Since you have the warmer tones of beige and browns in your house the mother of pearl might work best. If you go with the SW or the White Macabus (or Luna) then you will find yourself redecorating around it. The pearl is gorgeous. The River White is hard to tell from the pictures, but it might be warmer than the first 2. Can you share where you are located, or more important...where are these slabs? I have my fabricator on the hunt for SW, he has a few months to find them but I love to annoy him and say "look, I found some more". Also the thing about the Luna is the stripes, will you be using this on the perimeter? I ruled it out because my perimeter will be a U and at some point the stripes will have to run from the wall to the edge, that would bug me. But for an island only--fabulous or if you have just a straight run of counters. Sorry for the long post.....but do share where these are located, please. Good luck with the pricing

Thanks everyone. The marble is going on the island in the kitchen, Jumpilotmdm. Already decided! I hope I don't regret it, but I don't expect to. Kammererk, those slabs are honed. This is my first experience picking out marble or having honed anything, so do they hone them more when they cut them? I'd be fine with that, but I think they stay like they are. Thanks everyone! Can't wait to post finished pix, but the door with our paint color won't even arrive until 3/09 for our approval, so we've got a while to go. Patience isn't one of my good points :)

my husband is not on board for a wood-topped island, though i agree that they are gorgeous and can be practical. so, i ended up choosing the darker one and am going to look at soapstone tomorrow in order that i find one with barely any movement and a hopefully even color. this montclair caught my eye in the marble place today and i've decided to go with my gut. i don't love the other, which is imperial danby. it's pretty, as were the calacatta gold, carrera select, and many others, but this one really caught me and i'm going to take a gamble. if i don't love it i'll have to live with it because we won't be able to replace it. there will be a lot going on in the kitchen, but this (and the pewter mesh grill on our ceiling to counter cabinet) are the only "patterned" elements in the room. i rarely make daring choices and, to me, this slab is a daring choice. yikes...wish me luck!

I know this comes out of left field, but we have been having a discussion in the appliance forum about robotic vacuum cleaners. I have the Neato D80, a number of other posters have some form of the IRobot. We all admit to happiness and greater floor satisfaction after having obtained one of the units. Now, my floor is cleaned every night. I am constantly amazed at how much dirt and dog hair is found on an otherwise clean looking floor. My happiness knows no bounds. I wake up to a clean, fresh floor every morning. I have dark grey/black slate with two Collies, think Lassie, and an extraordinarily messy husband. We can solve the flooring issue. All of you need a robotic vacuum. Save up for it. Life is good.