Go to a yard and look at a slab and imagine it cut like that. Or get a picture and turn it how it would be cut. I'm doing emerald pearl, so no movement in it, so it wouldn't matter. I actually think some stones would look really cool cut like that. Only issue is if cutting like that will cause you to have a BUNCH of seams.

I don't get the impression we'd have a bunch of seams, as I don't think any of our runs are that long. I will ask the fabricator about the slab dimensions and possible seams before we agree to anything, though. Good advice -- thank you!

My granite guy said that he always prefers to minimize seams, too, because that's the expensive part for him. The seam is the labor intensive bit. So, hopefully, doing it "sideways" won't result in more seams. It is worth asking about, though. I agree - go look at the slab and think about how it would look to you. Remember that anytime anyone goes around a corner with granite or marble, either you have to miter it, or have a seam where the grain doesn't meet at all, or you have the grain going long-wise on one side and then cross-wise after it turns the corner.

The one thing I can think of is... Some KW has some movement that runs lengthwise on the slab. If your slab has that, and it may not, but if it does, and if you cut top to bottom, you will get that movement coming at you, rather than running horizontally on the counter. A few people have mentioned to me that that bothers some people, and I saw some made up on display that "came at me" and I think it might have bothered me too, but maybe I'd get used to it. But, not all KW slabs have that. Some have a diagonal movement in which case it would probably be the same either way as far as movement toward you goes. But, even if you couldn't see the seams you would be able to tell it wasn't the same piece because of the pattern. If you can get one of the KW slabs with essentially no movement then I'd think you would probably be fine from a movement/visual perspective. If doing it top to bottom allows you to get what you want, then I'd try to pick a slab with no movement and go for it. But, as suggested, look at your slab and see if you can picture it that way. Or, take a picture, print it, cut it up, and see what you think.

Thanks folks. I talked to the fabricator and we would not need any seams at all. We don't have any counters that turn any corners, so not even in that scenario. Yay! So now I have to look at the pictures that DH took when he chose the slabs last Saturday(I had seen them earlier that week). We might do well to break out the scissors to see whether it would work for us "sideways" or not. I also might try to get to the stone yard to see the slabs tomorrow. If we only need one, then I have to pick The One. (I am crossing my fingers that any movement is either minimal or diagonal ...)

Found the picture of the slab. It doesn't look TOO too bad. What do you all think?

If it were me, I'd take it and do it sideways. It is not strongly horizontal. And then you can have Jet Mist. Yay!

I say go for it and get your Jet Mist too! It will look great. There isn't a strong pattern in that slab.

I think it would look fine either way!

I am smiling a big cheesy smile. DH just came over and looked at the pictures and everyone's comments and ... we're going to do it. Yay for less waste, less money and yay for Jet Mist (his favorite)! :-)

Isn't it fun when we get what we want?! ;-). Congrats!

Here are some pictures to help reinforce your decision, it can work quite well when the slab isn't strongly linear. We wanted to use remnants from our kitchen counter for our fireplace surround. We only had two pieces left that were long enough for the height of the two sides and the width of the top. Here they are:

The long direction of both pieces was the top to bottom direction of the slab. We weren't worried about that quite as much as we were how it would look with the top piece for the surround having that direction go right to left while it goes top to bottom on the side pieces. Would the flow on one piece being perpendicular to the flow on the other pieces be okay.

Fortunately, the veins on our stone are fairly swirly and slanting and we're very pleased with the final effect.

My DH says that the top piece looks kind of like smoke is rising from the fireplace. Our fabricator even cut the pieces for nice matches at the seams given the limited flexibility he had.

Go for it, Alicepalace!! It will look great.

And Cloudswift, I have always loved your stone, but that fireplace surround is over the top. Fabulous!