I looked at Carrara and there was a HUGE difference in the slabs I saw!

Someone else will hopefully correct me if I am wrong, since I am by NO means an expert, but I gathered that the highest grade, "Cleanest", and most expensive slabs of Carrara are the whitest with the least spots and veins. I saw one with quite warm-colored spots. I also saw a lot with grey spots, almost leopard-spotty! And I saw some with a much greyer background, too, which I gathered was less desireable (??? This from a salesman who may just have been a stone snob, or, was trying to sell me something more expensive???)

The one I chose is probably not the highest grade, cleanest, whatever, but I really loved the movement and the veins. I preferred the veins to spots. Really, I think you just have to look at slabs and see what moves you!! Natural stone has so many variations and each piece is so unique.

Here's my Carrara:

This will be fun to see everyone's photos!!!

Hi there,

Just perusing the board today...we finished our kitchen about a year ago and we have Calacatta Classic Marble. We selected it for it's very white background and grey/black veining. We have some very fine areas that are caramel or greenish, but they are definitely limited and we selected around them during templating.

We definitely wanted the white background and the Carrara was too grey for the look we were going for - although there are some very beautiful Carrara's, they just need to go in the right kitchen design. Of course, it turns out we picked about the most expensive marble they had - the material was 5X that of the Carrara and it was hard to justify. However, we are happy every day that we did it.

Good Luck!

all the marble is gorgeous but mindimoo, I know I've said this before, but that slab is beyond spectacular. If I could find a slab(s) that beautiful; I'd do all the countertops in them.

Went to another place to view marble. I found a slab of calacatta or calcutta that really appealed to me. I really think I could go with this marble and it looked great with the white I had chosen for the cabinets. I will just have to see if it is in my budget. I saw a variety this time and you are right...it is just finding the one that fits the kitchen.
I feel like this is a leap of faith with marble, but I am so drawn to it ...so I am crossing my fingers on the price of this one I saw today!
Thank you for the information sharing, pictures and for the marble link...beautiful!!!!! I am sure that I would not have ever considered marble if I had not found the garden web...it is empowering!

Here is a picture of my Carrera. We loved the Calcutta but decided the greys in the carrera would look better in our kitchen. We also thought the veining in the Calcutta may be too extreme in our kitchen.

Good Luck!

We have Calacutta Gold marble in our bathroom and went to the warehouse ourselves to select the lot from which our tile was cut. There were tile lots with faint gray shadows; lots with diagonal gray lines like lighting bolts; lots with gray blots that looked like amoebas; and every variation of gold (veins, blots, yellowish cast) and green (veins and blots) that you could imagine. You'll definitely want to handpick your look. Our tile place had two grades, A (clearer, light coloring) and B (more coloring) but there was tons of variance within those categories.

We love blotchy gray with gold/rusty veins and no green and that's what we picked out.

I love mindimoo's slab, but I wanted a quieter look for our kitchen. I got white venetino which is in between the other two. The background is not as grey as Carrera but it is not as white as most of the Calcutta. It's somewhat similar to sfcitydweller's, but it has what I refer to as ink squiggles (very fine and small dark lines) and fine spots my fabricator called pencil dots. The "ink squiggles" are what sold me on the slab -- the overall impact reminded me of sketches on aged paper. They reminded me of Leonardo DaVinci and I was hooked. Mine also had some brown that I liked but it didn't work into the more prominent areas.

Lascatx-
Love the ink squiggles comment! We made a very similar comment when we were picking out our slab. I would have preferred some ink squiggles, but our slab was an 'orphan' and ended up being $6/sq ft so that took precedence over the ink squiggles! Do you have any photos of your "squiggles'?

Thanks again for the pictures and comments about choosing your marble. The slab I saw yesterday at one place is about 3x more $ than what the quote for granite would be....It was a beautiful slab...but that one will not be in my kitchen. I can not justify it when I know that my DH and I plan to move one day.
The fabricator told me of another place to check, saying the difference in price between the two places is usually quite large. I will go with an open mind...

I don't. I went to look and the photo isn't there any more. You got a great price. My slab was also an orphan, but they said as long as it was a whole slab, it was the same price. I think mine was about double yours -- about $11-13. I thought that was a pretty good price.

It's funny what grabs you about a piece of stone. I looked at so many that were ok or that I would like better if only -- and then this one said "take me home!" LOL

This is great but frustrating: I wanted Calacatta because of the caramel veins as well as gray, and planned on using Bianco Romano granite on the side counters, the marble on the island...now, knowing that Calacatta is 3-4 times as much as the Carrera, I'm going with the Carrera. The Calacatta is so hard to get, too, in Oregon---it's 90 days out, they said. Oh well. But this will impact my Marmorette or Cork flooring decision, too. Phooey!

Lascatz-
$11-$13 was normal price?!?! My normal price quote was around $50! My orphan also has a crack on the left side, not noticable in the photos, but I was told a good fabricator will be able to work with it. We are only using the marble for the island and possible guest bathroom vanities.

Well, now I'm just doing Bianco Romano everywhere. My KD said the Carrera would be a bit too gray with everything else. So---no marble. It's astonishing to talk to 3 huge slab carriers in Portland and have them all tell me the same thing: Getting Calacatta Gold is really hard right now, and it's almost four times as much. Good luck to those of you who can find it, and find it reasonably priced. No luck in the Pacific Northwest. I hope I love the granite!

sfcitydweller, I thought you said yours was $6 sq ft.

I bought my marble over 2-1/2 years ago -- before Christopher Peacock kitchens became a household phrase and every magazine had a white kitchen with marble counters. That was the slab price -- not the installed price. I'm also in TX and not CA.

We've got Calacatta Gold in our master and guest baths. Our guest vanity is painted a true, NOT-creamy white (Chantilly Lace), and the counter is Calacatta, and I think they go well. Our slabs are polished.

In our guest bath, we have Calacatta tiles as well, and they have much more grey veining than the counters. I think we have a different variety of Calacatta for the floor tiles - Calacatta Vagli I believe.

Guest Bath

Master Ensuite

Here's the original slab used for the counter:

Las-

Mine was $6 because it was an orphan piece with a crack on the left side, but if I didn't want that particular slab it would have been $50/sqft just for the marble. The Calcutta I wanted was $90-$100, YIKES! Sadly, our kitchen plan may be getting completely changed, and I may have a giant slab of marble in my garage!

Fleur:
Did you pick a countertop? I am still confused and undecided......

Wow! Redroze, that marble in your bathroom is beautiful. Firsthouse, I am awake early and with a bundle of nerves. I feel overwhelmed sometimes as we are rushing to finish our kitchen. This was almost a disaster to rush, probably especially for me as each choice takes me so long to decide. And I think the pressure of feeling that I need to decide NOW on so many things has made it worse. (Almost like paralyzed panic!)
To make a long story short, I am probably now trying to choose between Ceasarstone Raven and a Black/grey granite. I will not get the Pietra Cordosa as more than one source says it is easy to chip, etc. I still like the look of the Ceasarstone. I saw a picture of it on Smarge's kitchen and LOVE it. When I read how she chose it (Thank you Smarge for the pictures and your comments) I could see how I have similar thoughts and ideas. Even how she has marble and the beautiful mosiac backsplash. (My inspiration for my kitchen was originally the seaglass that I collect and I was thinking some of those colors mixed in a backsplash)
I did see a honed absolute black countertop in a kitchen design store which both my DH and I liked. It had a box of ceasarstone samples on the end of it and I could have sworn that someone there told us it was ceasarstone. I went back to look at it yesterday and found out it was really granite. I liked it again, so this is a possibility too.

sf citydweller I don't think you would have a difficult time finding a happy owner for that marble especially at that price. Hope you can keep it though and everything works out with your kitchen plans.

Have you seen this kitchen with calacatta backsplash and countertops?

Here is a link that might be useful: Calacatta kitchen

Allison...LOL!!! I just posted that pic on a different thread. That kitchen is stunning!!!