Hi Sharon - the bathroom cabinets are white and my original feeling was that a marble might clash with the floor. The marbles that our fabricator had in stock would not work so well. But, another stone yard that they deal with (OHM Intl. in NJ) sent me some pictures of Venetino and said that it has an overall grey background with deep grey veining. I think this may actually work because of the overall grey tone, it will separate itself from the floor that is a white background with grey veining. Below are the pictures - opinions are welcome. If I use this in the master, then I would use the White American in the other two full baths that have the same tile.

Lot of confusing bits here. Here are some comments / responses from someone with PdC installed in a working kitchen for 4 years. 1) Pietra Oatmeal or Pietra Black Pearl are not Pietra Cardosa Pietra Cardosa is a medium gray schist from Cardosa Italy. It typically has cloudy white/light gray strips, swirls of contrast, which shapes can vary based on how it's quarried. Issues with those other stones shouldn't be conflated with real PdC. 2) Pietra behaves pretty similarly to Granite, but because it's more monochromatic, it can show markings more. The speckled deposits in most granites can hide quite a bit of stains, etching etc. 3) PC is porous, and like marble can suffer from etching with poor care. That said we use a lot of lemon and tomato in our cooking, and have not yet had an issue. We're not crazy about cleanups and don't follow people around with cleaning rags, but we're also not leaving spills for extended times like overnight. I would say anyone that keeps a dirty kitchen may have issues, but generally, I wouldn't worry about staining or etching any more than lots of other stones. Our stone does not stain with oil or rubber footings as noted above. 4) I've had Pietra (Island and perimeter counters) for 4 years with no major issues. I used Ager to seal it annually, which slightly darkens the lighter from a cooler gray into a slightly more medium gray. It's a subtle difference. It is NOT black. The real benefit, particularly around the sink, is how it behaves with water on it. Whether you use a color enhancing sealer or not, you'll want to seal at least once a year, or whenever water stops beading neatly on the surface. Some people report years between seals without issue, and some do it every 6 mos. YMMV, depending on your use, habits, etc. With a more porous stone, this is pretty standard maintenance as with marble or granite anyways. As with any treatment, you should start in a small remote area and see if you like it, before hitting your entire kitchen. It's hard to fathom how someone could end up hitting the whole kitchen before knowing it they liked it, and then hating it. That's not a problem with stone, but with user-error. 5) I appreciate the comparisons to Soapstone. Soapstone is a great product with it's own nuances, but we were unable to find a real genuine medium gray sample. Most have a slight green tint to them, which didn't work for our design and style goals. 6) Only complaint, is that we did chip our counters by accidentally dropping heavy water glass on the counter. It was quite a hit, and we had a couple small chips where it landed. After the most recent seal, the spots are no longer really visible, and can only really be found by touch. We took a bit of a leap going with the PdC, given all the misinformation and confusing posts like this thread features, but it was really the only stone that met our design goals. Bottom line, we get a ton of compliments on our counters, and they're holding up and performing great. They still look just like what we wanted - a medium gray, interesting but subtle stone with a honed finish (this stone is too porous to polish, so if you're looking for a high shine, look elsewhere.) Our kitchen was recently featured in a major design magazine. No regrets so far. Make sure you're using a trusted dealer with authentic PdC, and if this is the look you're chasing, with the real stuff and pretty standard maintenance, you'll be fine.

Tile has several ratings. Glazed products perform according to the hardness of their glaze. This hardness is determined by the manufacturer and rated using a PEI scale (Porcelain Enamel Institute). This PEI rating will determine the proper usage of each product. PEI I Tiles suitable for interior wall application. PEI II Tiles suitable for residential bathrooms where softer footwear is worn. PEI III Tiles suited to general residential traffic, except kitchens, entrance halls, and other areas subjected to continuous heavy use. PEI IV Tiles suited for all residential and light to medium commercial areas. PEI V+ Tiles suitable for heavy traffic and wet areas where safety and maximum performance are a major concern such as exterior hallways, food service, salad bars, building entrances, around swimming pools or shopping centers. If you are going to have clients walking on the tile, I think the tile would have to be at least PEI IV. In addition, tile has a coefficient of friction for both wet and dry. The tile I have in my bathroom is porcelain with a PEI IV rating and coefficient of friction > .6. The tile has three benefits. It is not slippery, it does not show water spots, and, because the design has marble-like veining, it does a terrific job of hiding dirt.

All these places in NJ, I live near and I plan to go to them for my kitchen tile. Thank you! Now I am wondering if I should take a look for my foyer areas before calling my installer to change my Lowe's Rialto Beige to Rialto White. I plan to do hardwood in all the main areas but I want Porcelain Tile in the kitchen and the two entrance areas. I love the Rialto Beige but it only looks nice in my front foyer and is too dark in the middle foyer in between the dining room and living room by the bathroom, coat closet, utility room (that had the flood from the central air conditioner unit dying on me and the engineered wood floors are going to be replaced with tile) and garage. I changed the bulb to the maximum 100 watts but the area has no natural light like the front entrance has. Hence, despite the grayish/taupe/off-white color, the Rialto Beige looks like real stone to me and looks nice in both areas. I just hope the Pits are not too difficult to clean. Or should I tell the installer to wait and check out these others places that I plan to check out anyway after my deadlines for my kitchen? I already had gone to Wayne tile and they were so nice but I could not find a tile that I loved as much as the Rialto Series that too me looks like real stone.