@Beth Would you mind posting photos of your completed kitchen? The marble slab photo you posted above in this thread is GORGEOUS! I’ve been a “stalker” on Houzz now for awhile - you give some of the best advice I’ve read on here - especially when someone desperately needs help trying to pull elements together (many times bc some element has not turned out to be exactly what the person was expecting - and he/she is GREATLY disappointed). You consistently present great ideas - and, obviously, spend a lot of time helping people out. You are my favorite contributor! I’ve been a “stalker” on Houzz now for awhile - you give some of the best advice I’ve read on here - especially when someone desperately needs help trying to pull elements together (many times bc some element has not turned out to be exactly what the person was expecting - and he/she is GREATLY disappointed). You consistently present great ideas - and, obviously to spend a lot of time helping people out. You are my favorite contributor!!

At my last house I had Caesarstone Raven which is a smoky gray with hints of misty white running through it. It was beautiful and I loved it so much I'm actually thinking about getting it again in my current house. I compared it with a lot of different colors, and the color is just right- not too brown not too cold. However last time I made the mistake of getting it honed and it smudged constantly. I did wash it multiple times a day but it was ridiculously difficult to get smudges out. Everything made it smudge. After trying mfg recommendations, I constantly ended up having to do something the manufacturer said not to do and use other solvents to try to get smudges out. It was really bad when the Sun lit up the area. Now I'm actually thinking about getting Caesarstone Raven without a matte finish in my current home but I'm wondering if I would be better off trying to find a Silestone equivalent color. So far I haven't been able to do that. I like the charcoal soapstone in silestone but it has blue undertones and looks a bit too cold. Any good recommendation for a smoky gray that's not too cold or too warm so it ends up looking brown?

To me the polished shows every smudge and finger print. The suede doesn't show fingerprints at all. Also, it looks whiter to me with the Suede. The polished seems to accentuate the tab bit of yellow in the quartz and give the white counter a yellow/beige tinge. Since, we went with white cabinets in a kitchen with southeast facing light (bright), we went with the suede finish. The suede white color goes nicer with our white cabinets, you don't have glare from the sun like you do with polished, and it is easier to keep looking clean b/c it doesn't show smudges or fingerprints.

Hi Teresa, I’d say over the few years we’ve had it we have allowed dishes to air dry pretty frequently and yes, there are so areas that if you have the right light and angle, you can see some water marks. I’m not sure if my comments you’ve seen included the ones about chipping, but that has been a factor too. Mostly along the interior front rim of the sink area, but recently another one along the front which is pretty noticeable. I’m really not happy about that. I thought quartz was considered tough. This product hasn’t proven to be the case for us. We are not throwing heavy pots or anything else around, so it’s a bit of a mystery to us how these occurred. I’ll show you a pic if I can of water marks and chips.