I have seen very light pieces of Creme Bordeaux and very dark pieces. There can a large range for that stone. The Santa Ceclia my local stone wharehouse has been getting has had a lot of black in it and is darker than what they used to get. Depends I guess on where they are in the quarry and the stones can change as they move through it, at least that is what the stone seller told me. I would imagine if a stone is available from different Quarries it will also depend on where they get it. The same thing with Giallo Ornamental, both it and Santa Cecelia I liked in the older samples I had seen but were not what I was looking for in the new slabs at the warehouse. If you can get the lighter slabs of Creme Bordeaux, it will be lighter than what I saw locally for Santa Cecelia. Sue

Good thought. Another thing that can happen is when they do chip off a sample for you. I was given a chip knocked off a corner of my slab. I used this to go around with for my backsplash. I had to keep saying, "But at home, my counter is more brown rather than taupe." Lighting makes all the difference too. Ouside, I thought I saw more cream colors, not so when it was installed in my kitchen. But, this could also be because when I looked at it over all I was concentrating on the cream. When we templated, I was concentrating on how I wanted the pattern and the cream was probably on in the diameter of the template.

Photos a little washed out. This is colonial Dream, not Cream. Installed beginning of Feb and no real staining but we are careful. I did wake up one morning to see that someone had probably not seen that a drip from a juice bottle fell onto the counter and when I removed it there was a slight stain but now I can't even find it. In my house, the stone takes on an oatmeal background with grey-black and brown veining and raisin splotches here and there. The big deal for me are the icy highlights that show up in our kitchen's low light.

I am guessing that having the lowers light is a function of wanting to disguise the undesired oak on the lowers, not that you desire the look of lighter lowers. If that's correct, recently someone posted about having gel-stained cabinets to disguise an unattractive grain. I've included one link below. There is a picture of the finished cabinets in an espresso color, and they look beautiful. If that appeals to you, you could then do your lighter cream and glaze for your new uppers. Hope this helps. Here is a link that might be useful: gel stain on oak thread