I live in California. Most granite/marble/quartz here is 2cm although 3cm can be found. Cabinets have to be level no matter what. I have Caesarstone on my perimeter counters that are 3cm with no laminated edge. My island is 2cm marble with a mitered edge that doubled it to 4cm. My butcherblock counter is about 1 1/2" thick (a little less than 4cm). So all counters are a different thickness and I don't even notice the difference in thicknesses. I think the thinner edge is slightly more contemporary looking, but it's really up to what you like. Plywood with metal supports on the island before the marble was installed: 3cm Caesarstone (Arctic White), 2cm marble, 1.5" butcherblock:

I too struggled with this decision. We chose to go with a steel product called i-brace from Innotops. Both the granite and cabinet installers were very impressed! The link is below. There is also a YouTube installation video on their site that the cabinet guys found very informative. It was pretty comical to see all of us crowded around the laptop watching the video! I emailed the company a few times with some questions and they were very helpful and prompt with their replies. Shipping was pretty quick to CA. As it's my nature to go somewhat overboard in safety, we placed ours closer together than what was recommended so we ended up purchasing a few more brackets. Ours are placed about 14" apart with one being placed on each side of the corner seating overhang. Here is a link that might be useful: Innotops i-brace

I'm in Boulder (so just northwest of Denver) and after seeing mnhockeymom's drool-worthy 5cm slabs knew I had to have them. Ha ha! Six+ months later and w-a-y too many hours schlepping baby, toddler and myself to every place with white marble within two hours and then on the telephone (inc. staying up late to call sites in Italy) later I truthfully felt lucky to find 3cm slabs in the variation I wanted (I wanted NO gold, only white and grey Calacatta) at CAPCO in Denver. (They have a terrific assortment, crappy customer service and high prices. One of three won me over, go figure.) For the pantry section we needed to have a two inch (deep) ledge -- not sure what happened but the cabinetmaker left too much room for 3cm, so we used the 2cm (which we used for our backsplash) laminated for it. I thought I was clear with the countertop fabricator about it being mitered; it wasn't and the seam really shows! At first I was pretty upset about it but truthfully it's such a minor part of our kitchen that the only way to see it is to go up close and look for it. But if I'd had that in my entire kitchen I'd be beside myself! (Clearly I'm being melodramatic, but you get the point.) When I daydream about what I'd do differently one thing I think of is getting 2cm slabs and having the mitered edge (done correctly!) everywhere -- it would have saved some money (because those slabs were tres cher). Of course, something would've gone wrong because something always does, so the money I saved would've been money I had to use on therapy and chocolate (and then bigger clothes). There was someone here who had her island top mitered beautifully -- I mean such care was taken by her fabricator to ensure the seaming was flawless (and it appeared so). Yum. It can be done, and it can be done well -- just stay on top of your fabricator! Good luck and happy marble!

Hi All, Thanks so very much to everyone for their help! We finished most of our kitchen (only need the backsplash) and after the helpful debate here on this board, and working with our installer and the granite fabricator, we wound up with an incredible 6 cm, stepped edge counter! Everything fit perfectly, including the stove, dishwasher, etc. I know there were a couple of people here who expressed doubt this was possible or would work out very well, but after doing the math on my own, listening to the more supportive comments on this board (thank you!) and speaking with the team here, we proceeded with our dream kitchen counters and it worked fantastically! I spent a ton of time with the shop guys at the fabricator and detailed exactly where I wanted the cuts for the laminated, stepped edge and the average person cannot tell it is a laminated... the granite lines up perfectly and no obvious seam since it is stepped! Have a look and please let me know what you think of the outcome!