I have granite as my island but only because hubby wanted drama in blue. A neighbor has all marble island and perimeter and she caters professionally from her kitchen. The counter looks lovely and she said that they don't worry about stains etc..

Marble is all over my French cousins' kitchen and some are over 100 yrs old. They look perfectly lovely to me.

I think we worry too much about little things with marble.

If you're going to worry about stains with marble, then you shouldn't be getting it for your island or your perimeter. Marble will stain and it will etch. Personally, I find it one of the reasons I love it. It develops character.

If you can't stand to have all of those etches, chips, and scratches front and center, then marble is NOT for you. Period. Love it as it is. You won't change it's basic nature.

Thanks, all. It sounds like staining isn't an issue these days with the good sealers. I can handle etching, scratching, etc., on our perimeter (and welcome it) but I wouldn't want it on our center island. We have a giant South-facing window that pours light onto the center island and would really exacerbate every little etch. We aren't going to worry about every little thing on the perimeter but we do also plan on protecting it by using cutting boards and treating it nicely. We know it will happen anyway, though.

dan1888, beautiful slabs but we had quartzite in our last kitchen (different from quartz, I know) and it just didn't do it for me. Plus, we had etching anyway, and were later told by another fabricator that our "quartzite" was probably closer to a marble.

Your quartzite wasn't quartzite if it etched. It was marble.

cpartist, agreed. We purchased them using a kitchen designer and we were very uneducated at the time as to the differences between quartz, quartzite and marble. We just took her word for it as it wouldn't be our "forever home" but this next one will be, and gol darnit, we're doing our dang homework this time around.

If you're doing your homework you shouldn't avoid real quartzite because of some fake stuff you got in the past. Where's the logic in that? Check out the real stuff. It doesn't etch and will beat marble by a mile for hardness. Take a glass tile with you. Quartzite at the edge will scratch the glass. Take a piece home and try to stain or etch it while doing the same to a marble sample.

We went to a supplier in Minneapolis who showed us a lot of quartzite but said most of it tends toward a grayer background. We're going for a whiter look. Though we do have Taj Mahal on our list to consider. Thank you for the advice!