I don't have your exact stone, but I do have Blue Pearl Labrador (it has a grey background with some black along with the blue irridescence--I think the labrador antique has brown). I have a lot of blue in mine, and during the daytime in ambient light the blue doesn't show nearly as much, but when we put on the lights at nighttime in the kitchen the blue comes out and dances across the countertop as you walk thru the room as it catches the light. It's really stunning. The two other things I can share is that it doesn't photograph well--at least mine doesn't--and my KD cautioned us that we'd better love blue and be able to live with it for a long time if we chose this stone. Fortunately for us, we do love blue and living near the beach, it's woven throughout the color scheme of our house.

I have been living with my kashmir white counters for about 7 months now. We did seal them using a sealer I think dh bough from Home depot. I can't remember the name of it but we are not really happy with the result. When the counters get wet the granite darkens but once they dry the water stain goes away. We have been meaning to buy the porous plus 511 sealer hoping it solves this issue. Now while I am pretty careful in wiping up stains immediately dh is not. So he will leave coffee drips, tomato sauce splashes, etc on the counters sometimes all day and they always wipe up, with no stains, (so far). Like mydreamhome mentioned all the light granites can stain, but I think if you invest in a good sealer you should be ok.

Hi pames, Did you take a sample home? It might help you to get samples of your top choices for granite. Then do the scratch and stain tests: scratch with a key; let spots of red wine, soy sauce, olive oil, lemon juice etc. sit on it over night. Even bang it with a pot. How does it look? Any stains, scratches or etches? The 'abuse tests' I used helped me pick. (I loved the look of honed granite, but went with polished because the honed sample scratched and stained.)

mercymygft - the cabinets are InnerMost from HD in Brandywine, reminds me of cordovan, as in shoes susanjf - check out the link to see what's in our over-stove cabinet! Everyone - we bought the granite (3 cm only) from Rock-It in San Marcos, CA, and they also fabricate it. They have a great video on their website on how they do it (rockyourhome dot com). [Although Steve in the video has the same hairdo as Richard the fabricator seen in our album, they're really two different people.] Couldn't be more pleased about the whole process. Here is a link that might be useful: What's in the cab over the stove