Karnak Grey.

The name looks to the temple complex at Luxor rather than to a quarry pin — a trade name that honours a place. What it describes is the most useful of the Egyptian granites: an even mid grey with a fine, regular speckle and no strong direction, which means it can be laid in any orientation without a pattern to police.

That neutrality is the point. Karnak Grey is the stone you specify when the floor has to disappear and simply work: kerbs, thresholds, treads, cladding, paving and any large field that should not compete with what stands on it.

Flamed or bush hammered outdoors for grip, brushed where hands land, polished indoors where the speckle sharpens and the grey deepens. Supplied as blocks, slabs and cut to size.