Blue Limestone

Blue limestone is arguably one of the most unique stones on the market.

It’s a colour most people don’t realise occurs naturally in the ground, and as a result can be an impressive show piece for someone’s garden.

The deep Blue Limestone paving slabs are an amazing choice if you are looking to create a contemporary garden with a truly standout feature.

Laid and dry, Kota Blue reads as a calm blue-grey rather than a true blue. Expect a soft grey with a blue cast, varying slab to slab, some leaning more grey and some noticeably bluer. The colour mellows over the first year or two as the stone weathers, settling into a softer, more traditional grey-blue. Sealing holds the blue one for longer if you want to keep the depth of colour. Against green planting and light render it reads cool and contemporary.

They are closer than they sound, because bluestone is itself a type of limestone in most UK use, just a denser, darker one quarried in Belgium or Ireland. Our Kota Blue is an Indian limestone with a softer blue-grey tone, a naturally smooth surface and a much lower price per m². True bluestone is harder, more uniform and considerably more expensive. For most gardens Kota Blue gives the same cool blue-grey look for far less, and we do not stock bluestone.

No, though they are often confused. Both are indian limestones in the blue-grey family, but Aqua Blue is generally a lighter, greener-toned stone with more variation across the pack, while our Kota Blue is a calmer and more consistent blue-grey. The names are used loosely across the trade, so a slab sold as Aqua Blue by one supplier may look much like another’s Kota Blue. the only reliable test is to see the actual stone, as photographs rarely shoe either accurately.

Yes, noticeably. Wet, the blue deepens and the stone looks much darker and richer, close to how it appears in most product photographs. Dry, it lightens to a paler, more muted grey-blue. This is true for all natural stone. But limestone shows it more than textured sandstone. If you prefer the wet look, a sealer gives a permanent version of it. Judge samples dry rather than wet, as the dry colour is what you will see most of the time.

Each Kota Blue mixed size pack holds a balanced mix of four slab sizes: 90 x 60cm, 60 x 60cm, 60 x 29cm and 29 x 29cm. All are calibrated to 22mm thick with sawn edges, so they lay level and butt up neatly. Packs come in 5m², 10m², 15m² and 17m², from £26.52 per m², so you can order close to the area you need without much waste. The four sizes let you lay a random pattern without cutting.

 No. We supply Kota Blue in mixed size packs only. If you want a single-size layout in limestone, our Kota Black comes in 90 x 60cm, 60 x 60cm, 60 x 45cm and 60 x 30cm as individual sizes. The mixed pack is not a drawback for most patios: the four sizes lay in a random pattern that suits a garden setting, and it reduces cutting around awkward edges compared with one large size.

Not from our range. Our Kota Blue is supplied as 22mm external paving with a naturally pitted surface, not as an internal floor tile, and we do not stock a matching indoor version. A continuous indoor to outdoor floor needs a thinner, honed internal tile from the same batch to run through, which is a specialist order. If a seamless threshold matters to you, porcelain is the practical route, as many porcelain ranges come in matched internal and external versions.

Not in Kota Blue. Our limestone cobbles come in Kota Black only, in 20 x 10cm and 10 x 10cm, 30 to 50mm thick. Many people use the black as a deliberate dark border around Kota Blue, which frames the blue-grey well. If you want a closer tonal match, our Silver Granite cobbles are a light grey that sits comfortably alongside it. Either works as an edge restraint when bedded and haunched in concrete.