I am in the last phases of a remodel and am having trouble finding flooring that coordinates w/Silestone Giallo Quarry. It is a quartz product with browns, creams, gold and specks of black, but has a "greenwash" to it. If you put it up to certain colors it screams either green or brown. I have light ginger maple cabinets and the wall is currently a light yellow (Kelly-Moore Front), which I am considering changing. I don't know if I can afford real tile flooring (and it may be too ate to squeeze it in the schedule) and since I have real hardwood in my older home, I don't want to try to "match it" in the kitchen. I'd love to see how others handled this countertop in their kitchen with their paint and flooring choices. Thanks in advance!!

I too fell totally in love w/Pietra de Cardosa and spent months agonizing over the reality of installing it in my kitchen w/kids and lots of messy, stovetop cooking. LOOONNNGGGG story short, I had Silestone "Raven" installed and absolutely love it, not only for the awesome stone-like look, but for the fact that I know it is bullet-proof. I had a sample of sealed PdC that I put a few drops of lemon juice on and tipped it up so the juice would run down and left it for an hour or so. I could not get rid of that stain, and I couldn't get past the cleaning issues. I suggest you get a sealed sample from your stone place and test it for yourself (including dragging plates and pots over it - beat it up like it's in your kitchen already.) THAT said, I also have read many posts on GW that say it is good for others, so experience varies, possibly due to the quality of the sealer, cooking/cleaning styles, etc. Also, although I could have gotten a honed finish in the Silestone Raven, I didn't b/c the depth and the stone look was lost when it was honed, plus I had read that the honing of Silestone really makes it high maintenance, which is one of the key benefits of Silestone to begin with, so I went with the polished. I looked at my large sample of polished Raven next to a large sample of polished marble and noticed that the reflective shine of the marble was much shinier than the Silestone. You can see your face pretty clearly reflected in a polished marble or granite, while you can't in the Silestone. Good luck with your decision!

hmmm, a few months ago I got soapstone samples from M. Texeira and one of them was called pietra grigia....definitely not slate. They no longer seem to have it, but say one of their other stones is similar. I actually was leaning toward it because when I trial scraped, cut and otherwise abused all the samples I had, it was clearly the hardest and most resistant. I believe, as others have pointed out on this site, that stones are rarely, if ever, "pure". Instead they are various combinations of different minerals, with more or less talc, quartz, or other minerals. in them. That's why soapstones, for example, vary in hardness. I'm thinking Pietra Grigia is a a stone that "qualifies" as soapstone because of the amount of talc in it, but that it has somewhat less than other varieties (hence it's comparative hardness). Bottom line is that I liked it and thought it a good choice but do not, alas, have experience of it yet. I am puzzled by why they would call it slate...the sample I saw had none of the layered qualitiy typical of slate. Can I ask where you saw it available? And I'll be interested to know if others have used it.

Jeannette10, I am looking for the same visual effect as you are, and wondered if you were able to see a slab of the Cemento. I am also going crazy trying to find a dark gray quartz product that is not shiny and find it very difficult to visualize with the small samples my KD offers.