busybee, my RE broker has a gorgeous dark brown granite on her island (matte black on her counters). It is sooooo beautiful. My first comment here was to suggest a chocolate brown granite or black. My favorite color right now is chocolate brown. It just works with everything and is so rich and elegantâ¦love it. I think zkatieus's kitchen would be stunning with dark brown granite counters, granite with a subtle veining through it, maybe gold flecks. The solid gray in the pic romy put up is really cool. I suspect chosen to compliment the stainless appliances. My only concern with that is that it looks like something that could possibly be dated fairly quickly, i.e.: it adheres to a current "Industrial" style. I'm a firm believer in going conservative with things that cost a fortune to redo. Conservatives keeps its lines, colors, etc., forever, by and large.

Hi Tuoihong- Glad you went with WF. Just read the thread and was thinking from early in the thread that WF was where your heart was. IMHO, SLab #1 is a little quieter, whereas #2 is a bit splotchy, chaotic. They're both gorgeous, but if I had to pick, it would be #1, which already has plenty of movement and visual interest but provides a calmer, more uniform look. Imagine you're making the decision by flipping a coin. Slab #1 is heads, #2 tails. While it's up in the air, about to fall, are you in your heart of hearts hoping for heads or tails? An idea similar to Beekeeper's Wife's, it helps clear away the noise and show you where your heart is.

My cost includes both the stone and the install. When I divide the total from the stone yard by the number of square feet, it works out to $66.89 per sq. foot. Mine is 3 cm thick. I am in Maine and the local stone yard had to order the slab from Vector Stone in Lowell, MA. I could have made the 200 mile round trip, but instead, looked at slabs from Vector on their website and chose the leathered one I liked best. I've put a link below to the page with the lots I had to choose from. Lots 013 and 025 are not leathered. I chose lot 083, which now has only one slab left. If you scroll to the next page, you see the last leathered lot, #2475. Fantasy Brown is mis-labeled here as marble. Here is a link that might be useful: Fantasy Brown at Vector Stone

. 'ATTA GIRL Kay!!! { & sorry such a long post} Puppy cuteness overload!! A rescue from a racetrack?? As I mentioned I have a very spoiled and loved Maltese dog 'my son'! Funny that your color inspiration is also your dog! Coincidentally our insparation was too, he is white with a black nose and eyes, and our kitchen is white, black and gray! Can't wait to look at the photos of tiles to chose from! I'll get back to you on that. And on the subject of 'pink' tile, if your were still considering it at all I do think you were on the right track looking for the 'palest' of pinks, or something 'pink-ish' as you called it if you were to do pink. I think that would be the only sort of shade to work, anything brighter would have looked overwhelming and not good in my opinion paired with your very pale ,earthy, natural looking kitchen. I like other earthy colors for your kitchen too, hard to pinpoint exactly precisely which tile though because tan and gray can vary so much and deviate from what they really are on a computer screen. so ultimately I suggest 'trusting your gut' about what looks best with your materials, opinions of the people who have seen the subtleties of your materials in person would also be valuable. Sometimes I think it can be even more fun when doing a project and working with what you already have because it's more of a challenge and very rewarding in the end. We had to do close to what your doing in our main bathroom, and the challenges we faced are very similar to yours. It wasn't in our budget to redo our kitchen and all 2 1/2 baths in our house, so we had to pick and choose which we did. In our main bathroom our original 1979 tile, and bathtub is in excellent condition. But in the beginning at first I hated the color called 'Mexican Sand' which is a coffee color with very strong 'PINK' tones in it {sounding familiar Kay? lol!}. Our tub and tile could have read entirely pink depending on what I chose to pair with it. So I took my time and very carefully picked a wall paint in a warm sandy color with yellow tones in it, this paint color brought out the 'brown' in the tile instead of the 'pink'. We also chose to replace the small formica countertop which holds a single sink and replaced with a quartz top, which looks like actual sand on a beach. So in our case we got rid of the counter and kept the tile, opposite of what you are doing. We also added a new toilet, and a new undermount sink in the same color as the existing bathroom tile ---Kohler still makes 'Mexican Sand' {thankfully lol!}. I hated the tile in the beginning and now I actually LOVE my beachy looking Mexican sand tiled bathroom! And it was so rewarding to make it all work, I'm proud of it now. I hope you will have similar results and also be satisfied with the results of your finished project!!{I too have a huge collection of crystals, geodes, various rocks, sea shells & sea glass. } P.S. Update: I just took a look at all of your tile samples, and I think you will do fine picking something that works! I see a lot of possibilities which look as though they could work from the samples you have chosen, your choosing well. It would be helpful if you post some photos of the tiles in the kitchen while standing far back from them & including the wall & cabinet color in the whole picture. I am better at telling how a tile would look when seeing it with the rest of the kitchen. Looks like you are on the right track! I had not considered a matt tile, but that also looks great and will be a nice contrast to the shiny countertops. Is it easy to clean? Might be something to consider if you are an avid cook. --Sorry about the long post, hard for me to say everything and keep it short!