Hiya,

I just posted my problem honed "granite" countertop. Nightmare would be an understatement. I don't think mine is a true granite, but I would avoid it like the plague. It etches like crazy, and shows every mark. Here are some pics:

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Yikes! Details needed, please? Did you put it in? What was the stone called? Or did you buy a house with this? I'm sorry for your hard times! I heard that Absolut or Super black honed are horrible to use and maintain - perhaps that is what this is??

Whoops, sorry, I left off the details:

"Smokey Black Leather" is the name of this granite. This is a honed finish (it came this way).

As you can see, it has lots of issues with marking, stains, and etches (these are "in use" pictures. The tops were installed right before January 2009). This stone cannot be maintained. There is a waterbased penetrating sealer on them. Nothing we have tried (nor anything the experts have tried) will seal them (the best they came up with was a carnuba wax. This delays the etching a little, but does not prevent it). Everything (lemon juice, vinegar, orange juice, tomato juice, strawberries, chicken stock, wine...hmmm...I probably left a few out) affects it.

Hope this helps, I am interested to see what luck others have had.

Nathalie

Ours is called Blue in the Night antiqued. DH wanted black, but I was concerned over fingerprints and dust showing up. Our KD had Cambrian Black antiqued in her showroom shown with the cabinets we went with. We really liked the look. When we went to the granite yard, Cambrian wasn't available and I was heart broken until we saw the Blue in the Night. I'm a blue person, so I immediately fell in love.

It's only been in for 4 weeks, so I haven't had to do much for maintenance. The fabricator told us to seal it every 6 months. No stains so far and fingerprints really don't show up.

And yes, we love it.

I love how the blue specs jump out depending upon the angle and lighting.

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No - the stone in rubyfig's pictures isn't honed AB, unless someone did something really horrible to some nice honed AB! We've had honed AB for a year and a half now, and the only maintenance is wiping it off in the evening with some granite cleaner or water.

Here's a picture of it under normal daily conditions. It has a flat, even look (no movement or anything):

I know you've seen mine before, but here are some different pictures of my Cambrian Black with antique leather finish:

(the little flecks look white, but are actually silver):

I am feeling like a broken record because I've posted these pictures a lot in the past few weeks, but I LOVE my granite. It has little flecks of silver and copper that catch the light, but otherwise it's pretty uniformly black. The finish is not smooth and uniform like the sample of AB honed that I looked at: it's slightly textured with little divots and sort of rod-like pieces. A friend of mine has it and her MIL thinks it looks like asphalt, but I beg to differ! I really think it's gorgeous.

As far as some of your questions:

1. I wipe it with a wet cloth. That's it. If there is something sticky (or where my boys eat) I use a bit of soapy water, even though my granite guy said that would make a film on it, but I haven't fully moved into my kitchen and soapy water is the best I can do at this point. He recommended using Windex on it! I haven't tried that yet.

2. We do not have to seal it or do anything special to it. After they installed it, he wiped it down with something -- I believe it was acetone -- to "get the dust out of the pores". I won't have to do that again.

3. My granite installer said that this granite is "virtually indestructible" and that I would have to have at it with a sledgehammer to do any damage. Nothing has stained -- water just beads up on it. No fingerprints at all. I have only been cooking in my kitchen for a week or two, and haven't done major cooking since my floors aren't finished yet, but I love not having to worry about it staining (as opposed to my new bathroom countertop which is Carrara marble and I am terrified to put anything directly on it -- including my toothpaste tube!!)

I honestly don't know if I paid a premium for this. I only got quotes for this and for soapstone (I didn't even go to the fabricator: my kitchen designer recommended the granite installer and we did everything over the phone. I never saw the slab of granite until the day they installed it!). I do know that it was slightly less expensive than the soapstone that he had.

We have honed Uba Tuba. I'm sorry I don't have pix at the moment but I think I will be posting finished kitchen pix next week and I will be sure to include a closeup. When we moved in, the counters were polished, and I really didn't like them--too cold looking and they never looked clean except right after I cleaned them and wiped them dry. My husband used to use a squeegee on the island! When we did our reno we honed them and I really like them now. You can see the green in the stone much more, and it is totally easy to take care of--I just wipe with a sponge now, no drying, and crumbs, fingerprints, etc. don't show. I do think it helps to have a stone with some color variation, although honed AB looks wonderful too.

Mamadadapaige has a honed green granite that looks like soapstone--check it out on the FKB.

These posts are so helpful! It is just great to have them in one place. I have clipped so many different things now because I see a picture and want to remember it. Now we can have them all together.

Although - my disappointment of the day was when I went to a fancy KD place and met with someone. First, the bid for 3 replacement cabinets, an island and the countertops she suggested was $16,000. Yikes. And second, she said she didn't think my kitchen could pull off the soapstone or dark honed look. :(

So if I take her word for it - I'm thinking maybe another lighter granite honed or leathered or something. I just don't like the satin look. And I love the look of all of these pictures everyone is sending.

The KD suggested Choc. Truffle Caesarstone. Holy moly expensive. But the color is nice. Maybe I can find granite in a similar color to this Caesarstone in one of these special finishes. My only fear is that unless it is tried and true what happened to rubyfig could happen to me!

Oh well...and my heart was so set on honed Jet Mist....

repaintingagain- you mention "satin finish" a few times, but I think you mean to say "polished" is what you don't care for. Polished is the glossy look finish. Honed is as smooth and flat as polished, but not shiny and reflective. Antiqued is a textured finish, also not that wet, shiny look. Satin finish (so I've been told and judging by the Cambrian Black Satin I'm getting...) is very similar to antiqued or leathered, but slightly less textured. From the granite importers I visited, the satin finish was what we liked. Not so glossy... not so textured as would make a bumpy writing surface, but not so honed as to show water spots and fingerprints. Funny... even though we didn't want a polished stone, we still ended up "falling" for one. So our will be Cambrian Black Satin on the perimeter cabinets and polished Titanium on the island. Go figure!

1) I have antique nordic black. I really love it. It was my third choice, but I couldn't be more pleased. It came with this finish.

2) Maintenance: I usually just wipe it with a damp cloth. I will clean it with granite cleaner, if I am being thorough. I am supposed to seal it every 6 months, but I am behind schedule and it is still fine.

3) It shows virtually nothing. I have to look sideways to see dust. I am not the best housekeeper, but you would never know from my counters. The only problem that I have had is a chip on the edge.

"Although - my disappointment of the day was when I went to a fancy KD place and met with someone. First, the bid for 3 replacement cabinets, an island and the countertops she suggested was $16,000. Yikes. And second, she said she didn't think my kitchen could pull off the soapstone or dark honed look. :("

Hmph! Don't listen to her. I thought your painted counters (especially with the marble) looked great! If that is what YOU really like, you should do it. My KD told me I absolutely shouldn't do marble, she laughed at the idea. But that is what I am doing. She wanted me to do a dark, polished granite.

Also- dont let that quote scare you. in the course of looking at stone and getting quotes, I found that prices could vary by a thousand dollars or more (just for 30 sq ft of stone) between one fabricator and the next. On one stone, I expressed my dismay at the high price and mentioned I had a much lower quote from elsewhere, and they came back with an $800 counter-offer. So.... it really pays to shop around (I would ask at least three fabricators for quotes, personally). I'd also ask for quotes for a few different stones. I found that there are a lot of variables that affect cost. For example, if they can get the slabs already honed, they don't have to charge a significant mark-up cost for honing at their shop. Also, the availability of certain slabs changes all the time and affects cost. I also found that since most of my local fabricators did not have the slabs in stock, and there were so MANY choices out there, I needed to narrow my choices down to what they could actually source before getting quotes. In my case that meant driving to the Boston area from Maine ( a couple hours plus, each way) and looking at the actual inventories of the stone warehouses, and narrowing my choices from there. But at the very least, pick a few stones you might like, especially ones that are easier to find in your area.... and then get quotes from several places for those.

Don't give up on what you really want!

Oh, another thought I had ... why does the KD think your kitchen can't carry off the dark/honed look? I was thinking maybe she thought it was the door style? If so, have you considered simply getting new doors for your existing cabinets? There are a lot of ways to do that pretty cheaply (much, much cheaper than replacing the whole cabinet!) Just a thought. Because that's the only reason I can think of that she would say that, perhaps she's envisioning kitchens with soapstone which generally have simpler, flat-panel cabinetry.

I don't have a pix yet because I am having it installed on my island tomorrow am. I am a little nervous now because the granite place never mentioned all these different finish choices I could have had. The granite I am getting is Sienna Bordeaux, a cream, beige, brown and black specs with ALOT of movement. I worried about how reflective it's going to be. I was told that I did not have to seal for 15 years. Apparently it's comes with some type of protection that is guaranteed. Not sure I would chance it and will probably seal it, especially because it's such a light color. Can't wait to get it!!

Thanks for the encouragement. I've now gone from dreaming about counter tops to losing sleep. Last night I tossed and turned. I'm just about ready to cry from all of this. Who knew it could be so stressful to pick one island and a countertop. I must just want a kitchen I don't have.

The KD of this fancy place said that my surrounding cabinets wouldn't do a honed dark granite justice. That I couldn't pull it off. I know what she means - I really don't like my cabinets at all. But they are decent 42" birch interior, maple stained cabinets made well by a local Amish man. And given the how expensive it would be to do all new everything, we really can't replace everything. So I thought/hoped that by rearranging the kitchen (the cooktop used to be on the island) and by making a really beautiful piece of cabinetry for the island, we could pull off a nicer look and more closely approximate the kitchens I love.

The KD's thought was to paint the island white - Linen White by BM and then use a chocolate truffle Caesarstone on everything. I don't mind the white island, because I would love a white kitchen. But the surface of the quartz is what I don't really like. It is a great color, just too speckled looking for my taste. I asked her about using marble and honed granite, etc. and she was pretty positive it wouldn't look good. Mind you, what I have been thinking about for days and days and for hours, took her about 10 seconds to decide. If I trust her - and her kitchen store is the nicest I have ever seen - then I should seriously consider the white island and finding one color counter top.

Staceyneil - I absolutely think you hit the nail on the head with the door fronts being the wrong style for the honed look. My husband actually built our last kitchen cabinets, so he is more than capable of building new fronts. I guess it is a matter of the time. We are putting in all new floors ourselves and just moved in a few months ago. But if and when we had the energy, that would make all the difference in the world and certainly would be more cost effective. The cabinet you described is exactly the look we had in our last house. It was natural cherry cabinets with a very simple shaker type door and flat drawer fronts, all full overlay. I miss our house back in NY so much (and my whole family for that matter) but we had to move to PA for a job...

And so here we are, and here I am thinking/agonizing about counter tops and spending way too much time on GW! :)

Oh, repaintingagain... I know JUST how you feel about the counter decision!! About 2 weeks ago, I was posting that I was in tears over the decision myself. I could not believe how stressed and sleepless it was making me! I felt so silly for letting it affect me so much, but it's SUCH a lot of money to be spending, and has such a significant impact on your home, that I was really worried about making the right choice.

Funny you mentioned your old kitchen; my new one is natural cherry shaker cabinets. I had assumed we'd do a honed granite but I just could NOT find the right one (after months of searching, driving hours and hours to look at slabs, etc.) It was really bumming me out! Then I found one of my original "inspiration pics" and I realized that the look I was trying to get (with granite) was of marble. So I decided to do marble! Suddenly the whole thing felt "right".

Do you have any inspiration pics you can look over and see what attracted you to them?

We're also DIY-ing most of our reno. Flooring, electrical, plumbing, tiling, finish. It's taking a lot longer than we hoped :( DH is going to be building the doors for our pantry area, although I did also get quotes from local cabinetmakers as well as the company that did the kitchen cabinets we bought. It was really not too expensive! (I think about $65/door?)

I am sorry you are having a rough time and missing your old place. I'm sure whatever your end up doing in the new house will be great, though.

I still think you could do the counters and island you love, and then change the doors later on when you have the time/energy/money!

I have been to two granite yards and no one has mentioned the different finishes. Do the fabricators create the finish, or do they come from the supplier than way? From what I am reading, the different finishes hide the finger prints? So is there additional cost for a different texture?

This is a great thread, thanks for asking repaintingagain. Is anyone familiar with the granite yard in Effingham IL? Do they offer the different finishes?

I was so distraught over selecting countertops we installed laminates until I can find what I love.

In my neck of the woods, the finishes available vary depending on the fabricator you choose. In other words, SOME fabricators will not change finishes "in house", so they can only offer what their distributors offer from the factory/quarry. And THAT varies widely depending on availability! Then, some fabricators will hone or "leather" a stone, but don't really like to do it (I avoided those. Must be a reason they dont like to do it, probably they're not very good at it!) and then SOME fabricators will hone anything you want. But the "in-house" honing costs a pretty penny, so make sure you specify "honed" when getting a quote.

In general I found that stones that came pre-finished (honed, leathered, whatever) from the warehouse were much more affordable than those that came polished and needed honing.

One more thing: some stones are actually being shipped from the quarries with one side polished and one side honed. I found this was the case with a load of Costa Esmerelda Rosa. Some of the fabricators I got quotes from didn't realize that, but after checking with the distributor found it was true. Up here, finishes other than polished are a fairly new and unusual thing, so a lot of people in the business still have absolutely no clue about it!

Staceyneil - I remember seeing your thread of your different counter choices and I so felt for you reading through it. I love the marble look, and I bet you will love it in your space. Natural cherry kitchens are just beautiful. There is such a warmth to them and they age so gracefully. I think the marble is a perfect choice, because it pairs classic with classic.

I can't wait to have that feeling that everything feels right. Hopefully that will happen sooner than later in my search, because we don't have a stove until I do. :) Funny and kind of scary, too. I have a sinking feeling I will be living with painted laminate broken counter tops for way too long. It is a little humorous though.

We are serious DIYourselfers. We renovated our last home from top to bottom. Stripped all of the 1920's wood work ourselves. And I spent way too much time scrapping out every last inch of all of the windows in the house, so that every last spec of lead paint would be gone before I got pregnant and my daughter was born. And we finally finished this fall. And then we moved....and now....counter decisions in a home that doesn't feel like home yet. But we will get there.

I think I need to get to the granite places and find stones I love. And yes, I totally think if we end up staying here for a while, we will end up refacing the cabinetry. Oh and $65 is very reasonable! I hope you get those, because I know how long it can take to wait for a DH to finish projects! :)

Also - I'm finding what you found in terms of people not understanding the different finishes. I need to find a fabricator that gets what I'm looking for and can actually point out where to go, as well as properly install it!

Anyhow, thanks for all of the kind words and encouragement. I'm so glad I found this forum.

We designed and had built a Craftsman influenced house and wanted the materials to feel as natural as possible and the countertops to blend with the slate tile floor and stone backsplash. I only have polished granite in the laundry room (Blue Pearl sparkles so pretty in there) and then polished Uba Tuba in the guest powder room. We have honed Uba Tuba in the kitchen and a unique accent granite on the big island, honed also, Verde (green) Marinace (pron.: mare-uh-notch-ee).

*We did pay extra to have it honed, I don't recall how much per slab. Apparently what they bring into the shop in stock is all polished.

* I have no complaints on keeping it clean; it's easier than keeping polished clean because I have so many windows that reflect on the countertops, keeping polished clean would have been an OCD nightmare. I just keep the tops clean with a spray cleaner for granite, but just a swipe with a damp cloth would work as well.

*I never had anyone "seal" the tops. I did buy a sealer and followed the directions, whether it made any difference I don't know. At least with dark countertops, any staining is not visible.

I think it might also depend on the color and pattern of your granite as to whether polished or honed would be preferred. Polished dark granites will show every drop of water and smudges more readily; honed does not, unless the light shines just right on it and you might see water drops.

Good luck. I have posted some photos of our kitchen granites honed.

Our new house in country · More Info

Our new house in the country · More Info

New house in country · More Info

Our new house in the country · More Info