If you’re thinking about doing up your kitchen or bathroom any time soon, chances are you’ve already been flicking through the interiors mags and doom scrolling through a million home renovation websites. I’ve been doing the same for my own house project and bloody hell it’s daunting. I’ve been told by an interior designer friend to start with one item or colour I like, and build things out from there, and given the work surface is the great immoveable object in both kitchens and bathrooms, that’s been my focus.

I’ve chosen a fab stone specialist local to me in Bicester called The Granite House because aside from the choice (spoiler: they don’t just granite!), I like their non-pushy ethos and personal service. Lynne Ottway, Operations Manager there, gave me some super-useful advice when I was choosing my shower room stone last month and I thought I’d share here as it’s really helped me narrow down my options.

The results of that conversation can be seen here – my shower room quartz basin unit top has just been put in place (though not much else is finished yet!). Next up I’m choosing my kitchen top and another two bathroom vanity units (follow my IG feed for The House That Muddy Built and the Renovate & Build section of the website for my indecision on those in the coming months) but for now, here’s what you need to know about choosing your perfect stone.

OK Lynne. First up, an idiot’s guide to stone please

It’s a fair question; it can be very confusing. Basically, marble and granite are natural stones, literally dug out of the quarries cut into the sides of mountains, resulting in a unique piece each time – no two stones are the same. The formation is slightly different – granite is formed through volcanic rock and marble is limestone based – but they’re both naturally porous which means over time there’s a chance that the stone can be marked or stained, and we’ve all heard the horror stories about lemon juice and hot pan rings marking gorgeous surfaces.

Quartz is also a natural quarry stone but modern manufacturers have played with this stone, crushed it, added resins and other ingredients to create a man-made stone that’s much more durable and very difficult to stain. However, unlike marble and granite, a piece of quartz isn’t unique – you know what you’re getting and so does anyone else ordering it! To confuse things further, porcelain (otherwise known as ceramic). It’s an ultracompact, man-made surface that’s created by fusing various components together under extreme temperatures. They are incredibly strong and marketed by their manufacturers as being heat proof, cold proof and stain proof. Porcelains are more plain than granite, marble and quartz products and you won’t see a pattern all the way through the stone, just on the surface.

What’s the more popular stone these days?

Quartz is king at the moment. Manufacturers like Caesarstone, Dekton and Silestone have worked hard to promote their products (they’re often in the interiors magazines), so that’s helped with brand awareness and a willingness to try the products. Also I think colour has played a part in their current success. Customers want the look of marble but with a better performance and that’s where quartz places itself really well. The quartz manufacturers can make their palettes to suit consumer demand – they can change their colours any time they want to match what they know will sell.

What are the kitchen and bathroom trends you’re seeing coming through?

When the business started in 2005, it was always about contrast – if the customer wanted light kitchen doors, they’d have a dark top; and vice versa. Nowadays, people are much more open to complementary tones, rather than always a contrasting tone, but often still with a marble ‘look’ to the work surface; that’s still the most in-demand style by a long way. That said, we’ve seen an uplift in stones featuring gold threads in the last 18 months too, with people moving towards warmer tones, perhaps because brass taps and fittings have become more mainstream and they work well together. And we have adventurous customers too – one client has just chosen a very bold emerald green for her entire kitchen! But most of the time kitchen and bathroom stone trends still centre on simple, classic whites.

What’s more expensive, granite or quartz?

It’s a myth that granite is more expensive as it’s ‘natural’ but, actually, if you took a mid-range colour for both, they’re likely to work out just about the same. Whilst quartz manufacturers have fixed prices, the challenge with the natural stones is the pricing is influenced by lots of external factors, like exchange rates, labour and transporting costs from the country of origin which might be Spain, India, Italy or the South Africa, for example.

However, my advice is always to not immediately think about the price when you’re looking for stone, which I know sounds a bit crazy but the truth is that natural stone importers will only discuss pricing with fabricators like us, and every fabricator is different; how we price a piece of granite might be totally different to another company. So it’s much smarter to keep your mind open in the early stages to what you like in terms of colour and pattern, and then from there let us guide you to the product that’s going to suit your design and your budget. If that means you can buy a piece of stone you thought out of your price rang, all the better.

 How often do people end up with something different to what they thought?

In all honesty, a lot! Around half of customers will come in and they absolutely know what they want but the other half need more guidance – maybe they’ve never done a bathroom or kitchen project before or they just struggle to visualise their dream. The reality is that there’s so much to choose from and it can be daunting – do you want to go light or dark; veined or plain; rough or smooth; classic or modern?

In terms of quartz options alone we have around 500 different options here, and that’s not including the natural stones and ceramics. The choices is almost endless so we have an important job in guiding people in the right direction. No-one has ever come to us after we’ve installed a product and said, ‘I wish I’d chosen that other one!’, because we talk customers through their options, and we allow them all the time they need – we’re not to help, not press them, and if they ask for 20 or 30 different quotes, that’s fine.

What’s the one piece of advice you give all customers?

Stone is a permanent purchase for most people – certainly for ten years or so. Everything around it can be changed, from paint colours, window dressings and soft furnishings, so make sure that the stone you choose will work with any other changes you make coming down the line. Whether you go with a simple white veined countertop or a statement emerald green piece is equally valid, but try to think past trends and how you’ll feel about it in years to come.

What stone would you suggest for an outdoor kitchen?

COVID really ushered in this trend when we were all stuck at home, and we’ve continued to see a big increase in these over the last few years. We’re just finishing one at the moment using Dekton as the work surface. It’s ideal because it won’t fade in the sun and is highly resistant to anything life throws at it! Anything ceramic is a good option here; marble and granite less so.

Aside from the stone itself, what other decisions do customers need to make?

When you think about the installation and final look, edges are important as they need to be polished, otherwise you’ll have a nasty rough finish – but do you want a sharp edge, bevel edge, pencil edge of mitered edge for example? If you have draining grooves in your kitchen, which side do you want them? Where do you want your tap hole, so that you don’t have to reach too far?). How high do you want the upstand that surrounds your surface and where are your plug sockets? (the tap hole needs to be a minimum of 50mm clearance from them). There isn’t a configuration that our team hasn’t seen at some point! As long it’s possible within the limitations of the material, we can do it.

Do you work and deliver nationally?

No, we’re very much a local company, so we work primarily in Oxfordshire where we’re based, as well as surrounding counties of Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Hertfordshire and Gloucestershire. We pride ourselves on our service and we find it’s much easier to deliver that service within an hour’s radius. We really involve the customer – it’s not often these days that you can go and watch your own stone being cut but we welcome our clients and want to involve them in the journey their stone will go through.

If readers are thinking, ‘My god this is complicated’, what can you say to put their minds at rest?

Honestly, it’s all OK! It’s true that choosing stone isn’t an ‘off the shelf’ exercise, but it will all make sense when you talk to the professionals. Businesses like ours are here to help you find a worktop you love so don’t be daunted and enjoy the experience.

The Granite House, 42 Murdock Rd, Bicester OX26 4PP. Tel: 01869 324442.

For more renovation and house build inspo visit the Renovate & Build section of the site. Plus for behind the scenes chaos as I transform my house room by room,  follow The House That Muddy Built on Instagram at herobrown_muddy.