Stone selection is a local endeavor.. Which means, you go to the most local stone yards you can find, and you shop. With your other selections, and your kitchen layout in hand . . You can see large samples of any quartz locally and you can order large samples of any such as Cambria.

Point is ...........it is a local thing .

The first and third pic look almost like marble, they are beautiful! You might want to look for quartzite, it can have a more "marble-like" appearance but is very durable. A couple varieties I found when I was slab hunting were White Macaubas (I loved it in a leathered finish) or Miramar White (more subtle variation in color than the White Macaubas slabs I saw). There was one other I saw, Audacia, which looks like your first image but the slabs I saw had fewer changes in direction. But the COLORS are right.

When you go shopping, my advice is to hit local yards and also look for anyplace that says they sell exotic stones. I hit all the yards in the industrial towns near me, and wound up at a yard in a town I could not afford to live in. That place specialized in exotic stones and I saw SO many things I had not seen before. My counters (2 full slabs of stone were used so I have zero seams) went from $8k with stone I did not love to $9k with stone I was thrilled to have (and then I said, "let's get these puppies honed for another $1k"). So in the end - crazy expensive BUT not that much more than the places with less selection.

Last thing - if you go with Quartzite, read up on how to test YOUR slab with a broken piece of glass and a mild acid like lemon juice or white vinegar.

Jan is correct; you need to see the materials in person. Relying on a sales person in a plumbing showroom to identify a stone is iffy; that's a quartzite in the photo. Go to the better stone warehouses and see what the current inventory is; stones can change dramatically for one vendor to another and from when they were quarried.

Stoners just make up different names for the same stone sometimes too.

The first one is either quartzite or marble, and a hardness and/or acid test will tell you which one it is. It's not granite, and your stone store needs to brush up on their knowledge. :)

The third one looks like Super White or similar, which is marble.

If you want a quartzite with a hint of green, check out Sea Pearl.

This will help you distinguish quartzite from marble,

http://usenaturalstone.com/definitive-guide-quartzite/

And I'm working on an article right now that is aimed at helping people differentiate granite, marble, and quartzite. Which your stone salespeople should read!

Hope that helps - good luck with your search.

Once you identify what you are looking for it is better and easier to make the final selection once the cabinets are in. And then backsplash selection follows once the counters are in.

Just a FYI - if those are samples of your floor that you are considering usually there is more contrast between the cabinets and flooring to give more visual interest. Look through your Kitchen Ideabook and you'll see that.

Lots of stones go by more than one name, so the advice already given is correct. Just take your kitchen door and floor samples with you and go EVERYWHERE within reasonable distance of your house. It doesn’t matter what the stone you love is called. It’s probably another name in another town. Everything you like is gorgeous. Good luck and keep us posted!

@JAN MOYER I will definitely be looking at some local yards and tagging my own slab. My cabinet maker used Premier countertops as his wholesaler and they just mysteriously closed down within a matter of a couple of days. I'm sure glad I hadn't purchased anything from them. They have orders that are paid but not fulfilled and those poor people have no answers and no refund! My cabinet maker has been looking for a new place this last week. I hope he found one but he said I could look to other smaller yards in the meantime.

@yumelizabeth thank you for your help! It is beautiful, would you share a pic of your kitchen?

@Pam A I was surprised when they thought it was granite. I am a 7-12 science teacher and I teach Earth Science which has a rock unit. This definitely did not look like granite to me. :) I love the look of quartzite and marble, the veining is gorgeous. The patterns in the White Macaubas are what I'm looking for thank you for sharing that. Could you explain what a leathered finish is? What are the benefits?

@Skippack Tile & Stone I agree, luckily they did give me the name of the company that put together their kitchen so I can track down the stone supplier but I wanted to have something to reference when I call them.

@Joseph Corlett, LLC "Stoners" lol!

@karin_mt I would love to read your article when it's finished. I think it would be very helpful. In the meantime I will look up the hardness and acid tests. I'm guessing marble will react with the lemon juice while quartzite does not. I always send my students on a graveyard hunt to see the old weathered marble or limestone headstones when we discuss weathering and erosion. Thank you for the recommendation on Sea pearl is absolutely beautiful! It is almost a perfect match, I will ask for this when I call the stone yard.

@tedbixby I had a ton of trouble just getting this light of an oak flooring and my husband doesn't want natural colored oak. Here is a better photo of what it will look like when finished.

The iphone photo may be deceiving because it does look lighter in person. Most everything 3/4" is switching to hickory (which is too busy IMO); I really love oak, 3/4" instead of engineered and I love how this one is random widths. I've scoured everywhere and have two other flooring samples coming, hopefully they will be the exact shade I'm looking for. If not I'm probably going to go with this one. I did ask about site finished flooring but they want too much because there is no competition in our rural area. Only 1 person really does it.

@RedRyder I'll be sure to post photos when everything comes together. As of right now we are at a standstill our gc didn't get our septic in and now we have an ice storm. I can't believe he didn't prioritize this when it was nice out this summer and fall. Now we have a painted house, are almost ready for flooring (need HVAC in) and may have to wait till it warms up to get septic! Construction loan ends in May!

Agree with yumelizabeth, the second one is Cambria Berwyn.

That looks like it will give you the contrast and also sounds like you are on top of the whole situation.

I've had oak floors in multiple homes including the kitchens and have been very happy with them.

Ice storm coming my way, too. Stay safe!