Hello Tom,

Suzanne from FLa here, we are weekend DIY warriors. Finally after 6 years of remodeling a 52 year old CBS Fla 2 story- we are at kitchen/greatroom. We are stuck with a flagstone fireplace in the /beige/golds/rust tones. We have chosen carmelized bamboo floors in kitchen/great room, new stainless steel appliances, L-shaped kitchen now gutted.

White plantation shutters, decorative mouldings on doors and windows (painted white) Window in kitchen replaced with hurricane impact -facing WEST. “European white” walls (light taupe) We may have to change that color a bit.

We believe we have settled on arctic RTA white cabinets - nice balance with bamboo floors- we plan on an island-with same granite. Im not too keen on wood floors and wood cabinets (too rustic)

Last week we took a piece of the bamboo floor to the local granite yard/fabricators we went to each slabe with the bamboo and narrowed it down to to Baltic Brown and Lapidus Granite (matched tone of bamboo beautifully) I also like the “movement” in the stone. We chose the stainless undermount sink to match appliances. A friend keeps telling me to go lighter (creme) or whitish granite.

Although we chose the Lapidus Granite to pick up on the floor and fireplace. The samples they cut for me from slab, pick up beautifully, I am wondering if my match the countertop with floor tone/paired with white cabinetry was incorrect. I dont see Lapidus Granite paired with white cabinets too much. I can still change that as well.

QUESTION: What do I do with backsplash? Would a continuation of the lapidus to bottom of cabinets be overkill? Or should I go towards a tumbled stone or jerusalem stone look or glass tile?

Thanking you in advance fo any input you can afford me.

Suzanne

Hello Suzanne,

Natural wood cabinets with bamboo floors don’t look good so you instincts are correct here. I really do like natural wood cabinets but never with bamboo floors. They just clash because of the natural grain in each.

I have recommended Lapidus Granite many times with bamboo floors so maybe you saw that somewhere else on the Rock Blog. White or even black cabinets really are the best compliment. I am concerned about the white color your mentioned. Hopefully the white you mentioned is a bluish softer white, rather than a yellow or gray-white. Hold a piece of paper up to the cabinets and consider what hue you see in the cabinet finish. Any range in the blue-white would look great. Yellow-white would just be ok and gray-white would be cold, dull and just ugly.

Lapidus is one of my favorites when it is selected well. You may have found many variations of Lapidus as it is extremely wild. Because of the wild veining movement, you definitely want to carry the granite up the walls to the bottom of the upper cabinets. This is really important so that the heavy movement rolls right up the wall for a complete look. Many homeowners ruin the complete picture by only putting Lapidus on the countertop and then mashing it with some mottle travertine tile on the splash wall. Tile splashes are great for more monochromatic or bright colored granites, but not highly variegated granite like Lapidus. A good place to see Kitchen photos are in the Kitchen Galleries at www.GraniteStock.com and www.HomeGranite.com.

Lastly, Baltic Brown is a far stretch to the simple side from Lapidus as you know. I do like this color but only with Stainless fixtures and appliances. Baltic Brown does not go that well with white cabinets because the darker browns are just too overwhelming against white. It is like dark brown shirt, with white pants…I don’t think so!

Regarding glass tile, I love it but not with Lapidus. That would be like putting pin-striping on a S500 Mercedes. Lapidus is the right choice. Let this stone be the art and function in your kitchen.

Best wishes and thank you for support The Rock’s Blog’s World Vision Kids!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007 at 4:24 pm and is filed under Answers to Granite Questions..., Granite Choice Advice, Granite Color Help. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.