Leon Ralph cuts up giant sheets of marble and right the finished product

DESPITE the cost, natural stone is more and more becoming the choice of people renovating their homes.

When you see what top-quality stone, crafted by skilled artisans, can look like, you understand why homeowners are willing to pay up to £2,500 a square metre for stuff that is simply quarried out of the ground.

Of course, you don't have to spend anywhere near that amount, prices start at £250 a square metre, but you tend to get what you pay for.

Hopton Works on Hopton Industrial Estate in Devizes have many years of experience in sourcing and crafting natural stone from all over the world to make householders' dreams come true.

Managing director Mike Hemming is also operations manager for Mark Wilkinson Furniture at Bromham and the company's genesis lay in providing polished stone for new kitchens, bathrooms and other living areas for Wilkinson's and another local company, Smallbones.

Mr Hemming said: "We have a lot of experienced people here able to cope with the huge increase in demand for natural stone.

"And it is not just for floors and worktops. More people are looking at stone cladding for their interior walls."

Natural stone for worktops is nothing new. Granite has been the material of choice for some years and 60 per cent of the worktops ordered from Hopton Works are black.

Mr Hemming said: "That is the fashion at the moment. It could change at any time, but we have a wide range of colours and textures to suit any taste."

The stone comes from all over the world. There is the stunning Matrix and Green Galaxy from Brazil, multi-coloured Spectralite from the Baltic while other stone comes from as far away as India, Africa, Scandinavia and the United States.

At the top end of the range is Waterfall Onyx, which is £2,500 a square metre, but when you see it, I think you will agree it is worth every penny. It is jaw-droppingly beautiful. Its lush, ivory sheen seems to reach out to you and you can just imagine yourself entertaining Elizabeth Hurley or Keira Knightley in the drawing room floored with the stuff while the Ferrari Testarossa sits on the drive outside.

The most famous of all stone is Carrara marble from Italy, the same material Michaelangelo used to fashion the statue of David, and that is certainly in stock at Hopton Works.

In fact, most of the stone used in Europe comes through Italy. It arrives at Italian works in great blocks and is dressed and sawn into manageable slices before being sent on to Britain.

Hopton Works offers a bespoke service, whereby their team will go into a home in the process of building or renovation, measure up in situ and create a template that will be their blueprint when they get back to the workshop.

The stone, hand picked by the customer, will then be cut to shape, polished and finished.

Most stone has its own grain and the use of this in the finishing process is an art form in itself.

Workshop supervisor Nick Witts is particularly skilled in the technique known as "book matching". This involves polishing one section of stone on one side and then polishing its twin on the other, so that, when they are put in place, the grains in the two halves create a mirror image of each other. The effect is stunning.

This is best shown in the display in the lobby at Hopton Works, where a beautiful piece of white Calacatta Italian marble, three metres wide by two metres high, has been split, book matched and mounted as wall cladding behind an alabaster style bath.

Some may be put off using natural stone on floors by the thought of maintenance, but Mr Hemming says this is minimal.

He said: "We always seal the floor to make it stain and water resistant. It may need resealing every three to four years, but only if it gets a lot of traffic.

"In the main, natural stone has a long life and always looks beautiful. As it ages, it gains a patina, a lived-in look if you like.

"Every single piece of stone is unique. You will never get anything exactly the same."

9:56am Friday 11th April 2008

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