Help me select a marble counter for my bathroom.

6 years ago

Hi everyone,
I have been lurking a reading all the old posted on bathroom remodeling. I need help selecting a marble counter for my bath.
We are taking out a huge jacuzzi tub and putting in a freestanding tub. Custom cabinets and Calacatta gold 6x12 on shower walls with hex on the floor. The bathroom floor will be 12x12 Calacatta gold set in a diamond pattern. The walls behind and to the side of the the tub will have 6x12 subway pattern tiles. The faucets are Delta trinsic in champagne bronze. I’m debating between the Brizo tub filler or the Delta trinsic tub filler.

Questions:
1. I am leaning toward a Calacatta borghini marble but the slabs I have found have some iron streaks. The guy at the marble yard said I could incorporate them into my counter but I feel like it would look like rust. Is this a characteristic of the Calacatta Borghini?
2. I’m trying to select a cabinet color. The marble slab will help me make the final decision but the third pic has swatches and I have an asterisk next to the top three. The cabinet maker recommends a dark grey but the rest of my house is Brazilian cherry floors so I’m trying to keep some warm colors in the bathroom. I am thinking Greige cabinets at this point.

3. The tiles have a huge variance in patterns. The fourth pic is a layout of two boxes of the 12x12 polished. These I’ll be cut into 6x12 for the subway patterns on shower and wainscoting wall by tub.

The floor tiles have so much variance in what’s present. I have opened up 4 boxes so far and some have veins that are lighter and then there are these thick streaks. It’s all pretty but I’m just wondering how it will all blend on the floor? Will I have to pick either or to use? There are also many pits, surface chips on the honed tiles. I have a separate post asking about that, if that is to be expected.

Featured Answer

PRO

Dragonfly Tile & Stone Works, Inc.

6 years ago

last modified: 6 years ago

Quality Calacatta is harder to obtain. You need to work with good suppliers for this. You can expect variation, as with any natural stone, but we are seeing, and perhaps due to the mining and availability right now, that there are strong variations. As for pits and chips, well that would not be acceptable. We are wrapping up a very long project and one of the baths is all Calacatta. The countertop will also be Calacatta (carefully selected from our trusted supplier and matched to the tile) but it isn't installed yet so no pictures. Here's some in progress photos. Note the third pic where we stacked the trims pieces in front of the field tile. The trims on the right were a good blend but the left was void of veining and not a good match. As a contractor with relationships and "buying power", we were able to shade all our tile in a dry lay out and return the unacceptable for replacements. You will always have SOME variance so you need to tolerate and expect this. But based on our experience we are able to discriminate between "expected" and unacceptable. It's a beautiful stone and dramatic statement if you can get it right. Good luck with your project.