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If you have granite or marble countertops...


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I have granite in the kitchen and a couple of our bathrooms and marble in another one of the bathrooms. I am not sure what kinds they are though. They were here when we bought the house, so I wasn't involved in picking them out. I do know that our kitchen granite is an unusual/rare type and always gets tons of compliments, but I don't know what it is called.

 

I love granite! I can't imagine what I would possibly like better. :confused: I've had Corian, formica, and tile before. I definitely like granite better than any of these. I wouldn't ever do cement or stainless steel because we don't like modern/contemporary decor.

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I'm looking for ideas for the bar in our basement that we are finishing. We have granite in the kitchen and marble in our bathroom. My only complaint about our kitchen granite is that it is dark and constantly needs full-scale cleaning. IOW, I can't just wipe it off or it will look smeary. I want one that is lighter for the downstairs because of this.

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I'm looking for ideas for the bar in our basement that we are finishing. We have granite in the kitchen and marble in our bathroom. My only complaint about our kitchen granite is that it is dark and constantly needs full-scale cleaning. IOW, I can't just wipe it off or it will look smeary. I want one that is lighter for the downstairs because of this.

 

 

Even the most $$$ granite does that. I am done with it, personally.

 

However, I do like marble. ;)

 

Light. Classic.

 

Bit still, guilt-provoking (non-renewable), and difficult to maintain well over time.

Edited by LibraryLover
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I'm looking for ideas for the bar in our basement that we are finishing. We have granite in the kitchen and marble in our bathroom. My only complaint about our kitchen granite is that it is dark and constantly needs full-scale cleaning. IOW, I can't just wipe it off or it will look smeary. I want one that is lighter for the downstairs because of this.

 

Oh, I forgot about our basement. We have granite in the kitchen are down there as well. It is black (not what I would have chosen). It isn't really a problem though because it isn't heavily used down there, kwim? The granite in our kitchen is lighter-- cream with streaks of tan, dark brown, etc. It is really pretty and doesn't get smeary at all.

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Our kitchen granite is called New Venetian Gold. Relatively common color, so it is much less expensive than some that are more rare. It is a lighter color. The main color can range from light tan-ish to yellow/gold-ish, with flecks of burgundy, black, silver, pearl, so shop around and choose your specific slab(s). Slabs can vary a lot even in the same "color" name. I really like ours, never see any smears, extremely low-maintenance.

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How much it shows fingerprints depends entirely on the color and pattern.

 

We have Blue Eyes granite in our kitchen, and I am extremely happy with it. IIRC, it is an anarthosite, very hard, from Canada. Theoretically it was factory sealed as most granites are; however it's so hard that it's unlikely it absorbed the sealant. We will never need to seal it. We have had it for seven years so far.

 

Somewhere else, we have a granite that is dark green, almost black, and it shows a lot of fingerprints and smears. I can't remember the name though it is a very common (inexpensive) one.

Edited by wapiti
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My favorite granite is Kashmir White, like this. It is white with flecks of grey, burgundy, and brown. We had it in the entire kitchen in a former house and just installed it as the bar-top in our current kitchen. We probably would have done the whole kitchen with it but decided to go with butcher block for now until we do a full kitchen reno. The only downside: because kashmir white has a light base color it does have the potential to stain but shouldn't if it is sealed correctly and not mistreated.

 

Edit to add: This color goes great with many different cabinet/kitchen colors. In our previous house it was paired with dark cherry cabinets; our current house has white cabinets. It looks great with both.

Edited by meena
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I have a gray/black/white mix of granite. It hides everything. I only wish my white cabinets were as use friendly as the counter top. If you want to see it you can go here.

 

 

I like that granite! We are having a custom cabinet made for a bathroom and I want something like that for that bathroom.

 

We are remodeling 2 bathrooms right now, and we picked out a slab for the vanity in our main bathroom. The color is called tropical green.

 

http://pinterest.com/pin/25825397834293638/

 

It's really dark (almost black) and not very busy. The green undertones work well for that space because we're doing white subway tile with green glass tile accents. 3 weeks and we'll have 2 new functional bathrooms! (I hope - we're into week 8 of using 1 grungy basement bathroom).

 

Someday we will tackle the kitchen ...

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I'm looking for ideas for the bar in our basement that we are finishing. We have granite in the kitchen and marble in our bathroom. My only complaint about our kitchen granite is that it is dark and constantly needs full-scale cleaning. IOW, I can't just wipe it off or it will look smeary. I want one that is lighter for the downstairs because of this.

 

We have the Crema Bordeaux in our bar area as well -- the cabinets are cherry and the Crema Bordeaux complements it nicely.

 

If you have lighter colored cabinets, a filled Travertine might look nice. We have this in our Master Bath, and I love it with the maple finish of the cabinets.

 

I'm in love with granite, fer real. When we were building our house, we had the pleasure of working with a granite guy who really enjoyed talking about granite and offered advice on picking out granites that were not so common. I have fossil granite in my school room (with real fossils in it -- I think this would look cool on a bar as well; indeed, one day the school room may become a party room), and then the kids' bath has Blue Pearl, which has blue flecks in it, although it is hard to see in the photo. We selected some of these other granites from his "scrap" pile, leftovers from other projects, so we were able to get a good discount and have some extra variety in our house.

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Here's just some of what we have right now and my comments:

 

Kitchen has bordeaux granite - will streak with water. We use clorox or similar wipes on it.

 

Two bathrooms have giallo fantasia granite. I love the plum and sage colors in this one. This one doesn't get water stains, but we use clorox wipes anyway.

 

Another indoor kitchen and the outdoor kitchen and the laundry room has a black quartz with flecks of shiny metal. I love the look of this! All of these rooms have white cabinets. What I like about this the most, is the versatility of the rooms. Just by putting in different accent colors can totally transform the rooms with no need for major redecorating. Quartz will probably leave more water marks, but again cleans very easily with a wipe and doesn't leave streaks.

 

Floors in one kitchen and entrance are marble, black and white swirl. Also we have 2 bathrooms in a light cream marble with lighter plum swirls. This bathroom was built in the sixties. This is by far my favorite stone ever. Even though these bathrooms have not been updated, they are still gorgeous. The granite looks brand new. My only complaint is that the tile, countertop, floor, and tub are all done with the same granite. I guess that was the style back then. No water marks, just clean up with spray, suds, or wipes.

 

By the way, the above is two houses, not a great big house with 3 kitchens. :lol:

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We got Uba Tuba which we love! We were concerned at first because it always looks so green in the sample images: http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/yhst-27884468656269_2210_94233277, however our slab (always make sure you can see your slab!) is absolutely gorgeous.

 

We almost went with black pearl, but it was so black (the slab really didn't look like it had any color variation at all) - and then DH found concerns about radon and granite which we just didn't want to take a chance with. He studied some more and saw that the Uba Tuba has been tested and doesn't emit (any? as much? can't remember) radon as the other types.

 

We LOVE this color. You don't really see any green unless the sunlight shines on it just right and then it is a beautiful forest green.

 

Another plus, is that this was one of the least expensive colors...I guess because there is so much supply of it.

 

The only thing we noticed as far as cleaning is that you do have to bend down and see the countertop from eye-level to see any dirt. This can be a problem when your 11yo son is the one responsible for cleaning the kitchen each morning. But I really do love it!

 

Blessings,

Angela

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Edited by A.J. at J.A.
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We have http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT7gS7dskJ27pDwcwc_ho-lyRmE321eHeosnrWWI4S-l4QSkUellg

this. Baltic Brown is the color. I just spray and wipe with Windex with vinegar and it is amazing. We also put it down in the basement at the bar and at the stool seating between the FR and kitchen. It greatly increases the worth of your kitchen and is one of the few things you can get your money back on when you sell. So worth the investment and it is great during heavy baking times to be able to just put pans right on the counter anywhere!

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We had Uba Tuba in our last house and loved it, now we have a lighter granite (don't know the name, it came with the house.) Kind of a tan/gold with some darker flecks. It's nice, too, and hides gunk like nothing else. I actually have to feel with my hands after I clean the granite to make sure I haven't missed anything.

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We got Uba Tuba which we love! We were concerned at first because it always looks so green in the sample images: http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/yhst-27884468656269_2210_94233277, however our slab (always make sure you can see your slab!) is absolutely gorgeous.

 

We almost went with black pearl, but it was so black (the slab really didn't look like it had any color variation at all) - and then DH found concerns about radon and granite which we just didn't want to take a chance with. He studied some more and saw that the Uba Tuba has been tested and doesn't emit (any? as much? can't remember) radon as the other types.

 

We LOVE this color. You don't really see any green unless the sunlight shines on it just right and then it is a beautiful forest green.

 

Another plus, is that this was one of the least expensive colors...I guess because there is so much supply of it.

 

The only thing we noticed as far as cleaning is that you do have to bend down and see the countertop from eye-level to see any dirt. This can be a problem when your 11yo son is the one responsible for cleaning the kitchen each morning. But I really do love it!

 

Blessings,

Angela

 

 

That's what my parents have, and it IS gorgeous. They did a copper backsplash, too and it looks amazing.

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Thanks for all the suggestions. They are great.

 

Ubatooba is what we have in our kitchen. It is beautiful, but I think it is too cleaning-intensive. :tongue_smilie:

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I'm looking for ideas for the bar in our basement that we are finishing. We have granite in the kitchen and marble in our bathroom. My only complaint about our kitchen granite is that it is dark and constantly needs full-scale cleaning. IOW, I can't just wipe it off or it will look smeary. I want one that is lighter for the downstairs because of this.

We have Juparana Gold. I really like it, I only wipe it down with a soapy dishcloth and it is never streaky. I use a granite polish on it *maybe* once a month.

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