Let me try the photo again!

We just finished installing our new cabinets, which are black walnut with a toffee stain. They're pretty dark but also very rich looking. Our granite (which is coming on Monday, YAY!) is rosewood exotica, aka juparena exotica. It's got a creamy background with gold, dark gold, grey and a small amount of red with pretty dramatic black veining. We had a hard time finding lighter granites around here, everything was too dark or jsut not right. At the third granite shop I wearily showed the guy our cab sample and floor sample (which is brazillian teak BTW), told him I wanted a lighter granite, and he said, this one is for you. And its the one I bought! I'll let you know Monday how it looks :).

I just Googled "juparena exotica" and that is Gorgeous! Great choice! I really like the veining in it. Do you know what price "level" it is? High-end? Middle of the road?

Please post pics once it's installed!

Hi khills...

I have dark brownish/black cabs in my kitchen with Delicatus White granite. Your bathroom cabs look great by the way! I'm debating on doing something like that with the vanity in my master bath. Is it difficult to use the gel stain?

I also have a very dark vanity in my powder room and used Del White in there too. Lots of dark contrasting flecks, but I'm not sure if it's gold enough for you. I can post a picture if you aren't familiar with it already.

KA:)

As far as price points, I would say it was a little more than middle but less than high. It was cheaper than the typhoon bordeaux, which around here is pretty high-end. (I'm in western New York, BTW.) We're doing a simple eased edge to match the clean-line look we're going for.

KA, I googled Delicatus White, and that is beatiful! I'd love to see pics of it with your dark cabinets if you don't mind. It's hard to tell online with just a small pic of the stone.

Staining my cabients was a piece of cake! And I am no DIYer, seriously. I actually got instructions from this website. I basically used the gel stain (General Finishes, Java) like paint. Clean with a little soap/water, do a little scruffing up with sand paper (not much at all!), use tack cloth to get dust off, clean up with mineral spirits, and finally brush the gel stain on with a foam brush. And get this..NO WIPING! I did 2 coats of stain, and 1 coat of poly.

Look at the thread below. I followed "celticmoon"'s directions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gel Stain

Hi khills..

Wow that sounds kind of easy. I will check it out..thanks.

Here's a link to my kitchen.

And a pic of my bath vanity..

Here is a link that might be useful: Delicatus White with Peppercorn

I am looking at the lighter gold/cream colors for our counters as well (our cabinets will be medium stained but we're doing black slate floors.)

We went to the granite yard this weekend and liked
Giallo Napoleon
Giallo Ornamental
Succuri
Juparana Classic
Juparana Indian Gold
Gold Ventian Antique ***(my fav)
Ivory Coast
Crema Bordeaux

Some of these are darker or have more brown then you're looking for, but it all depends on the slab because the ones we looked at were all pretty light.

We have not received the price quote yet so I can't tell you where they might fall in the grand scheme of things.
But I hope this helps :)

midgetmadre, I am also in WNY. Where are you getting your granite from? We used stone international in wrights corners for our bathroom.

debrak, I started out at Stone International, went to Bufalo Granite, and went between the two about three times but jsut had no luck. I was ready to make a trip to Cleveland to look at the big yards when somebody recommended D. H. Patterson's in Lockport (over in the city not far from the Candlelight factory). Its a tiny place and not fancy but they had my slab!

KA, your delicatus is gorgeous! I love it.

OP, awesome job with the staining!

khills, your bathroom looks nice. I'm clueless about most granite colors but think you should look at delicatus.

KA, I always like seeing your bath and kitchen.

Midgetmadre, Thanks for the info. Never heard of DH Patterson but will check them out.

KA, your bathroom looks great! Does delicatus have a lot of gray in it? I'm not sure if the gray would look good in our kitchen because of the wall paint color.

I pulled this paint color from a website (BM gemstone). It's not the exact color in our kitchen, but VERY close.

I have Golden Crema (seems to have other names too). It looks a lot like KA's delicatus but with some more warm tones.

I have Giallo Ornamentale and dark cabs in my bathroom. My paint color (BM Lenox Tan) is close to the sample you posted.
Monica

Here is a link that might be useful: Master Bath

Hi khills...

Yes, I would say that my Del. White has gray as oppossed to gold.

I think marcydc's Golden Creama looks really good with your paint choice. It looks like it has the flecks of black to pick up your cab color too, which I think is important. Not sure if the other granite have that. If your cabs were brown then I think any of the granites named would go. But I would say that something with black and gold tones is the best choice.

minicakm...Nice bathroom...the sink is incredible. I've never seen anything like that..WOW!

KA:)

marcydc - your Golden Crema looks amazing! That may have just floated to the top of my list. Where does it fall in regards to price? High, average?

Anyone know other names that are used for it so I can keep an eye out when shopping around?

I've seen it called Delicatus, Crema golden, Crema Romanzo, and something else I can't remember. Mine is from Brazil.

It looks very similar to daki's Junparana Delicatus (see link below).

I think price per s.f was about $21. It's kind of mid range price I think.

Something similar is Solarius, same coloring but a little busier perhaps?

These names will drive one crazy. I think the best thing to do is just go visit many places. Take your door and your floor tile too. Fortunately where I live you can hit about 20 places in a 20 mile radius.

Here is a link that might be useful: Delicatus thread

I stained my kitchen using the Java stain and have Delicatus..here are a couple pics.

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waltbsc - Gorgeous!! OK, you're floors and cabinets look exactly like what we have (or will have!). What color are your walls painted where the backsplash stops?

Those were older pics as we had new tile installed a couple weeks ago. I was trying to show you how your cabinets would look with the granite. The wall color is SW Quicksilver.

From what I've seen the slabs can have a HUGE variation as our slab also has taupe, gray, black, silver and even red. It kinda sparkles at night under light which is cool. Here are a few pics with the new floors (new dishwaser on order to accomodate lower height)and some of the granite showing the variation.

Pic showing wall color

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Tile

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Close up of granite

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What do you think about Shivakashi? I've designed it in 1 min with this kitchen online designer
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Oh, what a great website. What you put together does look really good. The Shivakashi may have a little too much pink undertones though. At least thats what the close-up of it looks like. I'll add it to my list to look for when we actually go shopping though so I can see for sure.

Thanks!