Good morning!
We went to only two "yards" to look at stone. We went two different times - the first to get an overview and the second to narrow it down. We brought a door off of our cabinets in order to help with color selection.

I had first looked at the yard's online catalog and chose a few that I was interested in. Then, when we went to the yard,in person, I gave the folks my list and they were able to write down the location of the stone, and off we went.

It can be a bit time consuming, and overwhelming! There are soo many beautiful stones! We had to eliminate a few that were out of our budget. And yes, some of the ones we saw in person looked a bit different than they did online.

We picked a couple of slabs and the yard got a nice sample for us.

It was a lot of fun!

I went straight to the the places with the slabs. The problem with the stuff on-line is that those might give you a taste of what the granite is like in general but unless you see the slab in person you won't understand or appreciate how different they actually are. You won;t get a feel for how a slab of one piece of granite can have a different variation of colour running through it and the same type of granite won;t. A Bianco Antico is not Bianco Antico is not Bianco Antico. The colours may be basically the same but the variations within them won;t be.

You are going about it the right way. It is best to at least have a vision but of course be open if something catches your eye.
My only suggestion is that when you pick a granite, before making the commitment, think about the next step of the backsplash. So many of us had such a hard time with this and it is because all three elements (Color of cabinet, grante and backsplash) were not thought about ahead of time.
Most of us get through this step and have lovely kitchens. Although I am happy over all with my kitchen, at certain times, the backsplash seems a bit off and I know if I was given the advise I just gave you, I would instead be totally happy.
Have you looked at the Finished Kitchen Blog? Taken the Sweeby test? Figure out what you seem to be drawn to over and over and that will take you in the right direction.

I'd recommend going to the local yards and looking at everything they have. The pix online can be way off from the current stock. If you personally walk by each stone, you will get a much better chance to see them properly and not based on a preconceived idea. It is tough if you see something online you can't have or it comes in looking different.
Go to as many yards as you can within a short period of time and something will "hit". Take pix of each contender and write notes so you can keep it all straight.

If nothing floats your boat, there are many other choices other than granite.

I started with the major element in the room, the cabinets. I have chosen a white perimeter with an espresso island. Then I started looking at pictures of kitchens of similar design, and noticing the counters that were used... and picked the one that appealed to me. So with my cabinet choices I am looking at a "white" granite like Delicatus, Blanco Antico, etc.

When the time comes, I will go to the granite yards and choose from the specific slabs.... and who knows what I'll end up with then ;-)

I did the same thing mercymygft did -- I looked through inspiration pics of full kitchens I loved and were similar to the look I was trying to achieve until I found a pattern had emerged pointing to a particular range of colors and type of pattern. Only then did I go to shop for granite and I limited myself to looking at only those granites that were in that range of colors. I know myself too well (I am impulsive to the n-th degree!) and so many granites are so beautiful that I knew I'd be swept away in a gush of impulse if I didn't anchor myself to a particular look before going to view the slabs.

I had NO expectations when I first went looking for granite, a completely open mind. Didn't know how to shop for it, didn't know much about it at all! I also had a DH connection to a granite yard, which initially limited me in my choices.

So, on my very first trip it was (for me) like finding my wedding dress . . . when I saw it, I knew it!

I looked at a lot more granite after that, but always went back to my first love (typhoon bordeaux). Ended up getting it at a different yard because they had a better deal than the "connection"!

I looked online alot to get a feel for what I might want. Then I went to a couple of yards and fell in love with expensive Calcutta marble. But I wanted to see soapstone and ordered samples. When I was almost sure i wanted the SS I went to the yard to see it in person before I plunked down a ton of funds (for me) for the stone.

I went to 3 yards and in each yard I could have bought, but I was not madly in love. then we went to a 3rd yard. I was walking up and down the aisles, and suddenly, there it was. It was $1000 more than we budgeted, but I gave up some things to get it. I gave up the knobs and pulls I had chosen and some pull outs. We left a deposit to hold it. Then I had trepidation. My DH was sure of the slab. But he went with me to a huge yard and I did like 2 other slabs even more, but $20,000 was way way out of our price range. The installation is this coming Wednesday. I can't wait to have a real kitchen again.

sixthohno.... so what did you get???

I bought rainforest green. It's a serpentine marble, so it is stronger than a marble. It looks like I am in a helicopter flying low over a rainforest and seeing trees and rivers and trails. I might be slightly nuts. My cabinets are light maple slabs with stainless pulls. The lights are hi hats and the floor is cherry. So the counters son't fight with the rest of the kitchen. What do you think. BTW-it cost about $68/sq/ft installed.

Here is a link that might be useful:

sixty... WOW! That is one dramatic stone!! $68 sf installed doesn't seem like a bad price either. I like it... I love it when people go for the drama. I'm probably too timid to go there though. I can't wait to see it installed, don't forget to post pics!!

I had to get something that blended with the existing Saltillo tile floor and the newly stained reddish brown dark walnut cabinets. I only needed a few square feet for each side of the stove.

So I took a chunk of the floor tile and a small cabinet door to a stone yard that advertised a "bone yard" ... showed my sample bits to the salesman and said "what scraps do you have that will go with these components?"

About halfway through their large (but tidy) scrap yard it was clear to us that most of what they had was "ish" ... too yellowish, too greyish, or too greenish. The undertones clashed.

Then we hit remnants of Juparana Florencia. It had splashes of the rust, peach and cream tile color, a swirly vein of dark brown that matched the cabinets and a bonus of green peridot crystals here and there. I quit looking, because it was going to be hard to find anything that could go any better.

The pieces had serious flaws to work around as well as the earlier cuts, so I left layout in the hands of the cutting guys, with a request that if possible I wanted the dark veining to continue across both slabs. Not only did they make the veins flow, they cut it so there are several nice peridot crystals.

What does one do for a backsplash when the counter is gaudy? It will be pale subway tiles, because the granite has enough drama for the whole kitchen.

I initially brought home four or five samples/chunks from the stone yard. Once I put them against the painted sample of our cabinets, it was easier: "I don't want a granite that's too yellow" or "If we do a medium brown cork floor, it needs to have some medium brown to tie it all in together." I went back to our favorite granite yard and the gal who owns it listened to me and said, "I think you're going to love Bianco Antico." The original color of granite I thought I wanted, Bianco Romano, was too yellowy and I couldn't find a great pair of slabs that looked perfect with white. So, we found our slabs locally (southern Oregon) and put it with the cork floor piece and the cabinet. Bingo!

I agree with the above post-ers: it's like finding your wedding dress or meeting just the right someone...you know it when you see it!

Inspiration pictures, then slabs. But I also knew I wanted a darker granite because my online reading persuaded me they are easier to maintain in terms of density, durability, etc. We got a version of Jet Mist called American Black.

We went to about 5 stone yards. Was drawn to one stone in particular, but also liked the look of the more plain/sleek caesarstone. Only backsplash tile we liked was almost as much as granite but still went round and round. Super sleek, modern look or a little more "transitional?" We live in a tract colonial, average neighborhood. We will probably sell in 7-10 years. I decided that natural stone will never go out of style and will probably appeal to more buyers. But I'm not settling! We went back to our original choice and I put down the deposit on Monday. Small, galley kitchen and we are doing counters and backsplash in granite. Sure hope it turns out as I imagine. Definitely take cabinet sample with you when shopping! Hard part now is finding tile floor that won't fight with the granite....

Here's a totally opposing viewpoint: we couldn't have gotten anywhere walking around the stoneyard right off, we didn't have a clue. We weren't even 100% sure if we wanted Silestone or granite.
We took our samples to our local kitchen store, comparable countertop selection to Lowe's. Looked at various shades and various materials with the cabinet door, the wall paint chip(s - we're narrowed down but not 100%), a couple of backsplash tiles we thought we liked. The question we were trying to answer was color family and overall look. I knew middle-tones wouldn't work, didn't like any of the light beige-tones but true-whites over to light grey was good. Liked chocolate-browns and charcoal-grays, but when grays started pushing over to black it was just too much. I liked the ones with blue flecks/accents in them. DH likes some with green flecks in them, and liked sparkles more than I did. Neither of us liked big splashy patterns, everything that appealed was more flecky/mottled than dramatic/stripes/swoops, but my tolerance was higher than his.
Then, we went to the granite yard down the street and picked out our favorite light and our favorite dark in the showroom. Went out back, saw the slabs, and whaddaya know, the color we liked best inside was the one we liked best outside, too. We didn't decide for sure till we put them both into our 3D mockup at home, and dark was winning by miles.
Then we found out the fabricators we were at didn't cut drainboards, so called up a ton of different places till we found two that did. The color we picked isn't one with a lot of slab variation, so that wasn't a big issue, any yard that sold Steel Gray would be just fine. We checked out the slabs at fabricator #2, brought the sample home, realized the polished finish was way too shiny for my taste, and found a different yard (#3 now) that sold the same color in a softer finish. Then we decided not to do drainboard runnels after all.

See, isn't deciding things easy? Hooray for fickle.
(end result - Leathered Steel Gray)