Just got new Pental Quartz Misterio honed counters, which are white with a grey veining very sporadically. I hate them and so regret this decision! Nothing was ever disclosed to me by the store or the third party stone vendors that honed finish would have all these problems. Scuff marks from anything metal - the entire area around the sink is scuffed from washing pots and pans. Last week I laid some mail on my countertop and picked it up a couple hours later and the ink from something is now imprinted on my counter! I tried Fantastic (which is what the stone company recommends) , Mr Clean Magic Eraser, Clorox Clean Up spray, Windex, Acetone finger nail polish remover (also recommended by the stone company) and nothing will remove the imprint. The counter absorbs everything. I am petrified of spaghetti sauce, or red beets, or curry sauce, or a pen. I went back to the home improvement store I contracted through and asked about having the counters sealed and they said they already were! How can this be? If that is true, this product should never be sold for use in a real home. I am just sick with having spent this much money on such a huge mistake. DO NOT EVER INSTALL HONED COUNTERS IN A REAL HOME KITCHEN THAT GETS USED!!

Thank for the pic. That helps to visualize. Can you label the dimensions of all the sides? Maybe some of the Pro fabricators will be able to help. Hey I just saw on another thread regarding accepting a seam in their Quartz. Mayflowers posted a picture of her ceaserstone countertop and the seam is practically invisible! I can't even find it! Check out the pictures in this thread. Just thought it might make you feel better if you do end up having to get a seam. Get a really good installer and they can make it look great. http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3227115/would-you-accept-this-countertop-seam?n=3

lol, rebunky! I never thought about running the tile over the edge of the counter like that. Definitely worth considering, thanks! Did I say on this thread or the one in the bathroom forum that I figured out that the tile will only be about 8 1/2" high. My elevation made it look much fatter than it will be. In fact, it's likely closer to what you did above. I met with my GC yesterday and my KD today. They were both very productive meetings so I'm feeling a whole lot better about this project. GC said, "yep, we can do the angled bench, no problem" which put the Kohler shower pan in the running. Yay! He also had great cost-saving ideas. Yay, yay! When I met with my KD today, I reviewed everything with her, especially my concerns about a tiled shower floor. She said, "do the Kohler and the angled bench" without missing a beat and we headed off to a local showroom to look at color chips. Found a winner in no time: Sandbar is perfect! It's a wonderful color with my other choices but there's enough contrast that it's a great compliment, too. I'm a happy girl! DH and I liked A and B the best of the tile patterns for the shower. GC said his favorite was B and that it would be a cheaper install. KD voted for B as well. So B it is! On the bathroom forum thread, mayflowers voiced concern that the mosaic tile reads too brown in my photos. My sample doesn't look brown but I stopped at a local showroom and asked about it. Oh, yeah, there's a lot of variation and I could get a batch that has a lot more brown than blue. Not good. I want blues not browns and especially not a golden brown since that would look awful with our other choices. So I stopped at a tile distributor to see what else I could find. I brought home 4 choices, 2 of which were discarded when I got them home in my light. One was neon bright in my light. Oops, not what I was going for. The other was wishy washy. But I have 2 very good choices to replace the glass mosaic. I may need to swap out Aquarius glazed option for another in that line for the 1/4 round but that's not a big deal. Choice #1 is Lunada Bay, Tozen series, in Iodine, in 2 finishes. Here it is in silk (non-glossy). And in natural (glossy) Tile choice #2 is also Lunada Bay but in the Agate series in Pisa, silk finish. These will also have some variation between batches but they won't end up brown. Not sure which I like better.

Original Poster Update I've finally made a decision on cashmere carrara quartz countertop (MSI) and Masia Gris Claro tiles. I'm hesitant about the cashmere carrara because the photos I have seen vary so much and the sample is so small... If anyone has some real-life photos of the cashmere carrara countertop, I'd really love to see them. They are coming to do the templates in two days so I'd still have time to change my mind. Thanks!