Don't take it for granite!

My kitchen counters are a thing of beauty. I recently renovated my kitchen. Keeping up to date is a great way to protect your investment. Laminated countertops - even though they come in hundreds of colors - are pretty dated. My Corian was quite lovely, but it does scratch, can be gouged by knives and other utensils, burned by hot pots and stained. There are other materials that are also very attractive, but as manufactured products each has a negative.

My research into the world of granite initially put me off. Horror stories of staining that left thousands of dollars of granite irreparably scarred made me take several large steps back. There are websites almost dedicated to questions from consumers regarding everything that can possibly go wrong with installation and care.

I became a mini expert on density, absorption ranges, and the areas where they were geographically harvested. Charts reflecting percentage of mineral content were part of my bible of information. Soft stone, hard stone, quartz, mica, pegmatite, dolerite . . . . . my thoughts a swirl of too much information.

Okay, just the basics - the darker the color the less likely it was to absorb stain. My research had designated that black was a sure winner (no matter how much I preferred the light color ranges). Acquaintances objected to black's fingerprint problem. They were always wiping it down, dusting it off, shining up it's pristine beauty. Several replaced it with something else, but something else was always granite.

Off I was to suppliers who had acres of granite from around the world. Strolling through colorful aisles with a spray bottle for the lemon juice test only added to my confusion. Several months and many visits later, I made my choice. At the showroom of a small fabricator, I found a thing of beauty.

This bit of nature has not stained in the year and a half it has been part of my kitchen. It's cool to the touch, and the baker in me is delighted. You can't scratch it, cut it, gouge it, burn it or not love it.

Check out The World's Most Popular Granites