I am hoping the parent cafe hive mind can help. I am doing a mini renovation of my large and very outdated kitchen. The countertops have 8x8 inch tile on them, and we plan to replace with granite (I just don’t like quartz). The adjoining great room has a redwood ceiling and there is a red brick fireplace. The flooring in the family room is honey colored maple and the flooring in the kitchen is a medium tone grey ceramic tile. I am trying to find a white granite that is warm enough to blend with the warm great room area as well as the grey tiles. White because that is what is trending around here. Cabinets are oak, but will be painted, colors tbd once we select the granite. Thank you!
We had Kashmir White in one of our houses that had a lot of speckles of grey and beige, but was still mostly white. There is tremendous variability between slabs though so you’d have to see what you were buying.
I have Brown Fantasy in my current kitchen which has more of a marble like veining. From the name, you’d think it was brown but mine is mostly grays and very, very light.
We got a quartzite (not quartz). It’s mostly white with beautiful lines of grays and browns and honeys. We’ve had it a few years and it’s held up beautifully. It’s called White Pearl. We got it from The Stone Collection in Denver.
I was looking for something very neutral for a small area, and I went with ivory fantasy. It sounds like it might be good for your area. This is what it looks like:
https://www.houzz.com/products/traditional/kitchen-countertops/pid=113815157?m_refid=PLA_HZ_113815157?m_refid&device=t&nw=g
ETA - I am getting white cabinets with this granite. The cabinet woman said it was a very popular choice.
I would suggest visiting several local slab yards, you really need to see what is available locally. If you can, take a sample of your tile and wood floor to see how they match with the slab. We went to at least 3 different places a total of 5 or 6 times before we finally found one. We probably passed it up the first 2 times we were at the yard, but it can be so overwhelming at first. We ended up with Kashmir Cream - it’s light, but not white like you want. We swung from one extreme to the next before we found something more in the middle that made us go “That’s it!”.
I also have Ivory Fantasy. It’s a nice blend of neutral colors with a tad of a burgundy in it. We love it.
I chose a quartzite cuz I wanted something light. If I did it again, I would have paid less and gone with a quartz. I’d be in control,of the amount of veining and the colors.
I’ve been looking at this one Bianco Antico https://pin.it/2bnnqkebw32g4p
We have Taj Mahal quartzite. It has a creamy background with tan-brown and grey veining. It like how it brightens up our kitchen.
https://pin.it/wprwzjxhqyc3sl
This is where we go in Chicago and they have a nice selection but I like the Bianco one also. http://products.stonecity.com/default.aspx?globalcategory=granite
We have the Blue Pearl with white cabinets and has stood the test of time for us.
Interesting how several of you chose quartzite. I must admit I love quartzite and the way it looks, but I understand it’s more expensive and I am trying to stay within a tightish budget. I have bookmarked all the recommended stones, and will show DH tomorrow.
It seems so intimidating to go to the granite yard with no prior experience and select something you will be looking at multiple times a day for the next 10-20 years.
We loved our trip to the granite yard! We didn’t want anything white, but we wanted light. We told this to the granite guy and he showed us several different hunks of stone. We chose Ivory Fantasy because of the veining and colors…and t was lighter than many others.
Just go…and tell them what you have in mind…they will show you some things that will work.
Give the granite folks your budget and color palette and they will show you what’s available. I found choosing a slab to be easier than looking at a small sample.
Going to the granite place is actually the best. We got to walk around with all the designers and get other opinions…
If you have pictures of your space and pictures of your floor, walls, any wood etc plus if you have actual samples it can help them help you decide.
We did this over 30 years ago but I do remember they showed us this beautiful blue stone. We asked how much and the owner Tuola goes “you don’t want to know”. It was a rarer stone and we couldn’t afford like a foot of it… Lol… But gorgeous!
Pro tip : If your having a sink cut out let them make you a cutting board out of the extra piece. We use ours daily even though you can cut on the granite.
@calgal We found it intimidating too, so you’re not alone in that regard. Just plan on going multiple times before it starts to click. Be patient, because once you choose the countertop, everything else will start to fall in place.
St. Cecilia is a lighter granite–although not white–that I think would look very pretty with the other elements you describe. The versions vary somewhat as to degree of creaminess and small colored spots, so you’d probably want to pick out the actual slab. Pictures of it tend to be misleading due to variations of scale.
https://graniteselection.com/granite-countertops/santa-cecilia-lc/
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Pegasus-4-in-x-4-in-Santa-Cecilia-Granite-Sample-99885/205379715
https://www.arizonatile.com/en/products/granite/juparana-st-cecilia
Here is Ivory fantasy
http://patscolor.com/materials/granite/ivory-fantasy/
But really…have fun looking at the slabs. Something will call to you…and that’s what you will get!
Great suggestions, and thank you all for your encouragement.
Santa Cecilia has garnet (aka red) spots through it. I didn’t care for that with our color scheme, but it didn’t bother my husband at all.
Something important to me is a “consistent” look (I call it “random repeat” - I do t want the different sides of our counter to look much different), so picking the piece was kind of important. For example, in my case one part of the slab had a big black splotch, but they can do my sink cutout from that spot, so it’s fine.