Choosing Granite Countertops - Lessons Learned

We made a terrible mistake, the first time we installed granite countertops.  It was about 15 years ago and we were doing a major renovation of a big kitchen.  We looked at all the little samples at the kitchen design place and placed our order.  We were so excited, it was black and shiny and we thought it would look marvelous!

Six weeks later, they came to install the countertops and we found out that the lovely little sample we saw had very little resemblance to the granite that they put in our kitchen.  We had planned a beautiful cream and sage green color scheme and thought that black/brown granite we picked would be perfect.  Instead, we got black and teal green flecks - that looked terrible!

Lesson Learned - ALWAYS go to the granite fabricator to pick out the slab of granite that your countertop will be made from.  Since then, we've done many countertops and this has made a huge difference in the overall look of the kitchen.  Granite is a natural product and can have a lot of variation - swirls, color flecks and shade variation that might be dramatically different than what you hoped for.

Kashmir White Granite

So last week we did a little field trip and went to pick out our slab.  It was a huge warehouse in Massachusetts and they helped us pick through all the choices for our Kashmir White Granite.  We settled on this one with a tight knit grain.  Can't wait to see it installed!

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