heehee, I like to be as helpful as I can but I'm not about to stain my marble so that you can see what it looks like! =) I wouldn't be able to make a stain anyway unless I first stripped my sealer off.

I seem to recall that rmkitchen was able to stain her marble by leaving a piece of rusty steel wool on it. She whipped together a poutice and it came out.

There are many people on the forum who have used carrara and calacatta. They're both equally suitable (or unsuitable, depending on your point of view) for kitchen countertops.

I'm linking you to a blog that I found where the guy took some samples of marble and tried everything he could think of to stain them. His results are interesting.

Here is a link that might be useful: Marble Staining Test

I haven't had a stain and I have had chocolate, red wine, tomato sauce, chili and other drips that didn't get caught -- even overnight. I live in a house full of guys, including 2 teens and we have a hectic schedule -- what can I say?

My experience is like your test -- it will etch, but I have yet to see a stain. My stone guy did tell me that he saw well used marble kitchens in Europe that had stains, but he said they still looked great -- of course, they were in a French chef's kitchen. LOL I'm sure his counters are a lot older and probably aren't sealed. .

Erikanh-

Thanks for the link, it's exactly the info I've been looking for! I swore I heard from someone that you can use bleach on white marble but the stoneyard people look at ya like you've got two heads and say "don't use bleach on marble". This persons grandmother was from Italy and did it all the time. Now I know I was right.

I also wanted to ask you about any seams you might have. I will have a seamless 8ft island but I also will have an 11 ft run of marble that will have to have a seam in it. I don't see how I can avoid this. I was thinking about using stainless around the stove but I will also have a seam where the steel and marble meet. Any thoughts? Do you have seams, Who did your stainless?

Lascatx-Do you have any seams in your marble and are they of any concern or take any extra care?
Your answers always make me laugh. Your house sounds a lot like mine.. .full of crazy boys! I'm so glad that your marble has held up well. I can only imagine what my house will be like when the boys are all grown up (DH included) :)

You mean DH is supposed to grow up? I think mine is regressing! LOL

I have one seam on the perimeter. The only concern I had was that they didn't cut the smaller piece the way I liked because they wanted to emphasize a vein that I wanted to minimize. It also emphasized the seam in a bad way. They did recut the smaller piece and worked to make the seam less apparent. It has been no problem at all since.

And don't get me wrong -- our kitchen doesn't have all those things on the counter all the time, but over nearly 2-1/2 years now you get a night where someone dripped something and it got missed or the kids make a chocolate cake when you aren't home or have gone to bed already. I don't worry about it anymore. Nothing has been a problem. And I was the one who spilled the lemon juice on it (wiped it up in less than 5 seconds, literally, and did not see any etching. Then something you didn't see does -- but it's all good and loved.