I guess more to the point is a look at your kitchen is needed . A picture of someone else space will not help your lighting your floor your other items all have an effect on cabinet color so does the slabs you chose se post some pics of your space make sure before doing anything you change all the lighting to LED 4000Ktoo. Make sure to post pics of the slabs you chose which I hope you had tagged at the stone yard . BTW you can google the counter and see lotsof pics of it installed

@Holly- Kay .Love this! What type of backsplash are you going with?

Hi Holly-Kay yes, I’m very interested. I would love to see it!! Thank you!!!

I have seen white dove and simply white with mont blanc quartzite.

We are using Walnut… but I want to caution you. I wish I knew more about this stone before it made it to the fabricators. At least that way I could have made an informed choice. If you are hoping for a stone that is less work than marble, this quartzite is not it.

The stone is super porous. It hasn’t crystallized as much as some other quartzites so it still has a lot of the qualities of sandstone. That means vigilance about staining and sealing. It also means you want to be confident in your fabricator because it is a tricky stone.

You’ll need them to cut it and then plan for a much longer delay between cutting and installing because the stone needs to completely dry out. If it doesn’t, then you end up with gray staining because of the water being trapped within them.

Then, your fabricator needs to seal the entire thing - front, back, and along every edge. Then, once that is soaked in (which is a lot faster than drying because this stone is thirsty, seal the whole thing again. Let it rest for 24 hours, and then you will need to polish the whole thing down again to get your shine back.

I know all of this because our fabricator cut our stone and discovered just how porous it is. So many things are delayed just waiting on counters now- but I am glad I didn’t end up with a fabricator who is rushing the job and who would have sealed water in and told me it will dry up. He and I both did our research and found that this process is the likeliest way of making it work and keeping it nice.

It’s too late for me to change my stone, but if I knew how much work it was going to be I might have just gone with marble, got something beautiful, and saved some money. Or I might have selected a more durable countertop. There are several more crystallized quartzites like Taj Mahal that would work.

I’ve decided to be fine with it since I can’t change it, and I’m not terrified of stones aging over time. Not to mention- it’s going to be stunning - our slabs are a warmer white with green-gray veining. I didn’t see any other stone that had a creamy white color like this one. We had only seen them under indoor lighting, but the fabricator had them out in the sun when we stopped by and… Wow!

@Sarah Bear We have had our mont blanc for a year now and we did have it sealed and have had it sealed a second time about 6 months ago. I would highly recommend looking for a HydroShield group near you. They warranty the seal for 3 years and have come out a few times to do stain treatment and reseal certain areas all for free. Our fabricator said he would do an initial seal but wouldn't warranty it due to the type of slab. The biggest thing is you need to keep sealing until water beads on top....each slab and even parts within the slab have different levels of absorption so a thorough seal is critical. These slabs are more high maintenance than we were "sold" but they are FAR more durable than marble. They won't ever etch which is my biggest peeve with marble. I hope you love your stone even more once you start using it!

I'll try to post photos of our slab with backsplash and cabinet color.

Thanks @Taylor McGraw! This is so heartening to read! Googling HydroShield now.

And yes, just looking at the slab drying we can see exactly where the water is going. It loves to travel along the veins in ours- which is probably why it has such beautiful veining, the groundwater was depositing minerals as it ran through those parts of the stone that are closer to sandstone.

Please do post a pic of your counters. I would love to see them. I’ll post some of mine whenever they come…