We're getting a Jet Mist leathered granite for our kitchen, and I love it. But I'm with the previous poster about putting it on the walls. Way too dark.

No to the walled granite. Too much, too dark. For just behind the range, get a stainless steel panel. If you want the panel fancier, get a stainless steel panel with a quilted pattern embossed on it. Get inexpensive cream subway tile everywhere else. You have a lot going on in that kitchen, 2 islands, 2 cabinet colors, black granite, a 60” range (and huge hood I am assuming). You’ll need a place for the eye to rest, and for some lightness.

Given the expense of this kitchen, you can afford a kitchen designer or interior designer to help you with colors. You can pay them just for consulting by the hour to help with finish choices if you don’t want a designer to help you with the whole thing.

“we were going with light granite as counter and backsplash material but it seems to be a big issue with staining.”

Not all light granites stain. Some do, but the granites in the family of Alaska White/BiancoAntico/White Springs/Lennon do not. There are also light quartzites (not to be confused with the manmade material Quartz) that don’t stain, though some of those do as well. The thing about stone is that you can’t make generalities about a whole class of them such as “light granites”, because different types of stones behave differently. In any case, if you don’t love black granite, you shouldn’t get it, cause it sounds like it will be covering a lot of linear feet. If you do love it, then get it. There are some gorgeous black granites with white veining such as Galactic Storm, Titanium, and the wild but gorgeous Copacabana.

Hi I think if you did the island black and do Silestone on the outer counters you would be good. Silestone is Extremely stain resistant. Marble will sratch and stain so I would not do that on the backsplash if you’re wo about heavy traffic

Make the outer counter a lighter color. It’ll add depth and contrast

Don't do a stainless behind the range. Stainless sratches easy and the oils from cooking are so visable you will have to clean it 3 times a day. Your best best is to use a glass or porciline tile. There are so many options today. It sounds like you need to meet with a designer so you don't make any costly mistakes.

I have leathered antique brown granite. It is actually black despite the name. I really like it. You could have your perimeter counters installed and then decide after if you want to continue the black on the backsplash. You might find that it is too dark.

One unexpected nice thing about the leathered finish is that at night, when the lights are on inside but it's dark outside, little shiny patterns appear when a place on the countertop catches the light just so. It's a nice little surprise. And I do find that it hides fingerprints pretty much 100%.

On our island we have polished white macaubus quartzite. I like the contrast, but not everyone likes so many different finishes in a kitchen.

Agree about the by-the-hour designer if you can find one that will do that. A few hours here and there from a designer when I was doing the kitchen was really helpful. I think over the course of the whole remodel, I had 3 meetings of about an hour each to choose materials, discuss some wonky things about the cabinets and make a decision, and then near the end to make some final finishing touch decisions.

You can find tiles glazed in a matte, not shiny, glaze. They clean up and feel just the same as polished tiles, the glazing process is just different so the tiles don't shine. I mixed some in with shiny tiles in my backsplash.

Sounds great. I am happy you found someone. Be open because you will find ideas you didn't even know you liked. To bad you were not in the California area otherwise I would love to design for you. Please send pictures I would love to see how it turns out.

I love leathered black granite (Stay away from HONED!!). We have it on one of our showroom client meeting tables and it's great. However, I must warn you that it shows palm print marks sometimes. I still wouldn't hesitate getting it.

The Kitchen Place - what kind of black granite is that?

Sweetpea, It's called Black Pearl Leathered.

@The Kitchen Place thanks! does it have any blue undertones? or is it warmer?

It's pretty neutral. Maybe a slight grayish cool undertone, but also reads warm if that's possible. What I'm saying is it would go great in either a warm or cool toned kitchen.

Like this one is more warm.....it looks fine

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