Thank you! This is pretty helpful. I am definitely open to other choices, but have been hunting and haven't come across another sample I like too much.
Our kitchen is borderline uber-modern, so we can go from the really uniform look of Caesarstone to the more interesting relatively uniform(ish) look of some granites. When talking about granite, I am steering away from the slabs that mix flecks and veins of sharply contrasting colors (dark brown with white veins/flecks, or the Santa Giallo Cecelia light with dark fleck variety), and leaning toward the ones whose color variation may have 3-4 colors of the same darkness/tone to make it appear a little more uniform from afar, though still interesting close up. I want something in the warm charcoal or gray to brown/tan. Some mildly green or blue slabs may be okay, but no orangy-pink or purple hues. Again durability is a major consideration.
If it helps and you have an hour to read, here is a detailed description of the great room/kitchen space:
Kitchen is 1/2 of a large great room. It is laid out in a U-shape with a 227" back wall with the rangetop centered and double-oven to the far right with both upper and base cabinets filling the rest (no windows on that wall), a 42" sub-zero fridge and Miele coffee system are on a wall to the right side, and a built-in armoire-type cabinet piece is on left wall. A large T-shaped, two-level island is in the center. The the lower island has a centered stainless sink and DW, and then there is a bar-height table (seats 4) attached by metal standoffs to the counter-height, centered on the sink island counter.
As I mentioned there is 16"x32" (huge!) brick-set tiles in the kitchen that looks exactly like Lagos Azul limestone. This is the ceramic tile color (doesn't it look like limestone!?):
The cabinets are are slab-front, rift oak an uber-dark espresso stain--some sleek brushed steel pulls will accent the doors. There are also a few accent glass cabinets in the rift oak with translucent white glass in it.
There is a contemporary chimney hood centered on the long back wall over the rangetop. The backsplash (only seen on the long wall) is 4x8 glass tiles in a blend of three neutral tan-to-brown tones with occasional lime green and deep sea blue accent 4x8 glass tiles (about 5%). The tiles run up the wall to the top behind the chimney hood duct.
In the other half of the great room is the living room area. Here there are wide-plank mahogany floors and lots of modern-cut vertical grain fir finish carpentry (tons of large windows and French Doors) including a fir picture rail that runs around the whole room about 18" down from the 10' ceiling. A "swiss coffee" off-white ceiling color will come down to the top of the picture rail, and the wall color (a modern goldish-green color will be painted below the picture rail throughout great room).
Lastly, to one side, there is a custom mahogany staircase leading upstairs and downstairs with a custom black metal railings that can best be described as asian-fusion or Craftsman-meets-Picasso. There is a huge fireplace that will be wrapped in a uniform dark slate mosaic tile centered on the opposite 227" wall, with a built in space for a plasma TV over it and comfy sectional where the whole family and our yellow lab will lounge most nights.
SOOOOO, knowing all of that (way too much, I'm sure!) what do you think??? Antique Labrador? Caesarstone? Other ideas?
Thanks so much!
Deb
