Hi Pip: I absolutely love both of your choices and I really don't think you could wrong with either one. We have chosen Madre Perola for our own countertops (unfortunately our kitchen will not be done til January so I can't post any pictures for you) and our flooring will be limestone look porcelain tile (12 x 24") in a nutty colour called Noce, It looks fabulous with the countertop. Now backsplash..... yikes - that's another thing - but I do like your chose of BS. I also think that there is enough gray in the Madre Perola that a gray floor tile will also look great. Is your floor tile much darker than the countertop as my initial thought was that a medium gray might be nice to kind of ground the room, although your espresso cabinets will also help to do that. We're doing an island in a dark stain with a slightly creamy white cabinet. Haven't the finished kitchens on this site been such a wonderful help! As much as I want the kitchen to look wonderful, I still need it to be practical. Were you able to get a sample to do stain tests on them? This may be the deciding factor for you - if one performs better than the other. On another post I stated that our sample Madre Perola performed great re red wine, balsamic vinegar, orange juice, mustard, etc. Do you know how the White Princess holds up? Anyway, like I said earlier I think both are absolutely beautiful choices and I look forward to hearing what you decide.

Ooohh, I am excited to see someone else mention tropical brown granite. I installed it this summer on my glazed creamy white cabinets and I love it. Mine has a lot of black and grayish/greenish brown to offset the warm orangy brown. I specifically chose it because it is tight and uniform. I don't care for big swirly patterns. I would not want the big vein running through mine because I wanted the tight uniformity of the granite. It depends on what you want and like. I would definitely look at it in person. My slab was not the exact same color as the "swatch" they gave me to take home. I even took my cabinet door with me to compare it to the slabs to ensure I liked it. Who knows, you may see something else you like better.

Hey, barncatz: Every word of consolation and support helps. I'm trying not to rush the BS decision, but I know I'll feel much better about the countertop experience once I'm not staring at these sliver add-ons. One of my very early inspirations was Majra's kitchen. She, just like pipdog, used the mosaics for a lovely effect. And this is why I spent so much time last year looking at mosaics. But the mosaics seem a bit too busy (for me) up close. The rest of my kitchen is a work in progress. Lotsa 9-1/2' walls that will need to be painted again (probably a cool white -- the next challenge!), and a ton of natural light coming in. Baseboards, pantry door and trim are all semi-gloss white, and ceiling is white. Kitchen is open to the family room: taupe walls with a white fireplace/mantel -- white trim throughout the entire house. pippiep: Matching grout it is, then! One decision down. :) I've marked out the areas that will require BS tile. As you can see, it's not very expansive, and each one not very large. So, I need to find the correct scale/dimension tile that will look right in these spaces. I think using larger (3x6) tiles in a herringbone pattern will leave me with a bunch of chopped up squares in the bartop and cutout window areas. At least with the newest elongated hex pattern, most of the hexes will be retained.

Sorry this happened. It can be frustrating to expect this and wind up with that. I agree with MagE Eric replace them as you need to like your counters.. Years ago I was having our soon to be new home painted. We were not living in the house so had work done prior to our relocation. I thought I had chosen a warm beige cream paint but when I went to check on the job site it turned out to be a glowy warm peach pink color. I was horrified! My DH told me to think long and hard about spending more money to re-paint all of it. I had chosen the color this was not the mistake of the GC or the painter. The paint choice was all mine. I was on a budget and decided to accept my walls. I cried on the way home but accepted I had to live with the choice I made. Maybe down the road I would repaint them. Months later I started to like that color. And little by little I fell in love with the color. It went perfectly in my home. My furniture, rugs, window coverings etc.. all went really great with this warm peachy beige. When I went to sell the house the new owners wanted to know the name and color of the paint as they loved the color. It doesn't matter if this is Mont Granite's fault or anyone's fault what matters is are you going to be happy? Are you going to be happy spending the money to replace or happy accepting the situation you are in? You need to make your kitchen and your space wonderful for yourself. HOnestly, if I had the money years ago I would have repainted the entire house. ~boxer