My experience with shopping for stone, especially if you want a stone with a lot of movement, is that you have to go to the stone yard and select an actual slab. Certain types of stone are fairly uniform, and you might be able to pick those from a sample, but most stone varies so much from lot to lot that you need to see them in person.

When I went to the stone yard, there were also some random small slabs that were a good price. At least where I was shopping, you had to buy a whole slab. You couldn't just buy the quantity you needed, so if you don't need a whole slab, you might end up spending more than you want to.

I was truly amazed by the beautiful stones I saw walking up and down the aisles. One more beautiful than the next.

Try www.graniteland.com (European based, better info but names don't always match with what's available in US) and granite stock (I think it's granitestock.com). As you may have gathered from my name, I'm obsessed with my azul macaubas granite and thus spent a lot of time searching for just the right stone.

I don't know what color you're looking for, but here are some suggestions: Blue Louis/Luisa/Louise aka Van Gogh (wild artsy turquoise with heavy brownish swirls); Red Dragon (the reddest granite I've ever seen); igloochic's pegmatite granite on this forum (looks kind of like fossilized eggs sliced thin); blue bahia (blue with black -- there's a gorgeous example in the fkb), and of course my personal favorite, azul macaubas (like the sky on a summer day with wisps of white clouds).

Most of the pricey granites are in the range of $70-120/sf, wholesale, material only, without fabrication (another $30-50/sf or more). Blues are more expensive than other colors. Lapis and sodalite (semi-precious gemstones being used for kitchen countertops) are $200/sf. To compare, the least expensive granites are $10/sf material only ($56/sf fabricated at HD). YMMV.

Also, if you will limit the use to a powder bathroom and other low-traffic areas, you can choose onyx and marble. My local high end place had a gorgeous onyx with a fossilized nautilus shell embedded in it.

HTH, and look for pix next week!

this site's a good one:

Here is a link that might be useful: website

I got a piece of small piece of granite at well below standard pricing because I got it at the boneyard. If I understand correctly, these are the leftovers after people template their whole slabs. If you aren't too picky you could save yourself a lot of $$$, esp. for the exotic ones. The way the boneyard I went to worked, everything in the boneyard was $65 / sq ft installed price. So if you picked a run of the mill granite, not much savings at all, but if you found an exotic one that usually runs higher per foot, you'd save a bunch.

Ask your fabricator, or maybe call around to different fabricators, because there is no telling what you'll find from yard to yard.

Anita

A good site is marble.com They have all kinds of stone and good pictures.