Choosing Granite for My New Kitchen Countertops

One of the hardest decisions in this whole kitchen renovation has been the granite.  I always knew I wanted white cabinets with a stained wood island but I couldn’t picture what the counter tops would be like.  Actually, that’s not true…I could picture marble in there but for our family and lifestyle (messy boys), I knew granite would be more practical and less expensive.

In some of my Houzz and Pinterest inspiration photos, I came across a granite called, White Springs.  It blended beautifully with the White Dove painted cabinets as well as wood floors.  Our granite supplier had a few slabs and I loved the colors in them – white background with a taupe/tan, black, and brown.

We needed 2 slabs but I wasn’t thrilled with markings in one of the slabs the supplier had so he called me when some new ones came in.  When my contractor and I went to look at the new slabs, the colors were very different and I just couldn’t picture it working.  We decided to take a look at the originals to see if we could make them work with the templates we had done.

Unfortunately, there were several splotchy areas I didn’t like so the only piece that would work for the island was this one.  I was hesitant at first (should have been a sign right there) because the black marks looked a little snake-like and also kind of like bird footprints to me.  Because I tend to be a little indecisive at times, I tried to be more bold by talking myself into embracing the black marks for their artistic quality.

I wished the island looked more like this piece for the bar/entertainment area but overall I thought I was happy with the layout.  The next morning I started feeling hesitant and texted one of my best friends.  I asked her to come with me to look at the granite again.  She agreed that the granite wasn’t what I would normally pick and advised me to go really bold with the island lighting to draw the attention away from the black marks.  Once again, I felt okay with my decision but over the weekend I started having doubts again.  First thing Monday morning I cancelled the granite order right before they were due to start cutting.  I just didn’t want to spend the rest of my life staring at something I didn’t love.

So to make a long story short…(much too late for that I guess)…I started shopping again!

I wanted to go with the general look of the White Springs but a little more subtle like this White Giallo Ornamentale.  (The original Giallo Ornamental sample I had at the top of this page was very brown and basically nothing like this in color…

Close up of a White Giallo Ornamental with my samples.
My cabinets are White Dove, the walls are Manchester Tan
and the piece of cherry is the island color.

 White Giallo Ornamental

White Giallo Ornamental

 White Giallo Ornamental shown with the White Springs sample piece.

Giallo Ornamental in better lighting.

Then I found an Ivory Ice at another supplier.  Very close in color to what I have been looking for…

 Close up of Ivory Ice

 Ivory Ice Granite
The black marks are more subtle than the White Springs bird/snake marks.

Ivory Ice

Then at yet another supplier, I found this White Ice slab…

 White Ice side view
It appears very gray but seemed more white in person.

 White Ice with my kitchen samples.

 White Ice Granite

White Ice

So, I plan to go with one of the 3 granite choices above:

1.  White Giallo Ornamentale
2.  Ivory Ice
3.  White Ice

Now I have to push myself to make a decision or else I’ll mess up the schedule…ugh.  After all, we’ve already made some major progress, and I’d like to keep moving along!  Time to go back and look at all my kitchen inspiration photos!

If you are following along with my renovation progress, here is the next completed project.

Or, you can skip directly ahead to see which granite we chose!

Which granite is your favorite?