Benson House, Surrey Hills
BLACK ONCE, WHITE EVERYWHERE ELSE.
Nicholas Day went to Aboda for black exactly once. A single Nero Marquina wall rises full height at the fireplace, black cut by white lightning, and every other stone in the house answers to it. Statuario and Calacatta between them keep the answer white: a kitchen with its rangehood clad in marble, a walk-in robe whose island of drawers is wrapped to the floor, bathrooms laid with herringbone marble, vanities with basins let into the slab. Outside, Taj Mahal allows itself the last word, cream quartzite flowing across the barbecue wall and up its hood.
