With a marble, unless you are doing an ogee or dupont type edge, you want a mitered edge, not a laminated edge. A laminated edge is two pieces of marble stacked together with the seam in the middle of the two pieces.. It does not look good with a light colored stone with veining. The seam is very apparent and the veining does not match up. A mitered edge, a mitered frame is built around the sides of the 3cm countertop & the seam is at the top of the 90 degree edge. You don't have to go a full 6cm. You should be able to get any thickness you want. If your fabricator has done this type of edge many times, you should be okay. There have been a couple of people here that thought they were getting a mitered edge and it was laminated, and they were unhappy with the result. If it is a dark stone or a stone with a dense tight pattern, a laminated edge can be invisible. If you do a google search "gardenweb kitchen forum, mitered edge", there are several threads about mitered and laminated edges.

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!

Mark_rachel, its only 12" because there is door to my backyard to the right of it and a wall that juts out behind it that would create a bottleneck if the island is too big. That's the most I can have without blocking traffic. When it was designed I wanted a full two feet behind the sink so my kids could sit there without their stuff falling in the sink. It was decided to put cabinets in the back for a little extra storage without the need for extra support. I would love to have a slightly bigger overhang but I don't have to room and yes, I want the best I can get for my money. If you could have the exact same countertop for $2200 vs. $4500 isn't that the way you would go? I'm bucking at the supports because that is what the back cabinets were put there for, supports are going to get in the way of the doors. Mainenell, that's an interesting idea! It would require adapting the back cabinets though or it would block the doors opening. Weedmeister, thanks for the warning. It is firmly bolted in. My husband built the base on site because this house is old and the floor decidedly unlevel.

Ricki - I assume you’re talking about kitchen countertops. I’d go for 3cm for countertops. We replaced 3cm granite with quartz. If we’d used 2cm a plywood base would have been needed to raise the countertops so we didn’t wind up with lower tops than the granite. We weren’t replacing cabs. For the 2cm an edge has to be made & attached to give it the depth. That’s a seam. We didn’t want that. My understanding of uses for 2 & 3 thickness is the same as yours. You can confirm or disapprove what designer is telling you by walking into a tile / stone store & just ask which is generally preferred. As for the Home Depot prices - they’re getting a huge volume discount on patterns provided exclusively to them. You cannot buy a pattern they have from an independent stone yard or another dealer who sells that specific brand. I tried with the Cambria brand quartz I wanted. Home Depot carried it & I couldn’t buy it from them & have my own chosen fabricator cut & install it. Home Depot explained their pricing includes all the fabrication & install & they can’t break up the cost. It’s also a contractual deal between them & their suppliers. ETA - remind your designer who the customer is…..