Spain is Europe\'s second largest stone producer after Italy but when John Broom of designers and developers Roach & Partners built a 2,000m2 luxury home in Spain it was Portland in Dorset he turned to for the stone.

"What Spain hasn\'t got is Portland stone, which has an absolutely wonderful colour. Nothing in Spain comes close to its mellowness," John told NSS.

He has used 1,860m2 of New Independent Whitbed tiles for the flooring, 454 linear metres of it for stair treads and 1,300 linear metres for skirting. He has had two fireplaces made of it as well as bath surrounds and steps up to baths.

He has also used Independent Grove Whitbed for internal wall tiling and Bowers Roach for one of the bathrooms and a 3m x 2m feature panel on the external facade by the front door. All the Portland limestone comes from the quarries of Albion Stone Quarries and was processed by them in their workshop.

John said: "I can\'t emphasise enough how many quarries we looked at, limestone and marble. We just couldn\'t get the mellowness we felt the landscape required until we saw the Portland stone.

"It was a great pleasure working with Albion Stone. They pulled out all the stops for us at the critical stage of the contract and assisted with the technical advice."

The house, in La Zagaleta in the south of Spain, has seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, two kitchens, a big games room, its own 12-seater cinema, a gym and a steam room and has just gone on the market with a price tag of @15million.