Hi Tom, I am remodeling and am having a hard time putting things together. I have redone my kitchen with natural cherry cabinets and have an existing jatoba floor. I really love the Kashmir white granite and have already picked out a slab. Is this a good choice ( I know it is porous and I don’t mind the upkeep.)? I’ve seen you say that it would look good with a white porcelain sink, which is what I have but then on another run of cabinets I do have a stainless oven and frig which I went with so there was not this drastic variation in color from the floor? The dishwasher next to the sink has a cabinet panel on it. I wanted a lighter granite because the kitchen, eating area, and family room are a little dark due to the floors and northeast lighting but there are quite a few windows. Also, I prefer the lighter color granite. So, I still have time to pick out a different slab of granite if that is what you recommend. Also, you mentioned being careful of heavily fractured garnets… Can you explain more. I just picked out the slab that I thought was most beautiful?? Any recommendations a color palette that would work best to pull these rooms together? And lastly, I know this is a lot, what would you recommend for faucet, pulls and granite edge. I have a farmhouse sink and I love a casual feel. Thanks so much for your time and advice!!

Susan and Carl

Hello Susan and Carl!

As you may have read, Kashmir White Granite is one of my favorite granite colors. It is the color in my own kitchen. My wife loves it too.

Kashmir White is not high maintenance after it has been properly sealed. Usually I suggest that homeowners simply seal granite themselves but this is one color that requires a couple applications to get to a level of low maintenance; therefore, some sealing experience is required. All you are trying to accomplish with the sealer it blocking the absorption of contaminates like juice and wine. This granite color is still very durable and you can put hot pans right on it. Because there is a little less quartz in this granite and the molecular structure is more ‘loose’ it is more absorbent. Some like to say it is softer, but that is not really an appropriate word to use.

Reading your entire post really helped. I was worried until I read that the white sink was farm house style. I could never recommend a white sink with a stainless refrigerator unless the sink was a farm house style. Farm house sinks should be white used with stainless refrigerators.

The mineral colors in Kashmir White are perfect for your décor. The silver wavy grain structure will compliment the stainless well. Check for any lose garnet specks that you can literally pick off with your fingernail. If you find some of these lose garnets you have to make a decision on how much you like the slab. It does not mean the slab will fall apart, it just means that you have to live with some small pitting. In my opinion, it is not that bad but you need to decide this for yourself.

Natural cherry cabinets with Jatoba flooring make for a very rich, formal and romantic atmosphere. In a kitchen, this is wonderfully subdued to homey, warm and modest by adding the granite color of Kashmir White. The garnets really pull it together but they are subtle. The silver gray with the bluish white background is inviting and tells others that you want them to come into the kitchen. A darker color would say, “I’ve got a cook by myself.”

I would consider going full height with the granite on the splash to light the room even more and appreciate the granite from the vertical position.

Go fancy with the edge detail if you want to a more formal kitchen. I think you need to at least go with a Roman OG edge. You can see edge details swatches at www.HomeGranite.com or www.GraniteStock.com.

Lastly, use pulls that match your faucet and refrigerator. Go with stainless or brushed metal of a similar color. Remember, the sink is a piece of furniture now and should stand on it own so don’t go with a white faucet.

Best wishes!

Dear Tom, I am wondering what color backsplash and wall color would go well with Ubatuba granite. We have white cabinets with black hardware, ubatuba counters and are looking to paint our walls and install a backsplash, we were thinking something on the gold side. My husband wants red but I can’t picture this. There is a lot of green in the counters, so I am not sure which way to turn. Oh, yeah, and we have hardwood floors which are about to be stained darker if this helps at all. We could really use your help..

Thanks, Desiree Harrington

Hello Desiree,

I used Ubatuba many times with white cabinets. Usually, a lighter stained floor compliments this combination best, but just be sure that you tightly sealer the bottom of the cabinets to the floor. People love to look at the base of white cabinets for some reason and having a nice tight transition from the floor to the cabinet will make the contrast look clean and professionally installed. I know you did not ask about this, but I wanted to get that out of the way first.

Dark Ubatuba Granite with white cabinets makes for a very clean look. Adding the black hardware changed everything from simple to sophisticated. First of all, you can not do red in the splash, unless it is Christmas in your kitchen 365 days a year. You can go in a few directions, depending on your taste and style.

The tamest option is travertine tile in a 4″x4″ size, set on a diagonal and installed all the way up to the upper cabinets. The mixture of color tones in travertine will compliment the granite nicely. Travertine comes in shades from light ivory to a dark noce. You can use any of these as they will all looks great with Ubatuba Granite.

The next option is to install the same granite slab up to the cabinets. I would only suggest this if the room as good lighting. With dark granites like this, I also only recommend full height granite slab splashes with white cabinets. Otherwise, it is just too dark. Full slab granite on the splashes allows you to appreciate the granite in two directions, horizontally and vertically. You can only appreciate granite countertops when you are right on top of them. So consider how granite on splashes is nice to view from a distance.

Lastly, it is a little trendy, but glass tile would look amazing. Check out Board #8 and #9 on this website. http://www.sandhillind.com/conceptdesigns.asp#board8 I am really likely what these people are doing with designs - simple, yet sophisticated. There is even a little red in #9! Board #3 is also great with the black fixtures.

Regarding paint, it depends on the splash choice above. Pull a shade from the lightest color in the splash that you choose. Match paint to that. That will work very well. If you go with granite slab splashes, then a light yellow/gold would bring nice color into the room.

Thank you for supporting The Rock Blog’s World Vision children and best wishes!

Hi Tom, I need help choosing a granite color. My house is a traditional 20 yr old 2 story Georgian w/a medium sized kitchen w/9 ft ceilings. We are removing soffits, adding new lighting, adding more molding to the plain cabinets, and painting the cabinets an off-white w/a medium brown glaze. The floors are honey oak, the ovens and dishwasher are black and I’m getting a new SS or black frig. (depending upon granite choice) and an undermount SS sink. I have a small black butcher block island and black chairs in the adjoining eating area. I want to use a light colored subway tile backsplash. There’s only 1 window but light is ok. I really like the cottage style but I’ve had the white cabinets and dark countertops for 6 yrs. and it seems a little cold. I am looking at Baltic Brown, New Venetian Gold, and Santa Cecilia. The Baltic Brown is so similar to the laminate we’ve had for the past 6 years, I was maybe looking for a warmer, softer, different look, although it seems to look good with the cabinets. I am afraid of picking something too light and my kitchen will look washed out and pale. My husband would like a granite with some movement. Will any of these granites work and look good? Can you suggest any others in a moderate price range that would give us a great looking kitchen. Thank you for your help, your site has been very informative.

Thank you, Jeanne

Hello Jeanne,

You outlined décor is simple, traditional and enjoyable. You are right that the granite color is so important to bringing it all together. Although the color is right, Giallo Veneziano or Santa Cecelia would make your kitchen very mundane and not classy traditional. I would lump Baltic Brown in there too because it is so overused, but Baltic Brown would look very nice and fit the traditional decor. It is classy and beautiful with a Stainless sink and I would suggest the black refrigerator. The white cabinets and the honey oak floor allow you to go this dark with no fear of closing in the space. If you really like this granite, this is a good choice.

I can see why you are having trouble with selecting a color. Know that the absolute most important thing is that you bring in the floor color to the countertops. This is not the case with every kitchen but in a traditional Georgian style home, the kitchen should be balanced this way. Others might not be aware that Georgian architecture is always proportion and balanced, but they will feel that something is not right if the countertop was too light or too dark and if the floor tried to stand on its own.

That being said, Baltic Brown can only be right if the glaze in the cabinets match the darker rings in the Baltic Brown. The lighter rings should match the Honey Oak floors. Avoid the Baltic Brown slabs that have too much green in it.

The only other granite that I would suggest that is cost effective and would look great is Carioca Gold. You can see a swatch at www.GraniteStock.com but you really need to get a piece of this in your kitchen in order to appreciate it. It might look too simple, but it is radiant and deep when laying flat. It is gorgeous with stainless and black. My personal choice would be this granite for the overall décor and home style.

Be sure to use a flat edge detail for the granite. Also, the subway tile (which is a perfect design choice) should match the cabinet base color.

My best wishes!

We are in the process of redoing our kitchen. We have an open U-shaped kitchen with chickory glaze oak cabinets (cathedral style) and white appliances. The kitchen is divided into two areas: a food preparation area and an eat-in area. We are installing creamy beige tile floors. The wallpaper in the food preparation area is peach, green, hints of blue and gold on a cream background. The eat-in area has this same wallpaper on the top with a green background with just cream design on the bottom half of the walls. This kitchen is open to a cathedral family room which has peach/rose faux finished walls. I don’t want a red or pink based granite. We are keeping our kitchen very traditional. It’s not a large space. We only need about 56 sq. feet of granite for countertops and a desktop. The desk will be against a wall with the peach/rose faux finish. We would like to know whether we should go with a large or small pattern. We looked at many but are having trouble visualizing the final product and need your help with some granite colors to help us narrow down our choices.

Thanks! Janice

Hello Janice,

This is a tough one. I think you are having trouble visualizing how this will look because you have three elements that are not updated. These are wallpaper, faux finish, and the color peach. All three of these are outdated and make it hard to bring in a shiny new granite surface into the room to compliment them.

However, let’s say that the wall paper, the faux and the peach color are all going to stay. I want to suggest a color that will tame those elements and still allow you to remodel later to a completely new look.

What I know about chicory glaze cabinets is that they are a little dark. This makes it even tougher because dark granite with a tight pattern would be great. However, I want to suggest the completely opposite direction. Consider Juparana Colombo Granite on the countertops with white 3×6 tile on the splash set on a brick pattern. This is a beautiful granite from India and reasonable priced. When carefully selected, this granite has all the colors you mentioned but more toned down. I think you will love it. It also has some gray in its tight patterns which will reduce brightness of the reds and rose elsewhere. If you ever remove the wallpaper and the faux, you will still have the colors that you like, but in an updated granite countertop!

I recommended the white 3×6 tile for the full splash because it will look very clean and updated while not adding anymore color to the kitchen. White fixtures are best with this décor.

Thank you for supporting The Rock Blog’s World Vision children and I hope that I have helped!

I came upon your site while researching granite countertops. We also support World Vision so I thought that was great that you donate the $ to their organization.

My husband and I are considering granite countertops for our remodeling project. Unlike most of your askers, we are on a tight budget. We refaced our cabinets in a light “spice” maple which gives them just a hint of color.

We have white appliances and sink with a small island about 2 1/2′ by 4′ that will be painted white which has a stainless top. We are using brushed nickel pulls and a brushed nickel faucet. We have 5 kids and we are not fastidious about cleaning. There would be times I am sure, that something would be spilled without our being aware of it and left overnight. We were planning on doing 12 x 12 tiles, (not necessarily granite) due to cost but realtors, friends, and kitchen consultants are all saying not to and that we should do granite slabs. I do a lot of cooking and like it that granite has no grout and that I could put hot stuff on it unlike some of the other solid surface materials as well as it is beautiful. We have received bids of around $1800 for fabrication and installation which does not include a backsplash or the granite but does include a cutout for an undermount sink and drop in stovetop. We are looking for light to medium granite that is on the low end of the price spectrum… I found slabs at a yard for $10 a foot. We have an L shaped kitchen 8′ by 8 1/2′ and a 28″ counter area across from the longer side of the L.

My thinking of accent colors are sunflower yellows, warm orange, muted greens, and possibly muted reds….woodsy autumn colors and galvanized steel. We thought that if we did granite, we would do a tile backsplash up to the cabinets which is 18″. Otherwise we would do a 6″ slab granite backsplash unless it was better to do a granite tile backsplash all the way up. We plan to put in sheet vinyl for the flooring in a tile pattern although we have medium oak flooring throughout the rest of the house. Could you please advise us on granite that would fit our needs and ideas for how to do it most cost effectively. Also flooring colors to go along with the granite.

I have no problem with sealing granite but it should be one of the less maintenance types vs high maintenance.

We are not designer people so if our color scheme is not good, we have no problem with you telling us so.

Thank you for your help - Debbie

Hello Debbie

First, I would like to commend you on your support of World Vision. When people have a tight budget with there remodels and still give to help children, it tells a lot about character and heart.

Ok, so I feel that I can give you a good color recommendation based, on the décor you described, your color pallet preferences and low maintenance granite. Let me approach this in reverse order.

Granite is a natural rock as you know, but the characteristics of each color are made up of difference types and volume of minerals. Granite is defined has having at least 65% quartz and the remainder can be minerals that are a little softer like orthoclase of mica. I define low maintenance granite as having more quartz (harder) and a tighter molecular structure (less absorbent). Sometimes people think that Absolute Black granite is low maintenance because it has a tight molecular structure, but what they forget is that is has no quartz. Absolute Black is actually not granite at all.

Most of the granite colors from Saudi Arabia are what I consider low maintenance granite on the planet. They are high in quartz and have tight grain structures that almost require no sealing at all. Still, I would always seal granite with a low viscosity penetrating granite sealer like Miracle 511 Impregnator or equal.

The really good news is that there are several colors from Saudi Arabia that meet your pallet desire. These are Silver Sea Green, Violetta, Golden Leaf, and Tropical Brown.

You really should try to see all of these at your local supplier because they are so different. Still, I recommend the Golden Leaf most of all because of the soft organic color tones you mentioned. The Violetta is very strong and you will either love it or hate it right away. If you did not have white cabinets, I would say it is too dark. The Silver Sea Green is very pretty and might be a perfect match too. Tropical Brown is very popular and handsome but does not mix with the organic soft tones like the other colors.

One of these will be perfect and you will truly appreciate the low maintenance. Regarding costs, I need to know where you are located and I will hunt through our network of hundreds of providers to see who can help you best. Also, send me the size of each countertop and I will calculate how many slabs you need. Perhaps it is best to go with only a 6″ splash if a full splash requires purchasing another slab.

Once you decide the color you want and know how many slabs you need, it will be must easier to call around to see of anyone has remnants or orphan slabs at a discount.

Also, I would like to add one comment about safety. I am about to post an article about sharp edges in home that have children. Remember to round those outside corners a little. They can really hurt the 3 year-olds!

Best wishes!

We are completely remodeling out kitchen. After many months, we finally picked out cabinets, cherry with honey finish and brown glaze (medium brown color) We need help picking out a granite and paint color. Our kitchen is long and narrow, 27′ by 14′ with eating area on one end. We have a large southern exposure window in eating area, and a western exposure sliding glass door. Plenty of light! There are 3 parallel cabinet/countertop areas. The west wall has sink, oven, dishwasher, frig. The opposite wall is cabinets/pantry with 5′ counter top. In between these two walls is a 9′ by 3′ island with black cooktop. The frig and oven are stainless, the dishwasher will have cabinet panal. We are considering a black sink, but haven’t purchased yet. We are also still deciding on floor, probably a neutral, cream/beige tile. In reading your answers, I’m wondering if tan brown or giallo veneziano would be good choices? I don’t want anything too dark, as I’ve heard complaints that it is hard to keep clean looking. Any help would be appreciated!!

Thanks, Mary

Hello Mary,

In reading your kitchen description, I am definitely picturing light colored granite. The Southern light exposure just makes dark granites too hot in the day time, and at night the granite picks up a lot of reflection from nearby windows. It can be really annoying at night with dark granite and windows that reflect light.

Also, your cabinet colors and black cooktop would go well with a black sink. I would introduce a black sink in the décor to balance out the cooktop. You can use stainless faucet fixtures to tie the dishwasher and refrigeration in to make it organized.

You really do have quite a few choices for granite that will blend well. I would not recommend the Tan Brown for reasons stated above and the Giallo Veneziano is too… 2002! Consider the following three colors.

Arandis Granite. This is beautiful granite with an elegant style but still very warm and homey. It has a soft color matrix which will balance out the stronger black and stainless accents. If you use a simple edge detail, it will be more casual. If you want a more elegant feel but not over the top, go with a Roman OG edge detail. (Check www.HomeGranite.com for photo examples of this edge choice and others.)

Kodiac (Geriba) Granite. This is will be brighter and more fun but still has the soft oyster looking accents that really deliver a stunning look in a kitchen. The colors are perfect with your décor.Ok, the last one here is to bring more color into your décor but will be also look very nice. You will either love it or hate it. Juparana Crema Mara Granite has a beautiful movement filled with grays, creams, garnet and a little black. Your island will look fantastic! It is a cooler color over all and will go very well with the amount of natural light that you have.

Regarding the floor and the paint, just keep in the same tone as your cabinets but go light. Stay away from white or bone. Look at gold paint charts select a very very light color tone in that family. Match that to tile and paint.

My very best wishes and I hope that I have help!

Hello Tom: Just discovered your web site. Its great. I have 1″ polished china white marble hex on my new bathroom floor. Before using the shower, I cleaned and sealed the floor with a Solvent Based impregnator/Sealer. Over a couple weeks I put three coats in the shower area (I was waiting on the glass panel).

Now after three days of use areas are turning grey (like the “White Marble Gone Grey” question on your site); however this was pretty much white to begin with. It seems like moister is getting to the thinset. Did I use the wrong sealer? Do I need to pour it on thick to get it in to the grout since there is so much grout with a 1″ hex? Do I know need to wait for the greying to dryout before I reseal? Secondly I too have the same problem as with White Marble Gone Grey question. My walls are a 5″x2.5″ Polished China White marble. I waited a couple weeks to let the thinset dry prior to sealing and resolved at the time that there was going to be some tiles greyish and some more white. I sealed the walls and now I’ve read your response to the “Gone Grey” question. Have I forever sealed the moister in? Will it eventually dry out, albeit slowly? Could I apply heat with a salamander to draw the moister out of the tiles even thought its been sealed.

Thanks, David.

Hello David,

Basically the sealer is not working effectively in the grout but it is working on the marble. The water is soaking into the grout and wants to wick out the marble; however, the sealer is blocking the moisture from evaporating. I am sure that you probably guess this by the way it looks.

The problem is two-fold. First all, the sealer is probably a high viscosity sealer that is commonly used to penetrate the tight pores of natural stone. With non-sanded grout joints this works well as long as the grout joints are sufficiently sealed as well. However, with sanded grout (common with joints over 1/8″ wide) the low viscosity sealer just wants to suck down in deep in the grout and leaves the grout surface unprotected. You can test this by simply wetting the grout and seeing if it becomes darker. If it darkens, then the grout is not sealed sufficiently.

Secondly, grout joints, especially in mosaic patterns, are difficult to grout because they are slightly concaved from the marble surface. As you wipe on the sealer, you miss the grout surface. Combine this with a low viscosity sealer and you basically have no sealer on the surface layer of the grout.

For the fix, here is what I recommend. First you need to see if you can pull the moisture out of the marble by using a salamander heater or equal. It could take several hours and a few tries. Given that you have applied several coats of sealer, this might not work at all. In that case, you need to effectively decrease the volume of sealer in the marble. Do this by cleaning the surface with Acetone, sponging it on the surface and letting it sit there for about 20 seconds before wiping off. This should allow you draw the moisture out with the salamander heater. If the tiles do not turn back to white, then you have probably sealed the moisture in before the thinset or the grout fully cured. If this is the case, you need to try Acetone again and heat until the moisture mark are gone. You need to wait a couple days after they finally disappear because they will dry on the marble surface first, and then deeper. If you think they are gone, wait a couple days to see if a little more moisture wicks to the surface.

Finally, you have to re-seal the grout. I’d recommend using a higher viscosity natural stone sealer like Miracle Sealants 511 Porous Plus or equal. Don’t be concerned with sealing the marble, just focus on the grout. The marble mosaic will get covered if you just worry about sealing the grout. Watch for all the grout to darken from the sealer as you seal it to confirm the sealer has contacted it. The grout color will come back to normal once the sealer dries. Let is dry for 24 hours before use.

Best wishes!