Take a sample home and put lemon juice on it. What you will find is that the etches on dark marble show up white. Not at all attractive. And that's why only the white marbles are truly popular for kitchen counters. They show etches much less than the dark ones. Possibly use it as a vertical accent somewhere in your home (NOT a shower), but I wouldn't use it on any horizontal surface. Maybe a gorgeous full height backsplash where you have no uppers on a wall....or in an entry way directly facing you as a focal point. Think of it as art, not a work surface.

Hi Sharmilaks, My experience with glass is that it will scratch eventually and being such a high gloss marks will show. I would agree with DVG and have a look at Quartz Stone or Composite stone such brands as Compac, Quartz Forms, Diresco, Quarelle, Caesarstone, Arena stone, Uni Stone, Cimstone.

thank you very much to everyone who responded! I'll look into espresso and charcoal grays. As well as the steel backplash. Emmarenes, I'm living abroad in India, and the only granites in my budget are the local ones. I was advised against the gray and white local ones because i was told that they would not hold up well in the kitchen. I could have gone with a black galaxy as well but i have that granite now and despise it because of the way it hides ants and bugs so well. we live in a tropical area and there are always critters here and there. My first choice was a Brazilian white granite but it was triple the price. This granite is called Shiva pink, so it has a pink salmon and gray look to it. Im really hoping I don't hate it once it's installed. The stoneyard was a 9 hour trip up and down and i was just pressured to make a choice after several undecided trips. And I'm getting new cabinets put in. but I think I can wait for them to put the slab before staining the wood. Thanks for that idea :)

Thank you guys for sharing your beautiful Diwali celebrations with us! As promised here we have the 5 winners for the competition (in random order): Congratulations: Rentala Madhubala Beautiful Jodhpur Anagha Kalghatgi varshatalreja Jayati *Winners will receive the amazon gift vouchers on the Houzz registered email addresses within the next 24-48 hours.