starting place. Increasing the complexity of the pattern on a black base include Poetic Black, Pearl Delta, Pearl Rocca and Pearl Lava. If black is too harsh, other dark alternatives are Noble Athos Brown or Decore Ocra.
Southern Europe
The Carrara region of Italy remains synonymous with marble. This region is also the source of Calacatta, Statuario and Corchia Arabescato all are predominantly white based marbles with grey veins, occasionally streaked with gold. They are the design inspiration for quartz manufacturers the world over.
Staying in southern Europe, Silestone lead the way in sustainability from their Spanish HQ. The ever-popular Stellar Blanco, Grey and Night are manufactured using the new HybriqQ technology. This system incorporates up to 50% recycled materials alongside 100% renewal energy. Their sister company Dekton manufacture sintered stone slabs (porcelain) for use in the kitchen as well as the slim range (4mm, 8mm or 12mm) for use as cladding in bathrooms or wet rooms.
Exploring Eurasia
Venturing further east, Cimstone and Caesarstone operate from modern plants in Turkey & Israel respectively. Both companies produce some of our best-selling selections. From Cimstone, Arcadia and Sierra offer excellent value for pale worktops that will fit into a variety of decorative schemes.
For customers drawn to matt or cement finishes, Caesarstone are without doubt the trend-setters. Airey Concrete, Topus Concrete, Primordia and Rugged Concrete are some examples. Always looking ahead, Caesarstone is the first supplier to introduce an outdoor quartz range. Palm Shade, Midday and Clear Skies are named to suggest alfresco meals on warm sunny terraces!
It appears we’ve come full circle on the travel theme, but clearly, we will need to revisit this subject to cover the remaining parts of the globe. In the meantime, take some time to use view all options shown on our Worktop Finder from the comfort of your home.
