Depending on what else is going on, I am drawn to the darker ones with your walnut cabinetry. My favorites are the Wild Sea and the Blue Van Gogh

I really like the Fantasy Brown and the Antartide. What beautiful options. IMHO, I don't think you should do different counter materials. All of these are going to be difficult to blend with another material.

The Gaya and Wild Sea are my favorite, but I don't think any of them go with your doorstyle. The door has vertical and horizontal grain used, and adding in more striping doesn't work with it. I think if you want stripey stone, you want a simpler doorstyle with the grain only in one direction. If you want the busier look of the two grain directions in the door, then you want a non directional counter to go with it. The slightly warmer greens really do work better with the wood than the colder grays you are looking at but still read cool enough for your own preferences.

Kaysd, you're obviously strongly drawn to a lot of pattern, so I actually suggested you just please yourself by choosing what you really love. Then I looked again and thought, boy, she'd have to live with that and erased it. Is there a bathroom you could indulge your love of beautifully patterned stone in? IMHO, these big dramatic things going every which way are all just way too much against all that gorgeously patterned but disciplined wood grain. A kitchen can only handle one BIG **Look-at-Me** star. Again IMHO, solid Corelle (yes, I know) would be infinitely better. Maybe something in the middle?

Okay, if we ignore the dream one (and I think your doors have too much going on to be happy with multiple counter materials/color groups), I think the organic white macaubus is going to give you the lightness you want and have a pattern that doesn't fight with the wood. Anything too linear is going to look House O' Stripes. In fact, I, who pile color and pattern at will, think you might do best by following the inspiration picture for the cabinets, and go with a solidish, neutral color quartz. That's going to give you the cleanest look.

I like the fantasy brown but before committing, what is the rest of your house like? What's your style? What are the other colors in your house scheme? If you choose one with a definite color it will need some consideration. BTW your pictures are great! Lots of detail so you can really see the slabs, good job!

Antartide Quartzite is one of my all time favoites-it's so soft and pretty.

I don't personally like the organic white macuabus, but I do think it could work with your cabinets. That van gogh is pretty tame and may be light enough for you. If you want light I don't think the Fantasy Brown or Wild Sea are light enough, but tough to tell in pictures.

What they are call white macaubus is clearly the same stone I used (called quartzite bianca in these parts). Obviously I like it and I don't think my kitchen is too stripey (but I promise I'm not taking offence that anyone suggests it might be!:)

In my kitchen you take in the walnut cabs and the counters read white with movement, but the linear markings are not vividly apparent until you specifically look at the counter, while your prepping food, etc. Some people do observe the linear similarity between the stone and cabs, but positively. Now, your cabs are different in that you'll have both horizontal and vertical walnut grain. But I do think the macaubus could work for you. Can you get a sample door and hold it up to the stone? That is how I decided in the end.

sochi, you are overlooking the fact that your gorgeous kitchen represents much simpler, linear striping--totally different effect. The OP's kitchen has stripes running in multiple directions, which makes a very linear countertop a very bad choice.

It's pretty evident that you are drawn to strong linear lines and I think you need to make a choice - linear pattern on the cabinets or on the counter tops. Which means more to you and which are you drawn to more - that of the cabinets or that of the counters.
If I remember your plan correctly you have a long sink counter under a window and that will really accent any linear counter top choice that you make. If the counters were short like your inspiration picture you *might* get away with both but that isn't the case.

So decision time - linear in the cabinets or linear in the counters.

Having said all that, I do like the Antartide type of pattern and depending on how much purple, or maybe mauve?, might be a nice choice. Good Luck!

OK, I guess I just have to admit to be a strong pattern junkie, lol. I like stained woods with beautiful prominent grains. I also like natural stone with a lot of movement. Our last kitchen had cherry cabinets with raised panels and mitered molding and Verde Ander granite, which is mostly speckles of medium and dark greens, with some cream and black. It had a few veins, and they were my favorite part - I wanted more veins!

The funny thing is, until several of you pointed it out, I did not think of the walnut as having a strong linear pattern. The other door style we have been considering is flat panel, quarter sawn sapele, which has a very strong vertical striping. I knew I could not do anything stripy with the sapele (although the white macaubus was a great color match with it). In comparison, the flat sawn walnut did not seem to compete as much with the stone. I am going to have to think about that some more.

I do not have a door sample to shop with yet, as we have not gotten to that stage yet with the cabinet maker. I had a little time to look for slabs while I am waiting for plans to be drawn so we can get permits.

I adore Sochi's cabinets - they inspired me to look at walnut. Her veneers are so full of life. If I thought my cabinets would turn out like hers, I would go for flat panel walnut doors. Unfortunately, I have also seen a lot of walnut cabinets that just look like blah, flat dark wood to me. The choice of walnut veneers for flat panels is pretty tricky - going with a different style seemed safer. Also, while I love modern design, DH prefers traditional raised panel doors. The door shown above is a compromise we can both live with. I never thought I would choose a shaker door style, but the horizontal graining in the center panel is what made it interesting to me. I would love to put a very modern kitchen in this house, but I have to temper that for the sake of DH's taste and our furniture.

As to the style and furnishings of the rest of the house, that is a mix. The furnishings came with us when we moved last year, and may not be the best match for the new house, but I will not be able to replace them anytime soon (DH really likes them, and they are quality pieces). The house is a 1960 California ranch with some MCM details, but it is not an MCM masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination. We have vaulted wood ceilings (Doug Fir I think) that were unfortunately pickled at some point. We want to strip them and re-stain them in a more natural looking color if budget allows. The floors in the dining room and living room that adjoin the kitchen are currently carpeted. We would like to get rid of the carpet, but are not sure what to put down. I would prefer wood floors, but that is difficult with the wood ceilings and lots of wood furniture. We have talked about doing tile, but that would be a lot of cold, hard tile.

The dining room furniture, which is right next to the kitchen, is cherry with a pecan stain and a fairly traditional style. The living room has dark brown leather couches and teak casegoods. The walls are white and will probably remain light because of the wood ceiling. The only real color is a rug in shades of burgundy, light olive and pale gold, plus some throw pillows in the same colors . We can change the rug and pillows if we do a kitchen color scheme that does not coordinate well with what he have. The major feature of the house is the ocean and bay views. I may be drawn to putting blue on the counters to coordinate with what I see out the window, lol.

I only have a couple photos of the house that I can access from work.

This is the combo dining and living room space. (There is no furniture because the photo was taken when we were house shopping - the view is actually better since we trimmed the bushes a bit shorter.) We are opening up the wall between the kitchen and dining room so we can enjoy the view and watch the kids play while we are cooking.

Our china cabinet:

Cloud Swift, I love seeing your kitchen again. I have been in love with Azul do Mar since I first saw it in 2002 when we did our last kitchen, but it would really blow our construction budget. In my fantasy dream house, I would have a walk-in shower with Azul do Mar slabs on the walls so I could be surrounded by large expanses of that gorgeous stone.

Plllog and Rosie, I am torn. I like the clean, modern look of solid white counters with walnut in pictures. However, when I go look at samples of quartz, the solid or speckled whites look so cold and unnatural to me. I like dark gray quartz, but I think that is partly because it looks more like a naturally occurring stone. Lighting is a real issue in my kitchen with the wood ceilings, so something light would be better.

Sochi, I thought the striped Macaubus looked like your counters. I like them for the reason you described: white, but with movement. Is the background color of your counters more white or creamy/beige? They look white in the pictures. The material I am seeing here is not that white.

Blfenton, it is so hard to choose between cabinets I like and counters I like.

Hmmm, most of the stones I posted today, while they have strong movement, look more soft or swirly than linear to me, so I thought they would be okay. Antartide might be a safe choice since the pattern and colors are pretty soft. I am still drawn to the crispness of white - I just wish white marble did not etch.

I have nothing to contribute to the OP's question, but just have to say how much the White Macaubus Quartzite (with more organic veining) looks like an old map.

kaysd- oh those fir ceilings!! The windows, the view! What I'd give for those sloped panelled ceilings! It looks to me like you have a pretty wonderful (and certainly modern) space. I love it. Can I move in?? Walnut is a perfect choice I think.

Could you use radiant floor heat under tiles in the LR/DR?

My counters are really gray, not white. After I saw that Cipollino marble (which really had a white background) I was disappointed with how gray the quartzite was, as I loved the look of walnut with quartz counters (think Ceasarstone blizzard). But I didn't want the quartz and in the end 'settled' on the quartzite. IRL, it reads white to all who enter the kitchen, but if you put a white sheet on it, you see that it is gray. But it still looks pretty good I think.

I see Plllog and marcolo's point - the stripes on the cabs you show are quite different from mine, so perhaps the macaubas is too stripey.

Walnut doesn't have to be as stripey as the cabinets in your picture. Do talk this over with your cabinet maker. By his wood selections he might be able to give you grain without the heavy horizontal stripes in the inspiration picture.

Either way, however, if you're going to have a strong grain, any strongly directional stone is going to fight with it. The dream stone (which is gorgeous) is more diagonal (though very striped) and when it's cut it won't have nearly the amount of draw-the-eye-along-the-line quality. The diagonals will be short and start and end in a small place. That would help a lot. Still, unless you can do the whole kitchen in it, or in it and a solid color matching quartz, it's a no go. Maybe if you make them an offer on the amount you can afford they'll give it to you for the dream stone.

The Namibia Sky is also diagonal, but I don't like the cool look with the warm cabinets so much, and there are the marble areas to watch out for.

The Antartide Quartzite isn't too stripey, though it's strongly directional.

The Calacata Quartzite has more of a leaf-vein thing going on, with horizontals and diagonals. When it's cut, the horizontals will probably come up more dominantly, though it's probably veiny enough not to look very stripey.

The linear White Macaubus is very horizontally stripey.

The veins on the organic White Macaubus are just that--organic. They're fairly vertical, but very curlicue, and not so dense as to fight much.

The Blue Van Gogh is strongly horiztonally striped.

The Fantasy Brown isn't so much stipes--your word "swirl" is good--but very strongly horizontal, as are the Arcobaleno Quartzite and the Wild Sea Granite.

I'm with you on liking pattern, but you have to be careful with it or you'll have a mishmash. My backsplash tiles have wild, mixed patterns, but I worked hard to get them to flow and balance, and for every comment like one artist friend who exclaimed, "That works! Why does that work?" there are probably plenty of unvoiced, "My eyes!! What have you done to my eyes!". That's not even addressing the fact that each line of the backsplash is a different color, giving it a strong horizontal linearity, and the cabinets are bamboo, so have inch wide stripes. I'm telling you all this so you'll understand how much I'm with you on liking these things that you like and wanting to combine them. I could give you a lot of technical lingo for why what I have works, but it wouldn't help, other than to say that I put in a lot of effort to break up the underlying grids.

The problem with using either horizontal or vertical strips on your counters, if your wood is going to be figured like in the picture, is that it multiplies the underlying grid, and makes one or the other groups of lines dominant. The sharp diagonal, that is top to bottom in a short horizontal space, of the dream stone is also very stripey, but the angle of the diagonals breaks through the underlying grid and reinforces neither the horizontal nor vertical grain of the wood. There's still a busyness, but it's contained. rather than amplifying, and I think it would work. Additionally, while green itself is a cool color, there's enough gold in the veins and the cream that it reads quite warm enough to look good with the walnut. The green contrasts, but not brutally.

In this, your instincts are right on. That stone would be beautiful with your cabinets. The trick now is to get a sample door and take it with you again, and look at everything in the quartzites and granites and anything else you can think of that would suit you. Look for sharp diagonals, true swirls, spot patterns, etc., with enough lightness and you're sure to find something that makes you happy, which you can afford, and which looks good with your door.

I am doing walnut cabinets with the fantasy brown. Countertops go in next week. SO excited. Wait a week and I'll post pics.

Linelle, that slab really does look like an old map.

Sochi, you can move in if you promise to help me decorate. I love what you have done with your home. I'll price the radiant floor heat for the tile. It's only cold here a couple months per year, so it may not be worth the cost depending on how much. I am actually more concerned about the hardness, especially with 2 little ones running and crawling around. We just found out yesterday it is going to cost $2K more than we expected to sand the whitewash finish off the wood ceiling and stain it a more natural color. (Why, oh why did anyone ever think white washing wood was a good idea?)

Plllog, thank you for the very detailed comments on each stone. Alas, other expenses are creeping up and the dream stone is probably not to be. I do love the diagonal lines and combination of creams and greens, but in truth, I probably would not like it as much all cut up as I do in that one big, gorgeous, dramatic slab. (That's what I have to tell myself to let it go.) Your kitchen does work despite all the crazy patterns, and until you described it I never really thought about it. I hope the stone shopping will be easier once I have a sample door. When I was looking last week, I was mostly thinking about what colors I might like with the walnut. I have an inspiration picture that is walnut and SS with soft blue walls with slight gray undertone, and I really like that combo (they used polished black granite, which seems too dark for my kitchen). The Namibia Sky slabs I fell in love with in January were prettier than the ones currently available. The blue areas were more of a soft greenish blue, like sea glass, and there was a lot less pronounced gray areas.

Vsalz, I can't wait to see your walnut cabinets with the fantasy brown counters.

I almost can't believe I am asking this since I am a natural stone nut, but do you think the new Cambria Torquay might look good with the walnut cabinets? I need to find a place to see it in person, but in pictures it reads as creamy white with a little movement.

I have a 12"x12" sample of Torquay sitting on my walnut dining room table. It looks fantastic together if you can get passed the "it's fake" feeling. It is very quiet and lovely.

I don't know how you can look at anything after those first two.

You have good taste. Expensive taste, but good. :)

If you can get a sample of the first one and see how bad it etches...

The white Macaubus makes me wonder where the earthquake is...or if you're telling the truth...

The second one is just wonderful--too nice to not scrimp for. Go without hardware for a while. :P If you have a showy backsplash area, you could plop it there. Use something bland as a counter, like metal or solid colored (manmade) quartz. Ummm also on the island!

After seeing the view from your house I am with you on the Nambia Sky. It fits your personality of loving the sea and it's just so pretty and unique. I can imagine that it would make you smile just to look at it each day. But it would be unfortunate if it were a stone you had to constantly be afraid of hurting/ruining. Maybe you could do some testing on it if they would give you a sample? Is there a sealer that would make it more viable for you? You have great taste and I am sure you will find the perfect one for you. Good luck!!

That green is gorgeous! I'd use that on the island and get something simple and cream colored for the perimeters. Maybe like your inspiration pictures, but in a creamier white...not so stark. What are you using for your floor? That green would be wonderful for accents, too :)

If you could pull out the green from the island and use it on the backsplash, that would really be beautiful! Are you using stainless appliances? Do you have a picture of your kitchen plan?

The first two are gorgeous- go with what you love

If quartz doesn't seem "fake" to you, just not natural stone, I think it would be a great alternative, and the torquay should look great. It has some pattern so won't be stark, but it's an all over and subtle pattern without any directionality. Certainly worth getting a good sized sample of it and living with it awhile, and seeing how it'll go with your sample door when you get that.

BTW, I think you're right that the dream stone would lose too much of it's impact when cut. Not worth the expense, for sure, if that were going to happen!

Agree with the posters saying these stones would fight with those cabinets. If the cabinets can be much more plain wood, then I'd need to see the samples together.

Once I get a door sample, I will try it with the Torquay. There is a Cambria warehouse about 2 hours from here, so I can go look at slabs if I like the sample. I have to decide if I like the quartz as its own thing - I don't want to feel like I bought "fake marble." I do like the subtlety of the Torquay pattern in the pictures, but I really would like to get a little color in this kitchen, preferably some blue or green, and I don't know how to tie that in with the Torquay.

The appliances are stainless steel. The porcelain floor tiles will be selected after the counters. I expect they will be a lighter shade in a very large format (i.e., 12x24, 24x24, 24x48 or something in that range). I am attaching a CAD of the layout. The island shape is something my designer friend was playing with. I expect the island will probably go back to being a 4'x8.5' rectangle, but the choice of slab may impact the choice of shape. There is a large amount of open wall space on the back wall around the range, so the choice of backsplash is very important. I feel like I need pattern in either the counters or BS - having both be solid colors just seems too stark to me.

My original color plan was walnut cabinets, blue and white Namibia Sky counters, slightly iridescent white mosaic BS tiles, light blue paint on walls chosen to complement counters. Now that I am afraid of using the marble counters, I need a new plan. I saw a kitchen I liked on DIY that had a solid off white quartz counter and a mosaic backsplash that mixed green, SS and the off white of the counter. Of course, that kitchen had espresso cabinets with no visible grain pattern. I am worried about having a large BS with a pattern that competes with the walnut grain, which is why I thought it would be safer to go with a counter with movement and a solid color BS. I like the idea of using back painted sheets of glass for the BS, but I understand that is quite expensive and I can't splurge on every item!

In my last kitchen we painted the wall and then did glass over the wall, it was quite affordable, cheaper than back-painted glass.

Hi Sochi, did you use tempered glass? How did you handle the cutouts for the window and outlets? How did you attach the glass to the wall?

I"d spend all my money on a killer outdoor seating ensemble and spend all my days and nights sitting there staring at that view! Your new home is spectacular and FWIW... the walnut is a beautiful perfect pick for it.

Totally agree with remodelfla about your home and the walnut.

I think it was/is sandblasted glass - I guess that is tempered?? The glass place came and measured and cut the glass to accommodate the outlet and window. There is a track along the top, the glass was caulked in. I have seen glass installed with screws (or something similar) as well.

Here is my walnut with the fantasy brown:

Vsalz, your counters look great with the beautiful walnut cabinets. I would love to see more (and larger) pictures of your kitchen. How thick are your counter edges?

I am going to post a full finished kitchen thread tomorrow. Countertops are almost three inches thick. They are mitered, including around the sink (I hate chunky counters and thin rims at the sink).

Here is a better picture of the cabinets until I get full kitchen up.