My parents have Steel Grey aka Silver Pearl (?) and they are very happy with it. The've had it in their kitchen for a few years now. They don't baby it at all, and it appeared to be holding up well when we were last there visiting, a few months ago.

It looks very nice!

I have steel gray in our bathroom. Here are some photos. We love it.

When we looked for granite for our kitchen we tried to find steel gray. Everywhere we find we were told they could no longer get it or it they did have it, it didn't look anything like the steel gray in our bathroom.

I am considering this same granite. I was looking for black or a white granite and saw the steel gray at Ikea. I too am curious to see pix. I can't seem to find many on the web. I was thinking it might be nice honed as well.

Attached is a link to kitchen with steel gray. You need to scroll down a bit but there are nice photos.

Steel gray aka silver pearl

Here is a link that might be useful: kitchen with steel gray

Thanks for everyone's input. Mpagmom, do you happen to have a picture of the Steel Gray granite you used in your basement kitchen? I sure would love to see it!

I am strongly considering the steel gray granite. Does anyone have it? Does it stain easy? Do you have to baby it? Debrak, your link was helpful. I do love the looks but need to know opinions about upkeep. I need a granite that I can work in my kitchen and not worry about. I am a bit messy when I prepare food. Comments please!

No upkeep. I have White diamond granite in the kitchen which is kind of the opposite of steel gray. Neither is baby'd. The bathroom counter (steel gray) is cleaned with lysol bathroom cleaner or a mix of alcohol and water. I don't do anything else to it. Stuff like mouthwash, toothpaste, make up, lotions, get left to dry on the counter and everything easily gets cleaned off. It never needs to be sealed.

The white diamond is not much different other than eventually it will need to to be resealed. Anything that has landed and dried on this counter, wine, coffee, tea, honey, grease, nail polish, etc. has cleaned off with water and a microfiber cloth or with a little help from pledge multi surface cleaner. Once in a great while I do scrub it all down with a super fine SS which the fabricated gave to me.

The steel gray does show dust a little more if you are looking at a certain angle. I use a powder make up which gets everywhere. The white diamond hides things better which may not be better because the counter usually looks cleaner than it actually is.

I love them both.

We just installed 82sf of steel gray in our kitchen and I love it! My research on it found that it is one of the most dense granites and it doesn't need to be babied at all. We are still finishing our renovation so I cannot comment on the actual ongoing maintenance but my understanding was the same as what debrak2008 describes above. Good luck!

We're putting leathered Steel Gray granite in. I purchased a tile of Arabian Black (same stone under a different name, comes from the same area of India as far as I can tell) and had our fabricator leather it. I have tested it with ketchup, mustard and lemon juice, letting each sit on the tile for more than 30 minutes. Nothing soaked in and everything wiped up clean. And it's not even sealed! My KD said that if it can stand up to lemon juice, it's a keeper.

Hubby and I put our slab on hold yesterday. And then we went to the Street of Dreams show and saw leathered Arabian Black in one of rooms in one of the $1M+ homes. Nice to see such a modest stone used in such an expensive home.

My KD dragged a utility knife across it, pressing down really hard. Didn't scratch the stone but did leave metal marks. I was advised that polishing it with fine steel wool would remove that but I haven't done that yet. I don't feel the need to since I doubt I'll ever forcefully drag my kitchen knives across my counters.

I put in leathered Steel Gray in my kitchen on the perimeter, two bathroom vanities in leathered Steel Gray and my moms kitchen in polished Steel Gray. We haven't sealed it yet and have been using it for 4 weeks now. I have left tomato sauce on it all night and scrape it off in the morning and its fine. Bacon grease, no problem.

I love the leathered so much and wouldnt change it for polished, but at my moms tonight I thought, "wow, her granite is SO pretty!" The slabs I chose happened to be polished on one side and leathered on the other. So, we were able to do all that with two slabs.

Btw, I have Carrara marble on my island.

Personally, I don't think, you can go wrong with Steel Gray. I have a two toned white on top, slate stained (almost black) on bottom kitchen and she has rustic hickory. They both look awesome. I love it in the bathroom, too. Mud and soap all over it with five kids. No issues yet.

FamCook, do you plan to seal your Steel Gray? I've been told that when a so-called bullet proof granite is honed or leathered, it should be sealed because its impregnable nature is altered (confusingly, that is contrary to the info shared on the countertop geology threads). However, if a stone isn't absorbent, then a sealer is only going to sit on top and there could be stain or marking issues because of the sealer not the stone.

I haven't asked my fabricator but I'm sure he's going to tell me we should seal it.

I think I'm going to run more tests on my tile sample. And I'm going to let the puddles sit for hours - maybe even overnight - and see what happens.

FamCook do you have any pictures of your kitchen? I am also on the fence regarding steel gray vs. carrara. DH wants steel gray in leathered and DD wants the marble.
I've tested and the steel gray is bullet proof. The honed carrara etched of course but no staining.

Lisa_a - yes I am going to seal it. My fabricator put many coats of sealer on the marble island for me, but I said I would do the granite. He gave me some sealer to use. I just have to do it. I thought once the three oldest are back in school it be a little easier to do. Maybe I will test it in a little area first. I will post when I am done to give the outcome.

Missymoo12 - I have one picture posted, but I need to do a full reveal with more pictures, as I found these helpful and, well, just interesting. :)
I really like the Steel Gray with the Carrara. I think it looks perfect together. I don't think I would have wanted marble on the perimeter, but maybe? I don't have any stains on the marble, but I do have a few etches. I have honed marble, so I only notice them if the light is just right and it's only a second. It doesn't bother me at all. It is what it is. When we have company or just in daily living with five kids 10 and under, I ask that they cut citrus on a cutting board on the granite, but other than that, I ignore the drinks with their water rings or people pushing plates and possible scratches. We had 8 kids all weekend here and LOTS of adults. The island survived, just like the rest of the house. :)

A side note: my best friend is an amazing artist with a perfect eye for color. She helped me (or did it all) pick my paint colors and my counters. I was getting a migraine and couldn't even remember what the marble and Steel Gray looked like together. She said they were perfect together with the right ones, etc. I went with it and couldn't be more Pleased. Plus, my choice was the least expensive option. The marble and granite was the same price as just granite.

Thanks, FamCook!

I'm doing carrara for my island, too, but not the real stuff. We've chosen PentalQuartz Carrara. It's lovely; not as lovely as real marble but still quite lovely for a quartz look-alike and it looks great with the leathered Steel Gray. Not that we haven't wavered plenty between quartz and marble, though! Hubby and I wander the marble aisle each time we visit a stone yard. He likes it just as much as I do. I bet that if I said I wanted to do marble, he'd be up for it.

But at present, I've decided to be content with the pair of antique marble-topped nightstands in our bedroom.

This post was edited by lisa_a on Mon, Aug 25, 14 at 22:25

Here are some photos, excuse the mess. I figured the pics would be better sooner rather than later.

Across the room

Trying to get granite and marble in one shot. Not great pic, I know.

One more

Thanks again, FamCook. I reposted 3 of your 4 pics because they are sideways for me and likely sideways for others. (why does this happen only on GW?)

Now that I can see your counters right side up ... wow, your marble is stunning!! You're making me rethink my decision to go with quartz.

{{!gwi}}

This post was edited by lisa_a on Tue, Aug 26, 14 at 0:35

FamCook WOW! thanks for posting the pics. That marble is fantastic!! Where did you find the honed? I'm having a really hard time finding it. The steel gray is honed also? It looks great together in your kitchen.
Love the kitchen too. I have a white top-stained bottom kitchen now. And have white with stained island in the new space.
Lisa thanks for putting the pics right. I cant figure out the sideways thing either.
I went to Marble.com in NJ and came home with about 25 samples. They had NO honed carrara. Only Danby honed everything else was polished.

Missymoo12 - I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan and went to one granite place my fabricator suggested and walked through and wrote down three kinds. The leathered Steel Gray, the Honed Carrara and something else that I can't even remember. I did not spend much time there at all, probably more time looking at some of the wild ones and snickering at the names. Yes, I am a child. I also called the Steel Gray "Blue Steel" the whole time and made the receptionist laugh a lot. It's a Zoolander quote. Also, they only had about five leathered slabs in the whole place and maybe five honed, they had hundreds of different kinds of stone. I didn't look through the slabs either, just the top one. In retrospect, maybe I should have looked a little more, but it seemed right so I just went with it. I mentioned above, I was getting a migraine and hardly remembered what the slabs looked like the next day.

Could you ask your fabricator where they thought you could get leathered or honed? My fabricator hadn't worked with leathered before and the stone yard (Monsma) said it wasn't all that popular yet. I figure I'm in west michigan and so it'll take a while to catch on here. Everyone that visits asks what our counters are, i think because of the matte-ness and texture. I had read about it here on GW and so was interested in seeing it in person. Love at first touch. Lol

Lisa_a - thanks for fixing the pictures. They look okay to me, but I'm using an iPad and I notice some weird differences with different iPads. My husbands won't ever show the pics, weird.
Also, I'm sure whatever counter you pick will look awesome. Why are you shying away from marble? The etching? I can't remember if you have a U shaped kitchen or and L with an island?

You're welcome!

I have a U with an island, with a doorway through the bottom portion of the U where it meets up with one side. Did that make any sense?

I think I'm more concerned about marble staining than etching. I think could live with the etching. One of my big goals for the remodel is low maintenance and marble doesn't really fit that goal. I have a chronic illness so I need to make life easier whenever and wherever possible. Plus I hate to clean. I'll weed for hours with a smile on my face but cleaning makes me grumpy. ;-) I'd love to have marble but realistically, quartz is the right choice for us. I'll just live vicariously through you and others who have marble counters. There might be some drooling involved, lol.

Lisa_a - I totally get it. The marble island is the only choice that wasn't totally maintenance free for us. Although, I'm not particularly adverse to etching, so it hasn't seemed really high maintenance to me, but I could see that other surfaces would be easier to live with.

Hope you enjoy whatever you get!

Thanks, FamCook!

If you're still interested with Steel Gray, visit the website "www.naturalstoneny.com" .We still have it in stock. I'd be more than happy to show you the slabs whenever you are in NY, Brooklyn Area.