Yes, it’s loud. I’m not saying you shouldn’t love it or that it’s hard to clean, and I, too, get many compliments. Want to know what it sounds like? Take a small plate to a showroom that has a piece and slide it across. We have the leather at our lake house and polished at home, and I like both, the leather because it’s unique, the shiny because it’s so beautiful in my newly remodeled kitchen. My mother-in-law, who is 94, comes to the lake with us and slides EVERYTHING across the leathered granite surface, and by the end of the day my nerves are frazzle.d. Just know what you’re buying and be okay with it. Both are wonderful choices, as far as I’m concerned.

Your fabricators are sadly mistaken - a bullnose CAN be done with a matched leather or textured edge, There are diamond brushes that are available that can be used to apply a matching texture to the stone once it is shaped into the 180 degree return that is known to most people as a "Full Bullnose" edge detail. They can get the brushes that are made by Tenax through Braxton Bragg, GanQuartz or Defusco Supply - and are readily available. this is something I teach at my school - and if I can do it and teach it - it CAN be DONE.... hth kevin

Thanks for the thread, Senator. Interesting pictures, though the "leathered" counters look same as honed in the pictures. Guess as some said, you have to see it in person. Babs, yes, there would probably be minimal eating at the island, we tend to sit at the table for family meals and serve buffet style, so food is plated before sitting down, and the island would only be used occasionally--probably mostly for guests having a beverage and sitting and chatting with me while I work in the kitchen. I've become a "compulsive placemat user" with my polished Antique Brown in the other kitchen's similarly used island, so feel well-trained to minimize accidents with the marble. For whatever occurs, I am prepared to embrace, and I think any etches will be minimally noticeable, given the honed surface, and the lighting situation in the room. Worst-case, I think a freestanding island would be relatively easy to refinish, though I think I would just let it patina naturally. I should have mentioned that the island with marble will be a secondary island, and the main work area of the kitchen will have a small island with the same countertop as the perimeter. In thinking about how my family uses our kitchen, I think the most potential for etching would be with food prep rather than the occasional eating at the secondary island. I see your logic though, for a kitchen where the island is frequently used for dining, there would be just as much risk of etching as on the other countertops.

Thanks for the encouragement. I've now gone from dreaming about counter tops to losing sleep. Last night I tossed and turned. I'm just about ready to cry from all of this. Who knew it could be so stressful to pick one island and a countertop. I must just want a kitchen I don't have. The KD of this fancy place said that my surrounding cabinets wouldn't do a honed dark granite justice. That I couldn't pull it off. I know what she means - I really don't like my cabinets at all. But they are decent 42" birch interior, maple stained cabinets made well by a local Amish man. And given the how expensive it would be to do all new everything, we really can't replace everything. So I thought/hoped that by rearranging the kitchen (the cooktop used to be on the island) and by making a really beautiful piece of cabinetry for the island, we could pull off a nicer look and more closely approximate the kitchens I love. The KD's thought was to paint the island white - Linen White by BM and then use a chocolate truffle Caesarstone on everything. I don't mind the white island, because I would love a white kitchen. But the surface of the quartz is what I don't really like. It is a great color, just too speckled looking for my taste. I asked her about using marble and honed granite, etc. and she was pretty positive it wouldn't look good. Mind you, what I have been thinking about for days and days and for hours, took her about 10 seconds to decide. If I trust her - and her kitchen store is the nicest I have ever seen - then I should seriously consider the white island and finding one color counter top. Staceyneil - I absolutely think you hit the nail on the head with the door fronts being the wrong style for the honed look. My husband actually built our last kitchen cabinets, so he is more than capable of building new fronts. I guess it is a matter of the time. We are putting in all new floors ourselves and just moved in a few months ago. But if and when we had the energy, that would make all the difference in the world and certainly would be more cost effective. The cabinet you described is exactly the look we had in our last house. It was natural cherry cabinets with a very simple shaker type door and flat drawer fronts, all full overlay. I miss our house back in NY so much (and my whole family for that matter) but we had to move to PA for a job... And so here we are, and here I am thinking/agonizing about counter tops and spending way too much time on GW! :)