I think your choice of either granite makes sense. The cararra marble does not have any brown in it. It is white with gray tones. THe Kashmir white does have browns in it and a subtle parrten. Your Ivory brown will also work.

It you like the look of cararra you should look at French Vanilla marble. It is like cararra but has brown tones rather than gray ones.

Ask your granite dealer about honing the granite. Honing provides a warmer look than the polished stone and might provide you with a look that better ties your upper and lower cabinets together.

Thanks for the reply, John. I'd asked about honing, after reading other references saying pretty much the same thing you did, but given the porosity of the whiter granites I'm looking at, he strongly recommended against honing. In fact, when I told the granite guy that the ivory brown would 'stain' more naturally with grape jelly, strawberry juice and red wine (mine, not the kids'!) than the Kashmir he just looked at me as if to say, "Why would you WANT it to stain?" No sense of humor.

Truthfully, I much prefer the look of marble, but not the pain and suffering dealt by my three teens...

Hi I have kashmir white on my counters and on the floors , I love it ,would not have it any other way, the only bad thing about it that you do not see the dirt ,
The floors can get dirty and I do not see it LOL .
I do not know the difference between the granit that you have in the US , Im in europe and have granit from Italy and I spilled red wine on the counter and it did not stain at all.
just my 2cents
Ice

I was looking at granites recently and saw one that looked very much like Carrarra marble--the white with gray veining. I'm sorry I don't recall the name, though. someone here may know...

The overall plan sounds great. Of course, anything with the name 'chocolate cherry' in it can't help but sound yummy. I happen to love KW, but haven't seen Ivory Brown. It seems like you might need to choose a creamy backsplash and maybe creamier paint to go with it if the background is cream instead of white? Can you take a white subway sample (and something painted Dove White) in to where you saw the display of the Ivory Brown?

I have the Kashmir white on my island and I love it - it does have very cool undertones - I agree with ice1 though - can't see the dirt!!

Doesn't your inspiration kitchen have Calcutta gold marble, not Carrara? I think the text talked about specifically wanting the warm gold tones in the Calcutta Gold.....

to that end, I'm not sure Kashmir White is what you would want. I had it in my last kitchen (honed) and considered it seriously for this new one. It is definitely more on the cold side, although some slabs tend more towards a greeny-grey and some do have a touch more warmth if they have more of the cream swaths. Some slabs, also, have more movement, with large, milky-way-like waves through them.... so if that's important to you i would definitely go pick out your slab.

As far as dirt and upkeep on the honed Kashmir White, ours was a breeze. I sealed it like once a year (way less than recommended) and because of the patterning, nothing ever showed. We set oily, stain-y things on it all the time to no ill effect.

I don't know what Ivory Brown looks like, so I can't comment on that.

FWIW, I was after the greyer look of Carrara, myself, in the new kitchen, and I thought I would use Kashmir White. But then I decided to use what I really wanted: Carrara! (It is actually less expensive)

I'll double check but I dont think its carrara in your inspiration kitchen---

Stacy, where did you find Carrara less expensive than Kashmir white? Wow. I'm getting a quote of $46 (sale price through 5/31) on the KW, installed, vs. $59 for ivory brown (not on sale) and didn't even venture to the marble display because he acknowledged it would be pricier (read: out of my budget so don't even wanna look.)

He's also trying to help me find some remnant pieces that'll work, as I've a small kitchen and only need a 72" LF and two 15" LF pieces. He's pretty sure that he can come up with something, to keep my price down, if I have a little time to wait. He knows I'm all about 'movement' so I'm hoping and waiting to see what pops up first, and maybe take that as a sign which way I should go!

Also, for those of you with KW, what other colors (wall? accent? backsplash?) did you use?

I'm in Maine, but also got pricing from a place in Massachusetts (Gerrity in Woburn, who've been really wonderful to deal with).

For 30 sf, the carrara came in about $700 less than Kashmir White. BUT I should say I was getting HONED kashmir white, so there was a hefty labor charge for removing the polish. I think regular polished KW would have been about the same as my carrara (which will be $68.sf installed.)

I, too, was really surprised that the marble was affordable. I just assumed it was way out of my price range!! Actually I think it was here on GW that I read someone saying it was cheaper than the granites they looked at, so I decided to check it out. I am SO glad I did, since its what I really wanted :) Of course a lot of the marbles are a whole lot more.... but carrara is relatively affordable around here, especially if you are considering the mid-high range granites anyway.

Hope this helps, and good luck. I know how agonizing the decision can be!