joaniepoanie- I just looked up photos of that granite and it is absolutely gorgeous! There is no way on earth I would choose quartz over that particular granite. I have yet to see a quartz that didn't look man-made or like a real terazzo floor. While the quartz itself is stone, all the fillers they have to use ruins it for me. My dad gave us some great advice over the course of our build--one of those was to use timeless finishes. Natural stone is one of those timeless finishes--you can go back 50-75+ years and see stone used in the high end homes of the day and it isn't dated looking today. Can the same be said of the harvest gold laminate coutertops, corian countertops, tile countertops, etc.? IMO quartz is the latest fad in countertops--if your goal is to have the latest and greatest in your kitchen then go with the quartz. But if you want something timeless that you'll only update if you grow tired of it, I say go with the granite. Remember too, you don't have to do a full backsplash in the granite--you can opt for no granite splash and use the tile you mention above or do a 4" granite splash and either leave the wall painted above or do a combination & tile above it. Just my $0.02.

Granite upkeep is very easy for many granites. The difficulty of using natural stone is that they aren't all the same. Some require sealing and some don't. Even the stones that need sealing don't need it that often. We asked friends with granite when we were buying and they rarely seal more than once every few years.

We got our "granite" (Azul do Mar, a quartzite) over 5 years ago and haven't sealed since it was installed. Our fabricator insisted on sealing it at install because he seals all granite, but based on the test we did on our sample, it didn't even need that - nothing stained the unsealed sample.

People were agonizing about granite going "out" back when we were choosing too. There is a wide range of granites available. Particular colors may go up and down in popularity (and availability) - e.g. absolute black was hot on GW 6 years ago; now the light ones that look similar to marble are getting the most attention here. But that doesn't mean that black is out. I don't think that granite will ever be "out" but 10 years from now, there will probably still be some people agonizing about whether it will.

People tend to think of avocado and harvest gold - how in they were and how bad they looked to us later. I take comfort that people have to go back 4 decades to find a kitchen design fad that crashed so badly. Most of the time our tastes don't swing so wildly.

Our granite is a lot more busy than the persa avorio granite you are considering and we still love it as much as when we put it in. We have the full granite back splash.

Joanie I feel your pain. I have been looking for months for something that will be fabulous with natural maple cabinets. It's much harder than any other cabinet color IMO. I really love the persa avorio you picked out. I am going to look at that. I think it is what I have been looking for. I have found that the golds are too gold, the grays are tricky, some of the others that you think would be perfect are too peach. I don't want black, I want a more light and airy look. But everyone says I need contrast which takes me back to square one. I have Corian now so I don't want quartz that reminds me a little too much of it. I was excited to do granite but had no idea it would be this hard to find one!!! I am wishing you all the luck because I am right there with you!

Thanks to everyone. I guess it boils down to which look you want. Dh convinced me to get samples of the several granites, the several quartz (plain creams,gold, light gray---not granite look a likes --- along with the tile bs and then decide when we can compare side by side....so am contacting fabricator to try to get samples...

Gr8day......my friend also did her kitchen in natural maple cabs....she did a med-dk gray swirly granite (kinawa white) on counters and bs in her small kitchen...looks beautiful...but too dark for my kitchen...she gets more light...the contrast is nice though.....yes, lots of the granites are too gold or peachy....I did maple vanity in my bath with gold limestone counter...love it but do want more contrast in the kitchen....good luck!