it is a pretty personal decision - not sure how i would feel with such dramatic veining everywhere (but i am def a ”less is more” girl) it can also be hard to get the pattern matched up well w/ BS - here is a thread where they talk about it

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5358296/new-cambria-quartz-color-skara-brae

Below is a photo from the thread

Eta ^ looks like they used black on the perimeter?

I came across that first photo during my research. I think it looks bad for several reasons. The first is the layout - that particular kitchen doesn’t have the right counter layout for Skara Brae. That long and narrow section of backsplash doesn’t work well with this quartz. The only large section of backsplash we will have is behind the range.

Also, I think you need a higher end kitchen to make a bold quartz work. Everyone has a budget, of course, but personally I don’t think bold quartz works well in budget friendly kitchens.

Skara Brae is very dramatic in person. I think it would look gorgeous on an island painted BM Cheating Heart or SW Iron Ore. I think that it is too much to do on all the counters and a backsplash too. Save yourself the money and do a white, dark grey, or black quartz on the back counters and pick a solid color tile backsplash a shade or two darker than your chantilly lace cabinetry. You can use a different brand other than Cambria for the back counters and still pull everything together and save yourself a few thousand dollars.

It will be great. You've got to be bold to be bold. I'm sick to death of the safety of the gray and white nothingness that's trending.

Thanks for the additional feedback. I think they demonstrated how to pull it off well it in this kitchen:

That kitchen below is GORGEOUS! Love Skara Brae, and yes, as Joseph says, you've got to be bold to be bold!

We are using it on all of our flat surfaces, and our stove wall backsplash, very similar to the last picture you shared. Except, I didn't add the upwall or 4" splash anywhere else, and opted to tile on adjascent walls to the ceiling (sink and breakfront wall). Skara Brae is beautiful, and yes it's bold, but well worth it IMO. Our install is this week. If you end up going through with it, I hope you come back to share. I'd love to see the outcome.

Beautiful @Robyn Segreti. Love the vault and beams in your ceiling, as well. Your open shelf/lit cabinet section helps me visualize what our breakfront will look like, too. It will be a bit different, but similar. Smaller of course.

Our Skara brae went in last Thursday, and the appliance company just left this morning after finishing the Range. The kitchen isn't done yet, but we're in love with it so far. No regrets. We hope to have the tile, lighting swaps/removals and last of the cabinet/trim done over the next couple of weeks. There's a wine cabinet/fridge section yet to be built, but first I just need a kitchen back.

This cabinet has a bit of work to go before it's done. Tile in the center, open wood shelves, wood veneer on the interior side cabinets and wood shelves. Plus the lighting and glass.

You can see our seam on the right below. Because we have a cabinet coming down to the counter (yet to be trimmed out in the first picture), we were able to forgo any seams at the 90 degree bend or near the sink. Now that the cabinet is in place, you can't see the break visually. It worked out well in our favor. Thankfully, because the pattern isn't always so forgiving.

Great photos. We ended up with skara brae matte on all the counters, and the backsplash behind the range.

The other perimeter backslashes will be some sort of tile. Probably a diamond or hexagon style, not standard subway.

We didn’t have a choice on the backsplash - the stone company messed up the cuts for the skara brae backsplash pieces (except the piece behind the range, which we kept). This gave is the option to move to a tile, or wait six weeks for more stone. We chose to switch to a tile, and ultimately I think it’s going to look better.

I’ll definitely share some photos when complete.

I’m sorry to hear you had some issues, but glad you found a solution. I can’t wait to see your final outcome.

We are adding Montauk gin subway tile. We didn’t want a basic either. I’m still torn on stacked vs traditional layout.

Here are two tile backsplash options we are considering.

I really like those. The bottom one was in our initial group pick. I ended up going with a slightly shorter tile because our tiled area isn’t very big. When we switched, we went with the pearlized/satin tiles. But these look great with it. I loved the subtle interest in the glazing.

We are definitely leaning toward the one pictured below since it is more simple than the distressed option. We wanted more of a matte finish, but we couldn’t find any honed marble that we thought would look good with the skara brae.

A slightly shorter tile would be nice because our area is also small, but I wouldn’t want to go much smaller since smaller tiles tend to look busier.

Can you tell me what tile this is? I am using skara brae and this looks like a good match. The bottom one Thanks.

Tribeca Gypsum White 6x24.6cm (26871)

Note that the tile we received has a lot more distressing around the edges compared to the store display.

The flow of our kitchen didn’t allow for us to have the quartz veins run parallel to the tile backsplash. Tile paired with SB would look better if the veins weren’t perpendicular to the backsplash.

If I could do it over, I might not have used Skara Brae on the perimeter. We love it on the island (we did a 2.5” mitered edge) and around the range, though. We are pleased with the result, just might have considered something else on the perimeter.

I would discourage anyone from using Skara Brae as your perimeter backsplash - with the exception of the range area. For every photo I’ve seen where it worked, there are 50 where it doesn’t.

I am researching this very topic. I do believe I will use the Cambria Concrete on my counters with a black backsplash up the wall.
Do you know if i should use Quartzite around the cooktop?