Akchicago, you are very kind to post such a passionate response. I do hear what you're saying. The reason I'm going with Calacatta is that it has the beiges that are necessary in my home...my floors are travertine, and they're beige, beige, beige. If I had hardwood, I'd go with carrera/statuary in a heartbeat, but they're just too grey, without the warm tones, and it would clash terribly with my floors.

Taking what you said into consideration., thanks again!

Maybe I can keep waiting for a softer Calacatta.

If anyone knows of a good 3cm Calacatta source in New orleans/Louisiana/Houston, please let me know! Am hoping to start the job beginning of January.

Yes, honing mutes colors. I think your slab is fabulous but I am attracted to wild veining. Have you considered Danby marble?
{{gwi:1980603}}

Have researched and really like Danby, but have never seen it down here in the South.

Good to know about honing muting colors...would you say it makes it look like the back side of the slab? Softer?

when i bought my marble the stone guy characterized it this way: people are either "vein people" or not. i am not a vein person so went with stone below. more of a fluffy cloud look. if you do not like the veins there are other options. this one is calacatta cremo delicato. hope this helps.

PS -forgot to answer the honing question. it does mute things. it will be similar to what the back looks like, but if you use an enhancer in the finishing it will pump it up again.

here is a pic of mine - the surface is honed. i too stuck with the calacatta as i wanted the warmer tones.

Gorgeous, Babushka! And the kitty pic is adorable.

So it looks like you also started with a polished slab, and had it honed? This is really helpful, thanks.

Madeline616, I'll link below a pic of a kitchen which has a ton of honed Calacutta marble so you can see the honed effect. You will see that the veining is just as evident. Honing perhaps makes the edges of each vein appear less sharp, but the veining will be no less dramatic. I actually prefer the chunkiness of the veins in your slab to the more spidery veins seen in my link. You've got a winner there, but only if you truly like the chunky veins so prized by Calacutta marble lovers. Remodelfla suggestion of Danby is inspired. That would be a great solution for you. Plus I have heard that Danby is less etch-prone than other white marbles.

Also, I just quickly googled, and came up with a page of distributors for Vermont Danby marble - it looks like there is a Louisiana distributor and one in Houston. May be worth a few phone calls...

Vermont Quarries Dealers

I personally don't think honing mutes colors.

I too wanted a very white marble background, with just a few veins. I also wanted a slightly wavy surface, as though it were old. I used Dolomya.

Here is a link that might be useful: white marble

SO gorgeous. OMG!!
Danby is supposed to be less prone to staining but it will etch just as easy I'm pretty sure.

mtnrdredux- I assume the Dolomya is more pricey? It looks gorgeous!

Hi Babushka- Is the marble you have as pricey as Calacatta Gold? I'm looking at Danby which is more than Carrara but not as high as Calacatta Gold. It's so beautiful!

mine was $100 per SF installed

I adore it. Yes, Dolomya is pricey. But if you were looking at something imported from Italy, I assume yours was pretty pricey too?

I have Calacatta Xtra (dumb name for "extra expensive"!), honed, slab counters and backsplash and I don't think honing muted the colors ... but having them horizontal certainly does! Because I am bananas for the dramatic veins in marble I am **so** glad I went equally-bananas with our budget (do NOT make me think of this -- ouch) and did the slab backsplash, 'cause that's where I really get to see it in action. Any horizontal surface is going to lose visual interest just on virtue of its plane, and in our house add lots of "stuff" (ahem) on the counter to further hide said counter.

Those slabs are insanely gorgeous. What about the marble from Alabama? Have you looked at it?

I just looked at your marble slabs again. I assume, like most situations, you are buying a whole slab or more.

I have seen a lot of white marble here, and almost none of it looks like the top third of the slab you show. I actually think that a lot of people who want white marble would reject that. If you looked just at that top third in isolation, it barely looks like white marble. The veins AND the background are clearly grey.

I could be wrong, but I think those slabs will be hard to sell. Even if one did like the grey on the top third, then wouldnt they DISLIKE the bottom two thirds? If you put part on one run and part on the other, it may not even look like they were from the same slab.

IMHO, the marble purveyor has to know this slab is not desirable. I would reject it, or agree to buy the whiter parts of the slabs only, on a per sq ft basis and not per slab.

80% of the responses on this thread is the reason that engineered quartz was invented. Frankly, if you want a marble, be prepared for variation. Someone posted some ridiculous nonsense about the upper part of the stone being unacceptable and/or "hard to sell". What utter rot. A person who wants/likes a calacatta will expect and be looking for that sort of movement. I agree with whoever said to leave the stone be for someone looking for a Calacatta and to seek out another slab - really in my opinion, take a look at engg. quartz if you have such specific pictures in mind.

This is not to diss those who don't like "movement" (there's another annoying word). I don't like busy stones and picked one accordingly i.e. a black granite. But I really do have a real problem here with high-maintenance GWians turning up their snouts at "man-made surfaces" and then going on this demented rant about too-much-movement/ won't-sell / unacceptable-stone which usually devolves into more rubbish about stone yards trying to foist unacceptable stuff on unsuspecting remodlers. There used to be this grouchy old Italian chap whose thesis was that Americans and natural stone made unhappy bedfellows and he was spot-on.

Really, leave this stone be for someone who can appreciate it. Find another that is quiet if you don't like this gorgeous beast and seriously do take a look at that manmade Engg quartzs. They really might do very well for you if you want your countertop to fit a specific picture that fits the one you have in your head of the way it is supposed to be.

Cheers and good luck.

I hope you are able to get to the drugstore for some Docusate soon, mindstorm. Sounds like you are in pain! :(

That said, for the OP: if you don't like veining then I agree: you should not be buying that piece of marble.

There is indeed a separate issue with the top half. It looks stunning now but cut into a countertop, it could produce a weird rectilinear blob of gray that wouldn't look that attractive, nor would it fit in context in the countertop the way it does in the raw slab.

But definitely, you should move on. The veins are beautiful and leave them to someone who is looking for them.

Well said mindstorm. I was able to pick out the less active parts of my white marble but it can't always be guaranteed since once they start to cut stone can be unpredictable.

I don't agree that honing will mute the effect of the grain in the stone. It changes the reflectivity but the grain remains whether the stone is honed or polished.

I would love to have that piece of marble. In fact, I would cut it so you could see the dramatic variation from gray/beige to the beautiful white. I think that is what makes it soooo cool!

I'm so grateful for all of these responses!! What a huge help...the pics and perspectives, the stories of personal experiences, and the links to info about Danby and Alabama marbles are so helpful.

Rmkitchen, it's very good point you bring up about having the slab horizontal, versus up as a backsplash, the way I saw it hanging from the crane. I've always wondered why in kitchen pics it seems the slab calacatta backsplash is so much more veiny/pronounced than the counters. Duh, now I realize it's just the angle.

Well, I'm posting another pic of a different section from the same container. I can pick from among 18 slabs, including this one, but it's more likely if I go for it, I'll be getting the first one with more white.

I think the slab is stunning, but all wrong for the OP, given what she has said. Furthermore I agree with the poster who said if she can afford 3 slabs of Calacutta, she can afford any of the alternatives mentioned on this thread, and will likely save a little bit. We have spoken often on this forum of choosing a stone counter that "speaks to you", that "you know is right when you see it", that "you fall in love with". That is not what the OP is feeling. The OP doesn't like how Calacutta looks, she has said so. She only likes the tone of the white background, and that is why she is choosing it. It's like buying a dress that doesn't fit you or doesn't look good on you, only cause you needed a blue dress. And just like altering that blue dress won't really fix it if it doesn't look good on you, so honing that slab won't change what you don't like about it.

I also politely disagree with Mtnrdredux. There is no way that Calacutta slab will be hard to sell. In fact, it is exactly what Calacutta buyers want - the big chunks of veins. Sometimes Calacutta slabs are not as chunky as it's supposed to be, yet still commands its high price. With that slab, I am picturing an island with that big vein displayed proudly across it. The OP should leave that slab for other buyers who are hunting for Calacutta which looks like that. Don't cut it up. Seek out the Dolomya, Danby, or other white marbles. If you are near Houston, there should be a lot to choose from.

One more thing - the OP has said she is looking for something that will go with the other beige/travertine in her kitchen. That does not jibe with the fact that Calacutta has a lot of grey/blue veins, which is what you don't want. You can't cut everything out of it, and only have the white background, that will be impossible. Babushka_cat's stone would work better, or the really white marbles already discussed.

Hi, OP here. I have another pic of a sister slab in better lighting that I'm posting. You can see in the sunlight that on the right upper side of the slab, there's a yellowing that looks like a big letter "X". This is naturally occurring on every slab from that lot, and I can mostly work around it, but for this price I'm not crazy about it. Any thoughts?

Shannon, thanks so much for the thoughtful reply. You're absolutely right when you say that this should make my heart sing (and my heart has sung for slabs that were already spoken for by other customers!!)

As for the colors/tones, I'm taking a "beige everything" with brown granite countertops kitchen, and turning it into a totally white-with-white and gray marble, more cool toned kitchen.

So, whereas my ultimate dream would be to take out all the beige and have hardwood floors and white-with-gray-veining marble, I just can't rip up the travertine floors (I'm already replacing a focal point travertine tiled archway/nook around my stove with white/gray marble tile), so my KD and I decided to go with something like Calacatta..it provides me with the grays and whites I so badly want, but also gives the warm tones to satisfy the warmth of the floor.

The look works, I just tend to be drawn to softer/lighter veining.

Don't know what "Docusate" is, marcolo, but does it help with a tooth ache?

What can i say but that your grumpiness is rubbing off on me. :-)

Still, I stand behind my sentiment including my frustration with the posts on GW both from nervous would-be owners and the peanut gallery that seems to encourage the mindless pursuit of some imaginary definition of perfection. This from people who - based on the collective set of their sentiments, statements and photographic documentation don't see that their own endeavours in their activities fall far short of achieving "perfection" - and understandably. The end result with the goading is more in line with bullying than holding a standard.

That recognition to me came in a post that I saw from someone here many many years ago. Poster and her husband were doing a large remodel or a rebuild. It was a complex project as they had to attend to myriad issues, surprises and unexpected plan changes, so she said that they just asked the soapstone fabricators to do their best for them with the best slab they could give them as they couldn't add attending to slab selection and counter layout for fab to their plate. They said they preferred a movement-y soapstone of whatever variety and then left it at that.
Well came counter installation day and they were nervous as they were going to be surprised.

Well, you can guess what the average GWian reaction would be, right? Horror at the selection. Horror at the portion of the slab used. "I would have wanted this piece over here and that piece over there". "This horrible patch of pale gold in a stream of cream should have been cut around ... ". "I've been gypped ..."

Not so. This couple said that they were excited but nervous about what they'd get. She said - and I'll never forget this - "we were left speechless. It was even more beautiful than we'd ever imagined." She loved the slab selection; she loved the counter layout the fab picked from the slab; she loved how it appeared in her kitchen ...
If you looked at the stone in her kitchen - it had a thick band of white in a dark soapstone and it was easily what the populace here would be doing a collective double over and regurgitate yesterday's dinner over.

I was moved reading her post because it was as much a commentary about the beauty in the vagaries in the much vaunted natural materials as it was an instruction in the how the right set of eyes and mind can appreciate said material. That it is done in the whole and not in scrutinizing the minutiae.

Now, I'm not that easy-going to be sure and I have had no end of opinions about how wood or stone grain should zig vs. zag (minimally), how trees should grow their branches (symmetrically), how rose bushes should arch etc. But this lady issued the best instruction by personal example about how to appreciate nature. It governed my own ideas about regulating the tightness in the reins on my counter selection - at the time I was trying to figure out if I wanted a particular engg quartz or a black granite ctrtop. I decided that if I was going to go for the granite (that I'd convey to the fabricator what I generally wanted) and then let go and really prepare to be pleasantly surprised.

It isn't to say that if you say "I like natural stuff" that you don't get to have an opinion about whether you get a carrera or a statuary or a black granite or a blue quartzite in your home. Really it is more about the fact that once you've realized the key characteristics about what you like, if you need something that zigs exactly the way you see it in your mind's eye and zags just the way you see it, then you are not looking at the right material.

The best posts to my mind are the ones who delight in the surprises in their natural materials and the ones who delight in the perfect symmetry and perfect matches achieved in their engineered materials. Anything else makes me feel sad as I feel the poster made the wrong material selection.

Madeline, this isn't to say anything to you other than that you might honestly prefer a different class of material - maybe it a man-made but maybe it is a different marble, as others have said. Calacatta with thick veins is more the norm in what I've seen than not.

The thing people like about the calacatta family is the very distinct activity in the stone. But it's not the only white Italian marble and there are versions of calacatta as well.

So if you're not loving this range of slabs, then perhaps check out Carrara, Statuario etc. When I went to the yard the salesperson walked me around and showed me many different white slabs and I was able to pick one that worked. I also loved the slab and it looked wonderful when it was done but, you know, marble is like pizza. It's just almost always good.

I don't buy anything without a full scheme planned so I literally carried all my material & color samples around the stoneyard and picked the least active slab that worked best with them.

But that's just one approach. Some "fall" for a slab and do the reverse. What I'm seeing is multiple pics of slabs you're saying you don't love. I wouldn't go with one I didn't really love and wasn't convinced would make the kitchen look really fabulous, particularly given prices for that particular stone.

Yes, rococo, you hit the nail on the head...I think I tend always to like Calacatta Crema, although there are Calacatta golds I adore.

Mindstorm, I don't need the uniformity of a man-made material. In fact, right next to this bundle were 2 slabs from a different lot of Calacatta Gold that I would have taken in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, they were sold. There was a ton of variation, but the colors ere lighter and the movement softer. That's the look to which I am naturally attracted.

Madeline, I wasn't suggesting that you either take the above or revert to manmade either. My point was a blunter version of Rococogurl's spot-on point that what you have is multiple pics of slabs that you don't love. You might be happier with a different stone. The "Oro" or "Crema" ranges that you are referring to might be just what you seek - rather than mining the above slabs for the bits that are "just right". The grey Calacattas that I've seen either in person or online are rather more in line with most of the slabs you've shown here than not.

Good luck.

There is indeed a separate issue with the top half. It looks stunning now but cut into a countertop, it could produce a weird rectilinear blob of gray that wouldn't look that attractive, nor would it fit in context in the countertop the way it does in the raw slab.
- Marcolo

Thanks Marcolo, this is my point. Used as a whole slab, more people would like this stone. The top half as a counter,for example, I think would look bad. Just because something is naturally occurring and genuine does not always make it beautiful. Especially when you are taking something that is naturally occurring and then editing it down into a slab, and then further into a counter. You can end up with pieces that look awkward.

I believe that if you lined up everyone who is using or has used Calacatta and showed them the first slab in this post, a significant proportion would prefer another slab. This is the whole reason that people travel to stone yards and look through several slabs of a given type of marble or granite or soapstone. Not all of it is the same and not all of us have the same preferences. And there is nothing inappropriate about out preferences. Nor is there anything unsophisticated about those preferences, as is implied by "leave it for those who can appreciate it". Like it is the great unwashed spitting out brie rind and reaching for Velveeta.

Mindstorm, none of the foregoing is "ridiculous nonsense" or "utter rot" or a "demented rant". Rudeness to me and the OP is really uncalled for. Your post is "ridiculous", "rot", and a "rant'. Not mine.

PS Oh, and about the OP. I can't see the "x" too well. You could just start to mark up the slab with blue tape in the pieces you will need. That way you can really see what elements of the stone will fall where.

If you prefer the crema madeleine, then go for it. I wouldn't want anything installed and then have to think I should have gone in another direction. YKWIM.

Taping the slabs is one thing but they can't guarantee anything once they start to fabricate. If the slab breaks or something goes wrong, they default to the other part of the slab and then it gets delivered to you fait accompli.

My marble slab was taped but they sent two pieces for one section of the counter, probably because it was off slightly and they wanted to be sure. The big leftover (and most active) section -- which I was promised to have fabricated for a console table -- allegedly broke. Also, my sink wasn't square so had they cut piece without paying close attention or before I was able to switch out the sink, it would have been a mess.

Fabricators have a great deal of leeway -- as Sayde can attest. So I wouldn't personally buy a slab if I wasn't thrilled with the idea of using any part of it.

I'm not a proponent of super active stone usually though someone posted a fantastic granite backsplash (van gogh looked like) which had a desert landscape quality and suited that particular kitchen. Also, annachosak has a piece of super active calacatta (d'oro I believe perhaps she'll chime in) on her island that really should be seen. It's crazy busy and fabulous. In the end, it comes down to application -- the right piece in the right place.

This marble is so beautiful. Can I asked what city you live in because I would love to pick up one of these slabs? On another note, does anyone know if a slab is cracked (fissure) and the crack is through to the other side is that a problem? Would you purchase a slab with a crack in it? Are cracks common in natural stone? I would also like to know the best sealer out there for marble. Thanks for your help.

Hi Bonkan,

This marble is in New Orleans. Please feel free to email me, and I'll email or speak with you to give you all of the details. The owner of the stone yard provided one of the best customer service experiences I've ever had, and continues to go above and beyond even tho he knows I probably won't buy these slabs.

What is your project??

*waving at Rococogurl* That very first slab reminds me quite a bit of the marble on my island. It has the chunky gray veins and waves, but because it matches the gray on my cabinets and the brown on my island, it works perfectly. I would have preferred a much whiter piece and was nervous about how it would look, but I'm very, very happy with it. Honing will soften up the look somewhat, but it won't dull the color. That said, if you're unsure, keep shopping.

Bonkan: There was a large fissure in my slab as well. Seems to be holding up fine, and it doesn't bother me aesthetically.

Hey I used to work for that grouchy old italian chap.He was a good guy and always helped folks out with their stone issues.
Sadly he passed away in 2008.
Calacutta is always beautiful to me-really one of my favorite marbles.
We do alot of work on them as they are very popular in the ny trisate area. As a matter of fact
dandy,carrara and statuary have become quite popular on countertops. The biggest issue that we see is that while polished marble has more definition and clarity it is just not practical for a funtioning kitchen. Anything acidic whether you have sealed it to death with the best impregnators money can buy wont stop the etching from acidic substances. If you have marble in your kitchen we find that a silken uniformed honed finish is easier to maintain. If sealed correctly with a color enhancing sealer it will richen the look and provide good protection(always temporary) from the intrusion of true staining agents. It will not however stop the chemical reaction between acidic substances and the calcium carbonate in the stone which makes marbles acid sensitive. However if your finish is at a good matte level it will blend somewhat with the wear and etching and not be as obvious. Polished marbles in kitchens will show every single acidic splatter drip and glass ring. At 10 am in the morning when the sun is just right a severly etched countertop stands out.
Anyone who has owned one knows what I am talking about.
So I think that honing marble in the kitchen is a sound idea and after many honing jobs I must admit that uniform soft silken finish is warm and pleasing to the eye.
Stu Rosen
www.mbstonecare.com
www.stoneshine.com