Princess Kitchen Second Thoughts

13 years ago

I've been stalking around on GW for several months and have gotten so much great advice and so many great ideas! Thank you! The hubby and I are accumulating things for a kitchen remodel we cannot afford to finish all at once right now. He's promised me the kitchen of my dreams with a few caveats.... He HATES white cabinets so we're going with shaker style in the darkest-close-to-black-while-still-brown we can find. Also, marble has been outlawed because I love to cook and bake, but I'm messy and neither of us could handle etching until it reaches the point of patina. So, I got to go with my second choice that I now dream of-- Princess White Quartzite. Our slabs are not as marble-esque as I would have originally liked and they're polished when I wanted honed, but we drove 400 miles just to see them in the one place I could find them in California, so I wasn't leaving without buying. And, they really are beautiful with lots of sparkly quartz patches, wherein lies my dilemma. We were originally going with a honed carrera marble subway backsplash and brought our sample to the granite yard, but the movement and coloration wasn't right with our Princess. The sales lady brought us to the marble tile section where Hubs and I both fell for a statuary subway that had coloration and veining almost dead-on with our slabs.... but I said no when I found out we couldn't get it ANYWHERE in a honed finish. We were then introduced to Thassos white subways, which pick up the beautiful glitter of the quartz in the Princess. I ordered the Thassos honed. My plan was to have our fabricator hone the Princess, but I kinda love it polished now since my original reason for wanting honed was to mimic marble and our stone is not marble, but beautiful in her own right. Should I have gone with polished Thassos? Both polished seems more shiny than I think I would like, but maybe it's the way I should have gone? Who knew kitchen decisions could leave you with nightmares and self-doubt?

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Comments (6)

Cavimum
13 years ago
'Who knew kitchen decisions could leave you with nightmares and self-doubt?'

I can so totally relate!
kaysd
13 years ago
I like the contrast of using honed tiles with a polished counter. Where did you find Princess White in CA? I have had no luck finding it. If you don't mind telling, what is the cost of the PW?
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hobokenkitchen
13 years ago
Kimpossible. I think Princess White is the same as Super White quartzite.
If your reason for not getting marble is that you don't want etching, then please test your Princess White!

We have super white and it etches as do Beekeepers wife's slabs.

In our case it's not as bad as marble and it doesn't seem to stain, but it's certainly not as bullet proof as other granites and quartzites we've had. We were told that it wouldn't stain or etch which just isn't the case.

I don't want to rain on your parade (especially after such effort to get to the slabs!), but just be sure your slabs don't etch, or if they so that you can live with it.

Good luck!!!
deedles
13 years ago
You can always wrap them in plastic like Bee did, lol.
Pipdog
13 years ago
i agree with hobokenkitchen -- a test is a must. Back when we were selecting our counters, I got a sample of White Princess from a Northern California stone yard. I also thought it was more durable alternative to marble. We took it home and did tests on it with lemon, tomatoes, etc. The sample we had etched and stained.

Some people on here have WP and don't seem to have any etching issues, so YMMV.
kimpossible3382
Original Author
13 years ago
We bought our WP at IRG in Brisbane for $43 sq. ft. and had a HARD time finding it. We live in very far northern, rural California (Humboldt County) and the few slab yards in the area hadn't even heard if it. One of the yards here finally said they could get it, but it was going to cost $124 sq. ft. uninstalled, we couldn't pick our slabs, and we would have to sign a contract before it was shipped here that we couldn't reject it if we didn't like it.... Um, no thanks. When we called IRG the first time, they said they had two slabs, but they were from different lots; one was polished, one satin. But, they said they were getting another shipment within the month. They called a few weeks later on a Monday and said they'd received 20 slabs, all polished. DH and I couldn't make the 600+ round trip drive until the following Saturday due to work. When we called to confirm they still had some slabs on Friday, ten were already gone. We arrived at opening and picked our two slabs. While we were finalizing our purchase, a lady came in wanting four slabs. She was super MAD when she saw the hold on ours and actually tried to convince the salesman to sell them to her instead, not knowing that we were the purchasers!

Thank you for all the warnings. Super White and White Princess are different quartzites, both very beautiful. I am hoping for the best regarding etching, but I know it's a possibility.... We're definitely sealing, which I know won't help etching, but will prevent staining. Our slabs will be arriving in our garage this week, where they will remain until we're ready to purchase cabinets. :( I'll test them then, and, believe me, I'm holding my breath! I love, love, LOVE my slabs and don't want to be disappointed!