During the hunt for the perfect stone for our house I was pretty much a total wreck, it was so stressful because a) I couldn’t decide between marble or quartz and b) I wanted to stay in budget and guys, that is a serious tough thing to do when doing a complete house renovation. In a complete home reno there is more than just one room to factor for, it’s every thing from flooring to lighting to door handles and more – not just furniture and it can be so overwhelming if you don’t stay focused. Luckily my husband has no issues reminding me about our budgets and keeping my floating feet on solid ground ;).
I remember the day clearly when we made the decision to not get marble for our new kitchen, we were cooking together (a home made slow cooked pasta sauce) that day and all sat down to enjoy a great meal, went for a walk and decided to leave clean up till later…we like to do that a lot since Craig works away from home every day during the week and only really sees the kids morning and dinner onwards. So we like to just relax after dinner together and digest, hangout and all talk about our days or play. Well, the clean up after dinner was quite the awakening for our marble loving minds…we had pasta sauce spots, well – every where. I don’t mean big splashes, this was more like little ones you could barely see without really looking…but they were every where LOL. We looked at each other and just laughed, I mean really – we were going to attempt to keep a marble kitchen from etching all day every day? We simply weren’t ready for that kind of commitment with two toddlers, a love for entertaining and a new puppy coming…heck to the no!
And so my hunt for the perfect quartz began. I knew I still wanted that marble look, I mean I designed my entire kitchen around having a curb backsplash where the stone on our perimeter counters went right up the wall to the crown! So, I needed this stone to be exactly how I envisioned my design…and would you believe it, we found it. Click {here} to see the Calacatta Gold stone by Silestone that we picked!
Enter Silestone by Cosentino, I had pulled a few of their sample slabs from the fabricators warehouse we were checking out and compared it to about 6 other brands of quartz – nothing even came close to how well this Calacatta Gold stone mimicked the marble I loved. The Calacatta Gold stone by Silestone is from their new Eternal Collection Series of stone, a very natural series that comes in different finishes too. We fell in love with the suede finished vs a polished one and we love it SO much. You may recognize Silestone from the Toronto Design Show this year – they won the best booth award and it was so well done! I love how this Calacatta Gold has grey elements and brown and even some gold, you can get a good idea with the coffee beans I spread out on the stone for a photo.
Silestone is a combination of natural quartz and other raw materials, it is stain resistant (halllellujah) and non-porous…it’s especially resilient to stains like COFFEE!!! Yes you read that right lol! Silestone also has a high impact resistance and exceeds similar products such as granite and solid surfaces. Perfect for those with slippery hands with pots and pans or little ones! Silestone is also scratch resistant which played another big role in our decision. We wanted a strong but beautiful surface for our family kitchen. Silestone also has a revolutionary technology that makes their stone shinier than ever, resistant to stains, the colours LAST and it repels any liquids making clean up that much easier…music to a mamas ears I tell ya.
Now many people asked us, okay so why not granite? Well, granite that looks like the marble we wanted…very hard to find. Quartz countertops are made from natural quartz, one of the hardest minerals found in the Earth and small amounts of glass or metallic flecks are added to create variety…quite a big variety too. Quartz is also non porous (something that was very important to us), it does not allow bacteria to grow and resists against stains. I did find the colour options better as well for the look we wanted for our kitchen. We used granite in our last two homes but I knew that for this home we wanted something different. Quartz gave me the look of marble veining that granite couldn’t, but they are both great options in my opinion for countertops.
Silestone can also be used for more than just kitchen countertops, people get Silestone sinks, shower basins, or use it as backsplash like we did or fireplace features. I am really digging the waterfall look people are doing more in kitchens as well, the clean up to me seems like a no brainer!
I’ve attached some of the images below from me doing a walk through of one of the Silestone showrooms in Toronto, I was in awe of all of the options of stone and might I add that Silestone is in a great price range and you can actually find it at Home Depot stores in Canada too. Craig and I love their Charcoal Soapstone colour and the Marquina, if you have a chance to go check out their product line – you will see why. We are wanting to do a nice outdoor kitchen next summer on the deck and we are eyeing up the soapstone colour!
So, here is my little teaser of our kitchen above, we are shooting our full kitchen at the end of this month and we will be revealing the full, yes FULL kitchen the first week of October ahhhh!!! I cannot wait to share this labour of love with you, the kitchen turned out to be exactly what I envisioned in my head. Even though I bounced back and forth and questioned myself on almost every decision, I stuck with my gut in the end and I am so glad I did! I hope you will love it as much as we do and I know you will enjoy learning even more about the Calacatta Gold stone by Silestone and why we picked it for our kitchen. I also have a video planned to talk to you guys and really show you behind the scenes in our kitchen and how we care for our stone, fall will be busy in our kitchen I tell ya haha!
PS Cosentino can make your design a reality for your kitchen with their 3D program on their website to see their wide range of stone colours come to life, check it out {here}.
Photography above by Bettina Bogar, check out her Instagram {here}!
Click {here} to hop on over to the Silestone website and see what showroom or purchasing locations are near you!
This post was made in partnership with Silestone by Cosentino, all opinions are my own!
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It’s just gorgeous! It’s so Natural and fits in perfectly with the look you have created here. But please do tell me, who makes your stove?
it’s a La Cornue stove, we love it!!!!
Oh, it looks amazing. I wanted marble too, but was concerned about the etching. We ended up with granite. It’s a completely different look, but I still like it.
Thanks girl! Such a tough decision right?
Your kitchen looks absolutely beautiful!! I’ve been going through the exact same issues, wanting marble and searching for the perfect quartz, and agree that the Silestone calacatta gold is my favorite too. I keep going back and forth between the polished and suede finish. I know a lot is personal preference, but would you mind sharing why you chose the suede? I’m also wanting to do the quartz as a slab backsplash as well. Do you feel that the suede finish makes the veining show up better or any darker? My concern was that the veining would be too light as a backsplash, but your pictures remove and doubt that I had. Thank you so much for sharing!
You are exactly right about the veining showing more on the suede and I actually preferred the feel more!! Have you checked out both in a showroom yet to compare? I am still so in love with the stone!!!
I checked your blog and saw a kitchen you were showing that was completely different than the one where you used Calacatta Gold. It was a kitchen with Hanstone Montauk. I was looking for the full kitchen reveal you referred to in this post. Can you tell me where that is? Thanks!