I get best pricing between baltic brown granite and tropical brown granite and need to choose one. We are about to sell our house. Floors are hardwood oak and will be refinished prior to sale. Cabinets are sapphire white — antique white looking. Dishwasher is in great shape and is black. I need to decide which granite and whether to replace all appliances with black or do go with stainless. My only option for cooktops is black with stainless band or all black. Wall color is a very neutral brown with some taupe in it. So please give me your suggestion as to which granite and as to all black appliances or stainless/black combination.
- Gloria

Hello Gloria,

The decision is easy based on your comments. Select Baltic Brown with very little green. You will sometimes notice the moss green color in a circular pattern around the lighter brown rings in Baltic Brown. Some green is ok, but if you can find a selection with very little green, then you have got a winner for resale. Now then, the Tropical Brown is also very nice granite and even more durable, but it is less attractive to the overall appeal for home buyers.

Both colors look good with stainless appliances, but Baltic Brown looks the best. Do not go with black, but black with stainless is ok for the range top. I am very confident that you will get a better offer for your home if you go with my recommendation. This is the best $10 you have ever invested.

Best wishes,
Tom Cordova

Hi Tom

We are putting white kraftmaid cabinets in our kitchen. Our floors are maple and all of our appliances will be stainless. Our walls in the surrounding room are a gold color but we can do something different in kitchen area. I’m torn between going (granite) dark with butterfly verde w/wihite, uba tuba, or peacock verde versus going lighter more neutral with something like new venetian or something of that flavor.

Thoughts?

Thank you,
Krista

Hello Krista,

The white cabinets with the maple floors allow you to go with a complimentary light color. However, the stainless really limits the light granite colors that you should consider. The only one that I would recommend is Giallo Ornamental because of it yellow/cream background and silver fleck that will compliment the stainless fixtures.

Still, go dark! Unless your kitchen is very small, you have opened the room enough with the white cabinets to go with dark granite and that will compliment the stainless best. I really suggest a dark green as you mentioned, but now, which green?

In a subsequent email you mentioned Verde Jewel Granite. Unfortunately, suppliers do change names a lot so what I am about to say, needs to be investigated further by you. First of all, be absolutely sure where it comes from. The Verde Jewel granite that I am familiar with is from India and is sometimes called Verde Hawaiian or Verde Esmeralda. This granite is what I call, “A bad stone”. This granite as low flexural strength, meaning the quartz structure is loosely bonded and inherently fractures with very little stress. This granite is a fabricators nemesis because is it beautiful, inexpensive, but deceiving durable prior to installation.

This is a ‘finger-pointing’ stone because the granite provider will honestly believe that the fractures you find in the finished countertop were there prior to fabrication. In other words, when you approved the slabs, you must have seen them. For this reason, I hate this granite.

Very similar granites from Brazil are Verde San Francisco or Candais Green. I suppose Verde Jewel (India) came into the market because it is slightly lower cost that the Brazilian ‘better’ alternative. You can see the Brazilian granites on www.HomeGranite.com or www.GraniteStock.com.

If you simply must have the Verde Jewel, then carefully follow the Home Owner’s Checklist when you select the slabs. My very best wishes to you and thank you for donation to World Vision,

Tom