I have a very busy granite in my kids' bathroom and it hides stuff very well!

I pick your Copper Canyon. Beautiful!

I pick desert dream. (I'm a sucker for the exotics:))

Hi marbles..

Oh yay..another vote for desert dream..

I wouldn't worry about any granite being too delicate. Once it's down, it's pretty tough. And sealing is a breeze.

KA:)

My first choice is copper canyon. Second is desert dream. I think both would would wonderful with midtone cabs.

They are all beautiful, but my choice woud be the copper canyon. Of course, it's much easier to choose for someone else!

I like desert dream. The cabinet finishes you're looking at tend toward orange so you might want the black contrast. Copper canyon is nice if you want a more monochromatic look.

I have cosmic black which looks similar to desert dream and hides everything.

Desert Dream. I echo the thought that you might want the contrast. My cabinets just came in (fairly light wood) and I'm hoping that I have enough contrast in my counter to balance the room full of light wood.

Thanks guys! Those are the two that I don't have prices on, the retail store had me go to their distributor (MSI) and look at the granite that they could get in 3 cm.

Do the busy patterns get old after a while? I've never had granite, only tiny old kitchens with tile and those thick dark grout.

I loved Saturnia, but it looked SO fragile, like seaweed sheets. It had mesh netting on the side edges (in addition the mesh on the back):

Stay tuned, My Saturnia is being installed middle of March.

My fabricator assured me that they work with this all the time and it won't be a problem once installed.

The problem with this type of stone is it is soft and tends to crumble during fabrication if the wrong people are doing it.

I think thats one of the reasons its so expensive, as it is time consuming with quite a bit of hands on work. This type of stone is resined and meshed at the quarry and should have the sides netted and resined also for shipping purposes.

Saturnia is actually asterix, as is magma gold, Cosmus, cosmos, cosmos gold, Kosmus and pretty much any other stone with that sort of flow lines with lots of mica present.

On the sample piece I brought home from my slabs, I tried the lemon juice, water, wine etc stain tests, noting penetrated it, but I believe its because it was resined.

From my understanding all but the tightest grained granites are resined today.

This was a major investment for me at $145 a square foot, so it better come out right:). To be fair though it will cover two countertops that both have 4 45 degree angles so its not as easy as a straight cut or two.

The dream you have pictured will be priced right up there with the Saturnia, followed by the Columbo, and lastly the Canyon. My guesses anyway!

I'm liking this last choice. Good luck!

Pricepal - WOW! $145 a sq ft for the Saturnia, did that include fabrication/installation? Was that for 2 cm or 3 cm? You have great taste, it is stunning and I can't wait to see your pictures! The retail store had Komus 2 cm for $29 per sq ft (slab only, did not include fab/install charges), so I'm curious to see what they would charge for 3 cm Saturnia. What style edge did you pick?

Steff and MissMuffet - great point about the contrast!

I thought the Lemourian Blue was gorgeous, but the price tag was too high for me (over $100 per sq ft for 2 cm slab only, before fab/install)!

I am in California (bay area) and during our granite searches we only found 2 cm stone (except soapstone which was 3 cm). I am curious as to what granites you can find in 3 cm.

Your choices are all beautiful! Go with your gut :-)

I'm in the SF Bay Area, too. I saw very few choices in 3cm, but hey, since most people out here have 2 cm, it's obviously something you just work with and it's "normal".

They put a plywood subtop underneath (screwed into your cabinets) like this:

As far as the edge, they "match" the lower laminate part so that's it's barely noticeable. But they need to have a few inches extra next to the edge to do that.

Here's an example of a crescent edge. You can barely see where the lower part is attached (laminated):

Here is how our edge turned out. Most parts match beautifully. I don't have a better picture, but you get the idea.

So don't be afraid of 2 cm!

Marbles, They are all fantastic.
If you need a vote, my vote is Copper Canyon. But honestly
they are all beautiful and would look divine with a
honey, spiced maple of a cherry. You can't go wrong.
~boxer

Hi,
Yes that was fabricated and installed and included the $500 zero radius sink. I think the price was really high due to the shape of the countertops.

Oh, and that was 3cm 1/4 bevel edge. I really wanted a ogee, but with all the angles on these countertops I felt the bevel would look better.

I'm also in the Bay Area. Hello neighbors! :)

trailgirl - I'm not finding much 3 cm selection. I started at the Junction area, and now am going up to Hayward and San Carlos. What color are you looking for? I've seen Spring White, Bordeaux, Carnival, Lapidus Dark, Kashmir White, Persalito, Juparana, Mascarello, Nacarado, etc. Have you gone to All Architectural Stone? I found the biggest section of 3 cm there, mixed in with 2 cm slabs. Terico is supposed to carry 3 cm prefab granite, but I didn't look at it.

julie - Your granite is gorgeous, thanks for sharing the close up pictures of the edge. DH doesn't ask for much, but when he does have input on this project, it usually kills my budget. We like granite with a lot of swirly movement and

pricepal - your counter will be AMAZING!!! Thanks for sharing the details.

boxer - the pictures have you posted on all of the kitchen threads are so helpful! Thank you from all of the newbies and stalkers that read these posts!

Wow, the slab prices for Copper Canyon, Desert Dream and Saturnia are almost the same! Maybe the fabrication costs will vary a lot, but I'm surprised!

julie - sorry, I posted too soon. I'm fine with 2 cm, but DH really wants 3 cm. He doesn't ask for much, so when he does, I feel like I have to compromise.

We only looked at 3cm; the 2cm seemed too delicate although alot of beautiful colors came in the thinner version. We went with 3cm and it is absolutely solid; I'd go with your husbands recommendation of 3cm on this one. Of your photos, we both like the Desert Dream first and the Saturnia second. We don't like the Copper Canyon or Juperana Columbo at all; too much orange (will look even more orange under incandescent light). We too chose an exotic stone and absolutely LOVE it; would not change it at all; would gladly have paid double to get it (yes, we paid thru the nose for what we got!!) and it was well worth it; NO REGRETS. Every day we find a new section to look at or say to each other, 'Hey, did you see this gorgeous splotch of color here?!" or 'Hey, isn't this just BEAUTIFUL?!!' Ours too had mesh on the back. Our fabricator told us this is for preventing damage during shipping & fabrication; they left the mesh on the backside except where your fingers touch underneath on the exposed areas. Ours was dug up in Brazil, then sent to Italy for processing and finally came to the states; that's alot of moving around. We did not spend extra money on a fancy edge; rather, put all the money into the stone. Our stone is so beautiful it would have detracted from it so we just got a plain edge.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Cienza - I was worried about the orange tone, thanks for mentioning that. It is so hard to judge what it is going to look like on the counter. Your stone is amazing, what is it?

It's been over a year since I've been granite hunting, but I do remember seeing some 3cm at Intertile in San Leandro.

Also, Marble City in San Carlos has (all?) 3 cm. I think (but am not positive) that they have to do the fabrication. I have no personal experience with them, but probably worth checking out. I had my own fabricator (Tikal Tile in Redwood City--would highly recommend them), and didn't mind 2 cm, so didn't look at Marble City beyond a quick visit.

Wherever you go, try to get samples and bring them home to see them in your kitchen's light at different times of the day (and do the same when you're looking for backsplash tiles). You'd be amazed at how the colors look in different lights!

Good luck!

marbles, julie94062 is right about the light! Our fabricator let us bring home scrap chunks to set upon the cabinetry to see the color arbitration. It was a HUGE help in deciding. The chunks were the size of a dinner plate (and weighed about 20 lbs each), but enough to get the idea (and any bigger we'd have to crane them inside). The stone, Blue Luis, was one of our first three choices before looking at hundreds (or thousands?) and inspired all choices of wood, finish, hardware and fixtures. It is truly the heart of our home. A company called Da Vinci Marble in San Carlos CA (I have no idea how close that is to you, I'm on the mid-atlantic east coast) shows it on their products page. Also, James, at a company called Pietra Fina in Hayward Ca (again, no idea how close that is to you) helped identify it for us and gave us some background on it.