I've got honed Carrara marble on my sink wall and will probably be putting it on my island too. My first choice had been Calacatta but it was too $$$, and I'm very happy with the Carrara, which was very reasonably priced. I sealed it well with Miracle 511 Impregnator from Home Depot. I've dripped tomato sauce, grape juice, soy sauce and a bunch of other stuff. No stains. Etching yes, but no stains.

Serve a buffet, drinks and appetizers? Yes, exactly how I plan to use my island.

Afraid to toss a salad? Not at all. I have some etch marks -- I think from lemon and vinegar -- but they're not noticeable.

Draining dishes: Yes! I had runnels cut in next to my sink and I use them every day for draining dishes, with no dish rack. I did bang a heavy pot on the marble the other day and it left a "bruise" ... looks like a little white spot.

Around the cooktop? No, I wanted a surface on which I could directly place hot pans and baking sheets, so I went with stainless steel. LOVE it!

I do find myself babying the marble, but I'm guessing that will pass. One thing I never learned from obsessively reading threads on this forum about marble is that it will scratch pretty easily. I put felt pads on the bottoms of my canisters and rice cooker.

Good luck with your decision!

Erika

I agree with Erika. I have Cararra that has been sealed. No problems with stains at all.

I have to admit that for dangerous activities like tossing salad, I work on the perimeter where our soapstone is.

I have honed calacatta marble on my countertops and wood on my island. This is what I'm comfortable with: placing wet dishes on it, yes. preparing meals(although I always use a cutting board for chopping) yes. Even when something drips or spills it seems to come off as soon as I wipe it up. I wouldn't put something extremely hot on it so when I take something out of the oven it either goes on my stove temporarily or onto a trivet. My counters have been sealed, which I think is what makes the difference. Also, the calacatta has different tones in it with an irregular pattern so you don't really notice if something leaves a little mark. So far, and it's pretty early, I haven't seen any etch marks. All in all, I'm really happy with it and wouldn't hesitate to do it again. Now, the pine floors...that's another story.....

We have a very large calcatta gold island, about 70 s.f. Everything you asked about, we do. Plus we do have it beside the range. Ours is honed and sealed.

My experience is that we have had no staining in about 6 months of heavy use so far. No scratching either. I don't think we "baby" it, but we are reasonably careful about not dragging things, wiping up, etc.

However, as I realized within days of getting it installed and obsessing about etching, it etches regularly. We have all kinds of etched blobs, circles, streaks, etc. Etching is only visible if you bend down and look at them at just the right angle with the lighting, but if you do, they are easily seen. I still take some basic measures (i.e. squeezing lemons over a cutting board) but my kids rarely do. There is no way I'm going to obsess over this. Once you go through a few weeks and realize that you can't conceivably avoid etching, then you relax and accept that as part of marble's personality. If you don't get any etching, it is either because you're not looking for it correctly, or you never cook on your countertops.

Etching notwithstanding, I love the marble and would never have considered other alternatives.

I love "dangerous activities like tossing a salad"! Thanks to all of you for your explanations of how you use your marble- I am really careful and will sweat the small stuff for a while at least. Then, I hope, I'll relax and let it all go and just enjoy. I do love that Calacutta has a lot of taupey tones that will probably hide a multitude of sins. My other favorite look is honed black, and I've heard almost as many warnings about high maintenance issues with it as with marble! Why can't I like anything cheap or low maintenance???

On my island I have honed calacatta with a variety of tones in caramel, black, white, and grey. The honing and color tones hide a multitude of sins. Sealed with porous plus 5ll. I don't use overtly acidic items on the island - like vinegar, lemons etc. We always use place mats when eating. I place hot items on a trivet and cut on a cutting board. No scratches evident. I'm not sure how you would scratch it with normal food prep use.No stains - multiple etch marks. I can't figure out where all the etch rings have come from unless our water etches... Here is a story that I posted on another thread: my daughter had a little friend over and she indicated that the friend should not place her drink on the marble for fear it would etch. The little friend asked," what's etching?" My daughter replied, " I don't really know; it's something only my mom can see if she turns her head sideways and gets real close to the marble." So there you go...only moms can see it!

I seem to have a sixth sense about marble questions on this forum ....

We've honed Calacatta as our perimeter countertops and backsplash -- that's how confident I was with them. We've had them nearly a year and they've been used literally every single day since then: the one holiday was just me taking our children -- my husband stayed homed and deep-fried his favorite (and one I find disgusting) dish. For whatever reason he absolutely refuses to clean up after himself, rather, he refuses to wipe down the counters / backsplash, which meant the grease splatters sat for days until I came home to wipe them up. Grr, but no stains!

Seriously, not a single stain. As I learned from the marble gurus here who came before me (mnhockeymom and momto4kids) I sealed with Miracle 511 and so far, knock marble, so good! The only issue I've had was when a rusty strand of steel wool was caught in a sponge and I used it to wipe -- the countertop sucked that rust right up and looked as if I'd used really bad self-tanner. I used Iron Out and literally as I applied it the stain was removed. I resealed immediately after: the whole process, from stain to running out to purchase the Iron Out, coming home to use it, reseal, was maybe forty-five minutes.

A splotch of tomato sauce sat overnight on the countertop next to the cooktop; after I scraped it up the next day there was a v. faint stain. I wasn't in the mood to use the poultice right then and knew I'd get to it later, like nap time. (as if) But when I did come back to it the spot was gone, all on its own.

I'm sure we must have etch marks but for the life of me, bending this way and that in various lights I cannot see them, and I'm really looking.

I think our marble, in particular the (slab) backsplash, is really the visual highlight of our kitchen (and our kitchen is a lovely thing). (oh, and I think a slab backsplash is heaven! such a breeze to clean one solid surface -- no grout lines) However, I still have reservations about it but only because it was so hideously expensive: it was more than twice what the fabricator and I had budgeted for marble countertop. Gulp. Others above are right: if you can live with it (and I couldn't), the Carrara is extremely affordable! I wish I weren't so particular that I had to have the no-gold / big grey swirls (as opposed to the road map Carrara), but for me, rather than settle I'd have had plywood if I couldn't have what I wanted. It would have really ticked me of to spend $X and get something (the Carrara) which reminded me on a daily basis I didn't see my vision through. But that's me and that was my priority.

So instead I have a beautiful countertop / backsplash which reminds me on a daily basis that I spent way too much! Can't win.

The marble was the last thing I found for our kitchen, and I found it as the cabinets were being installed. (My patient then-one year-old visited every stone yard with me for months, searching and searching for that marble needle in the slab hay stack.) If I knew then what I know now (I know, a stupid and dangerous thought to entertain), I would've done a much less expensive cabinet but still splurged on the marble. (I think our cabs were expensive, but maybe that's just my budget.) Someone else (whose id I've forgotten) wrote in a different post not too long ago that for many kitchens it is not the cabinets which are the star: it's the countertop / backsplash, sometimes hardware and sometimes showy appliances, but rarely the cabinets themselves. I think they're right, or at least when I think of my kitchen I think they're right. My cabinet door / drawer style is lovely -- the cabinetmaker and I spent a lot of time designing it together. But to be redundant, if I had to do it again I would've done a less expensive cabinet (like IKEA with custom doors) but still splurged on the marble.

So that's my sole regret about the Calacatta, and it's a bit half-assed. I've a nearly three year-old and a four year-old: I am basically a short-order cook. I spend what feels like all day every day in the kitchen, using it. My husband loves to cook and cooks elaborately, and he does that frequently. (and frequently doesn't clean up ...) Our kitchen is used and the marble is the only material in our kitchen which is not the worse for wear. The only one. (The butcherblock, which we use as a butcherblock, not a decorative countertop, shows its wear; the painted cabinets show both dirt and some wear; the stainless sink is scratched [but I kinda like it!] and our lower wall oven is covered with my youngest's hand / face prints. I still wouldn't change a thing, however!) It's also been my experience the marble requires the least maintenance; the butcherblock I "butter" every month and the cabinets I (should) wipe every week, but the marble only requires sealing every six months or so and the occasional spot-check (like my rust).

I just wanted to be completely honest about my experience, loves and regrets with our marble.

Good luck!

thanks for the details, rm--you were one of the posters who pushed us over the top in deciding to do the calcatta countertop and we couldn't be happier.

Over the weekend, we hosted a charity dinner featuring the owner, exec chef and two other chefs from a highly regarded local restaurant, Woodfire Grill, cooking in our newly renovated kitchen. Our kitchen got lots of comments from the pro chefs, but clearly the two things that impressed these cynical full-time food guys the most were the Lacanche range and the marble countertop. Made all the anxiety worthwhile!

Thanks so much for your experiences/regrets in detail, rm. I've read your responses to the other posters like me who are struggling with the marble decision and it's most helpful to hear about young families living with it. We bit the bullet and bought our slabs yesterday, so there is no going back! Ours is not a full kitchen remodel (we are keeping and painting the old cabs), so what you wrote about the cabs not being the star of the kitchen actually helped us a lot.