There was one poster who had used the product and had quite a few issues with it that weren't resolved by either the installer or manufacturer.

I'd personally stay away from any of the off brands of quartz. If you want quartz, stick with a major player like Silestone, Cambria, Zodiaq, etc.

Hi SherylJ,

Sorry, I'm not familiar with Stone Italia.... But 2 weeks ago we had Pental/Vicostone Quartz installed in our kitchen remodel. It is sold/distributed in our location by Pental Quartz, and on the back of the slab it says Vicostone. The color we chose is called "Tobacco" but I have also seen the color listed on Vicostone's web site as "Bianco Romano". They have the same ID number on both so not sure what that means. Product number is BQ9420P.

We chose this color because we wanted something that looked natural, classic and neutral. Something that would fit the style of our old house. We didn't want to go with granite because of the upkeep so we chose quartz. We chose the slab at Pental Granite and Marble. The slabs are slightly different in varriation so do pick out your slab. (some distributors are a little reluctant to let you choose because they say since it's man made it's all the same....not it's not) All their quartz was Vicostone. There were some very pretty choices, some simple and plain and others were pretty wild.

I would describe ours to be a cream/taupe/white-ish base, with grey and black veining sprinkled with garnet like dots. There are also some light brown/taupe translucent areas as well. We felt it would go perfectly with our new white cabinetry.

The installation went very well. The seam is pretty invisible for the most part, only a small area that has a lot of black veining butts up to one that is quite plain. It is small so I'll live with it. (one section of counter was 12.5 feel long, therefore the seam. slabs are 10 feet long)

I read through Vicostone's maintenance info and it appeared to be very similar to other quartz brands. It is made in Vietnam for what I could gather. I hope that it holds up well over time like the other quartz brands. We take pretty good care of our counters, so I don't anticipate any problems. The kitchen is not finished yet, another 3 weeks or so to go, so we are not using the kitchen fully. I do have a functional sink so I am using part of the counter. So far I like it.

I am including a few pictured of it so you can see it installed. They only provided us with a little 4 inch sample piece but we were able to see it in a real life setting at a local fabricator shop.

I hope this helps you in your decision.

NWRainGal

Here is a link that might be useful: Vicostone link

A close up of our "Tobacco" Vicostone quartz counter

Another closeup of Vicostone "tobacco" at the end of a counter

In France and Italy, Stone Italiana is seen as a premium quartz brand, whose colors and finishes are more sophisticated than its competitors'. In my area they are more expensive than Silestone.

I see many installations of their pretty colors with mother of pearl inclusions in commercial/HORECA spaces (cafes, patisseries and spotted one last weekend in the washrooms at a Disneyland Paris hotel) and they hold up well.

Their textured finishes are beautiful but i have only seen some samples.

I know nothing about their customer service though.

This post was edited by barthelemy on Thu, Oct 24, 13 at 10:38

NWRainGal, your countertops look beautiful. Congratulations on the new almost finished kitchen! I will definitely take your advice and go to see slabs. I can tell just by looking at yours that they are all different, at least the ones that have a natural stone appearance.

Barthelemy, glad to learn that about Stone Italiana. That was the impression I got from their website, but those can be deceiving. I'm actually getting some samples of the textured finishes next week. They sure look great in photos!

Got samples of various Stone Italiana products and paid a visit to their LA distributor - Eurostone. They are really lovely and have some fabulous textures. If you're looking for a honed or textured surface, I don't think they can be beat. IMHO, they come closest to real stone. Having said all that, I have yet to get a cost estimate... But I will say that the product is very different in appearance and texture than all the other quartz lines I have seen. I say this as someone who has installed (very happily) Cosentino Quartz in a modern kitchen in a vacation home.

But my full time home is a 1920's Spanish with a beautiful but no longer functioning Frida Kahlo-esque Mexican kitchen. After 20 years, it still looks great, but is not easy on the joints and is not efficient. Trying to keep the beauty of the old while benefitting from the convenience of the new, and doing a cost efficient remodel that pays off in resale value, has been a challenge. Countertops in particular.

I am a dedicated home cook so I want durability, but I also want it to look great and integral to the house. My initial impulse was soapstone, but we are installing a black waxed terracotta tile floor (with wood cabinets), so need to have a lighter countertop. Everything that worked color-wise looked fake or was nightmarish to maintain.

I am thrilled to have found Stone Italiana Kstone Gold Grain. It seems to straddle the lines between both needs. Now I hope it doesn't blow the budget! I've been looking for an eternity!