Does it have to be a natural stone? Consider the options in Caesarstone or Silestone. There are a lot of nice grays and blacks.

Hmm... I am not really familiar with specific granites. I just took a look at some granite sites and based on my color monitor's colors... I would look at granites in the ranges of beige, yellow, gold, and green. Many of them have your kitchen's colors as secondary colors to help make them work together.

You might want to try online researching and then going in person to look for samples from your possible list. But I believe you will need to see it in person before you will be comfortable with your decision.

Happy Looking!

Thanks gals, I do like some of the Cambria colors like Southampton and Sheffied but think they are as expensive as upper end granite? The problem IÂm having is that I can not seem to find any granite that is in a med to dark grey tone with a little butter cream in it either online or in person. Somehow the cinnamon and cream colors work for the backsplash tying it all in but in granites that have any terracotta, rusts, dark peach and suchÂwell it just doesnÂt work and makes the cream yellow cabs look ugly. I guess I will need either a plain-ish med to dark grey top or perhaps med to dark grey with butter cream.
I donÂt know though about the Cambria, IÂm not feeling overly inpired, maybe if it was honed or leatheredÂdonÂt know.

Granite-wise, we just bought something called "Imperial White". It's very fine-grained and has a sort of diagonal grain. We had a lot of colors going on in the kitchen (cream upper cabs.,med gray lower cabs,provence yellow stove, hand painted tiles, blue island). The granite is overall light gray speckled, with some slightly warm tones. It was the only granite that worked with all the colors. As granites go, it is not on the high end. It's neutral, which for us is good. It comes from India. I have been told that different stone yards have different names for granite, so the name might not help.

Thank you annierocks! I will look it up now. And, your kitchen sounds wonderful, hope you are in the FKB so I can have a looky.

I think I've figured out that the red tile is your floor? And the gray stone is a SS? If so, I'm a little confused... you said those were things you've ordered. Are you using SS somewhere, or is that just what you would use if you could? It's beautiful; I love any SS but didn't use it for the same reason.

I have heard here that leathered engineered quartz is difficult to maintain. Leathered granite, OTOH...

For a long time I really thought we'd be going with quartz, but once I started looking at some of the granites, I knew that's what would work best for us. By that time I had also decided that I didn't like the polished look and wanted honed or leathered or whatever. We ended up with Impala Black leathered, which was about the same as the quote we got for Hanstone. Silestone was more, and Cambria probably would have been even more.

It doesn't have any cream, just dark gray overall effect, probably in the same color family as a gray SS or JM, though I never saw that in person. If you take away the cream color of your 1st Cambria pic, that's about what you would have. It has been mistaken for SS in a photo.

Overall it has been a breeze to keep looking nice (about two months). We did crack it this weekend by running the crock pot directly on it (fabricator didn't give us any hints about what to do and not to do, but they will fix it and bring us some trivets to put the crock pot on in the future). Otherwise, it seems pretty hardy, and definitely does not show stains from those things you listed.

Not sure if that helps or if you are looking for suggestions of stones with some cream along with gray, but from what you said, it might fit.

Would you consider a darker brown granite with more interest to it? I have Chocolate Bordeaux and from the samples you've posted it seems it would be a lovely complement.

This would be a complete departure from something like soapstone, but might be worth a peek.

Sorry I don't have a picture for you, I can't seem to figure out how to post a photo. I have however googled Chocolate Bordeaux and come up with photos in the past. Good luck!

Thanks all I will have a look! IsnÂt it odd how there is always something taking the place of another hard to find item when you are planning your kitchen? Another example, I have read many posts where people have a hard time of it finding the right white-ish granite or marble for their kitchen, you wouldnÂt believe all the beautiful white I have come acrossÂtoo bad thatÂs not on my list.

Jsweenie, sorry IÂm not good at explaining myself most of the time. The above collage is part inspiration, part already here and part on order. My cabs will be here on the 14th, already have a sort of look of the flooring in picture but its a little more muted. I already have the hanging light and tiles are on their way. IÂm not buying the chairs until countertop is picked. If counter is a med tone IÂm getting the black chairs, if counter is dark IÂm getting the lighter chairs and staining the center backrest the color of the Cherry base cab stain and the under counter wall color will be painter butter cream. I really want a counter that looks a bit organic non-shiny in grey with just a little movement in butter creamÂbut I will look at all suggestions because you never know.
The ideal would be soapstone but then momma would have to nix vacation and I havenÂt had a vacation in a long while.