Marble looks beautiful! I would take a few samples of the tile to the yard and hold them up next to the slabs to ensure you’re happy with how the colors look together! And depending on how large of a backsplash you have, you may want to ensure the bedrosians color variation doesn’t compete with the beauty of the marble veining! I think you should go with what you love - I couldn’t find a quartz I was in love with either

@Stephanie Scim - have you found the required maintenance for your marble to be difficult so far? My daughters are out of the house - so, no children. HOWEVER, my SO is kinda like a “big” child at times (I’ve actually found it takes more effort on my part to keep wood floors - and areas around toilet - cleaner than it was with my girls at home!)

I‘ve read MANY posts on Houzz about marble pros/cons. There is clearly a divided school of thought on the subject (no fights though unlike the hotly debated “granite vs. quartz” topic!) I used to date someone who had a marble kitchen and marble shower - and I don’t really remember seeing the etching or any stains (and clearly there had to be etching!) I am about to pull the trigger on my marble shower/bathroom this week!

I wonder if it‘s MY MARBLE if I will notice it more? I would appreciate hearing your thoughts so far! Thanks!

@dmac1108 I was going to say “haunted my dreams ever since!” :-)

Like you, I’ve read *every* thread on Marble. It sounds like staining is not an issue if sealed properly, so that just leaves etching. Many have had success with honed marble – either removing the etches themselves, or not having it show enough to bother them.

There are treatments such as More Anti Etch that can prevent etching, but they are costly. I may go this route, or I may try to take good care and see what happens. If, in a few years I feel it needs help, I could have it re-honed and sealed against etches at that time.

I’ve waited years to be able to have a marble island and master bath. My kids are grown and it is now or never. We are embarking on a whole house renovation and I still have a few months before I have to make the final decision. I am open to Quartzite, but I really think my heart is set on a marble – just like the ones you have pictured.

Best of luck with your decision! I’ll be watching for updates. :-)

It’s too early for me to tell but agree with the above, consensus is it etches but supposedly won’t stain if sealed regularly. I did get honed finish which should help a bit. At the end of the day I gravitate more toward natural materials and am prepared for it to age and “patina”! Everyone involved in our project thought we were crazy for getting marble but usually those people are not speaking from personal experience!

@jeri - it sounds like we are going through the same stage of life! I‘ve always wanted marble countertops and master bathroom. I think I may just go ahead and do the island in marble - that way the perimeter countertop will be a solid quartz which I can use for cutting citrus/tomatoes/etc. I think honed is the way to go. A pro on here who comments often (her name is Beth - and she gives amazing advice - she’s a tile guru - among other things!) has a marble shower pan - and she said that she’s had someone come and refinish it a couple times - and it looks basically new each time.

I am also going through a while house renovation. It’s exciting - but it also makes me have “ADD” - I have a hard time focusing on just one room!

we will have to stay in touch - I’m sure we will both need support in order to not lose our minds! ;)

@Stephanie Scim Your kitchen is looking amazing! You must be so excited! What brand and color are your cabinets? I’m still trying to make that decision… <sigh>

Thanks so much! Definitely excited, it dragged on way longer than it needed to thanks to covid! They are medallion cabinetry in the color sea salt

@Stephanie Scim How do you like your Medallion Sea Salt cabinets? Ours are on order. I have had a hard time deciding on what color to paint our trim - that Sea Salt ii pretty bright white! What did you use?

@jmjohn59 they are indeed pretty bright! We struggled with this as well especially since we opted for our own crown throughout the room rather than medallion. I do not recommend paint matching sea salt, we initially tried it with Benjamin Moore paint and the color came out horrible and had to repaint all the trim. Ended up with chantilly lace and it matches pretty well

@Stephanie Scim Wow - thanks for the heads up on color matching! I have read somewhere not to color match white paint. Who knew white could be so incredibly hard to match! Right now the closest I've come to matching is SW High Reflective White. Trying to stick with SW paint for interior. Are you happy with your Medallion cabinets?

What did you choose for your vent hood. Are you happy with your choice? Powerful enough and quite. What made you decide on your vent?

@jmjohn59 totally, it was such a debacle - never again! Lol. Yes we’re happy so far, we did have a few quality issues such as a warped door and a dishwasher panel that was uneven but they did replace without questions. Post pictures when you’re are installed!!

Not sure if the hood question was directed at me but ours is bertazonni- they were running a promotion for a free hood with our range so made our decision easy :)

Thanks Stephanie, yes that was easy. So many other decisions. I'm sure it will be great to have it finished.

@Glee 4 in your first photo with the chevron shaped tile, is the backsplash tile in the pewter gray grout? I'm trying to decide if I want to go grey with the cloe grout. I want my tile defintion to stand out and it doesn't really do that witht he white grout. the white grout is not visible and i want to see my grout a little so that i can see the outline of the tile because my rectangular tiles are stacked and i'd like to see the subtle grid pattern.

@D H the backsplash on display was actually white. The photo shows some shadowing bc the lighting was off. I’m also going to go pewter gray grout too for the same reasons. Here’s my mood board.

@D H I meant to clarify that on the display the tile grout was white but shadows make it look darker on the pic.

@Glee 4 that looks lovely! thanks for the grout information. I'm having the tiler make me samples of the grout since it's hard forme to visualize what my tile might look like with minimal grout lines and stacked.

Glee 4 - how did you create your mood board? I really need a better way to gather final decisions on finishes prior to ordering.

@jill I did it in Canva. I do design work and it is a life saver!

Thank you!

Btw I ordered my Cloe tile about 3 weeks ago and my contractor said it’s back ordered another 2 weeks! 🙁

I ordered White Chloe tile and got the montauk quartz countertop.

We used cloe tile with hanstone montauk quartz.

I just ordered everything! Demo starts Monday! Do you love? I loved the Montauk quartz and wasn’t sure about Chloe but yours looks great

What color grout did you do?

I absolutely love. It looks prettier in person. We used the mapei grout in avalanche. Our cabinets are a super bright white so that helped tie it all together.

Lindsey Burnett- is that the white Chloe tile or the gray? Love it but both colors are backordered :(

That is the white. When I ordered it said 6 weeks, but only actually took 3.

Thank you, good to know. Hope it works out like that for me :)

@Stephanie Scim i read your comment about the cloe tile reading taupe which is what concerns me about it because I have cool tones in my kitchen - chrome hardware and brighter white cabinets with a cooler toned Quartz countertop. Did you find that the Zellige Tiles were more cool toned than the Cloe? Do you have any pictures of them side by side to compare?

@Runnermom i have both the Cloe tiles (fireplace) and zellige for my kitchen backsplash. My Cloe tiles are the white and grey and I did not find any of them to read taupe at all. With that said, I find the Cloe to be more cool toned because of the grey tones. The zellige reads more warm white to me. For reference, I have a ton of natural light.

@runnermom I did find some of the pieces of cloe to read more taupey and zellige snow more neutral. I don’t have a side by side but I have a pic of the cloe samples in the same space my backsplash is in installed in (#3, see tile on the left)

@Stephanie Scim really appreciate you posting these pics.

can you post a couple more pics of your kitchen backsplash? do you think the Zellige Snow tile would work with chrome hardware?

And what grout color did you use with Zellige Snow? Thanks so much!

@Lindsey Burnett my impression of hanstone montauk is that it’s a creamier countertop. Do you think the Cloe tile is better off paired with a creamier countertop, as opposed to a cooler white/gray one?

Of course! Yes I definitely think it would work. We used mapei “white” (not “avalanche” here are a few more!

@Stephanie Scim thanks so much again! Your kitchen is gorgeous!

I am using Chloe but my cabinets are Swiss coffee 75 percent and a warm white with the montuk quartz. I am starting demo today. I will post pics when done. So stressful trying to make decisions. I did get samples from cle of white brick which was my second choice but decided I needed depth so wouldn’t be flat with whites

@Runnermom the cloe tile has some warm and cool toned colors. It could probably work with warm and cool toned counters. Montauk is a warmer light greyish tone.

@Stephanie Scim - what size are the tiles next to the Cloe ones in your pic above? I’m asking because the Cloe tiles look really small and they’re almost 8” long!

Maybe they’re samples - and the samples are smaller?? Idk.

I don’t know if this will be helpful or not - I bought a reactive stain that blocks the pink in red oak. I was trying to decide how much to use on my floors/cabinets (might replace cabinets w/ white oak - not sure yet) - so, I put the Cloe tile on an old red oak board that I found in my basement (I found SEVERAL - had NO IDEA - builder must have left them down there tucked away many years ago!)

These photos were taken around 4 - 5 p.m. All are indirect natural light. It’s not a perfect representation - tile is laying flat vs on a wall - but just thought they might be helpful. Also, these were taken with western exposure:

Yep they’re samples I ordered from bedrosians which are smaller

one more photo - just to show the tiles against more neutral background - would be better if I had more tiles in the photo in order to see the variation in color better. These tiles are not exactly the same exact color IRL. Also, the darkest shade of the Cloe White tiles is not represented in the pic.

East exposure - natural indirect light - approximately 11 a.m.

@dmac1108 many, many thanks for all of the info and pics. Super helpful!

Bedrosians tells me that even the small sample Chloe tiles are back ordered until end of May, so it’s been very hard to make a backsplash decision because online photos are either hard to see or doctored...

@dmac1108 ooh -- please share -- what is the reactive stain that you bought to block the pink in the red oak? I wonder if it would also work for white oak??

@runnermom @Sally Ferguson I started a fun little Instagram site - My IG story today features 2 tile samples side by side - Arizona Tile Flash White (bigger version of Cloe lookalike 3 x 12") and Bedrosian Cloe white. Instagram: @remodel_diaries

I have three tiles for samples of Chloe. If you pay for shipping I will mail to you.

@Sally Ferguson that would be wonderful! how can we connect to Exchange info offline?

@D H - it’s Ciranova Pink Blocker. It reacts with the tannin in the wood - white oak actually has more tannin than red oak. They also have MANY other reactive stains that look BEAUTIFUL. G & S Floor Services here on Houzz uses Ciranova and has several,posts on Houzz about them. You can use another reactive stain after using the pink blocker. One of the comments explained how using Ciranova’s Pink Blocker was much more predictable vs. a bleaching method.

I originally learned about the pink blocker here on Houzz. Someone used it on her red oak floors in here kitchen (along with their finishing products). I can’t remember the user name - I will look for it later. BUT - if you run a search using Ciranova Pink Blocker - you should pull up that post + a post where I added some photos from YouTube showing the results (you can also find a time lapsed video on Ciranova‘s website.

Also, I searched “Ciranova G & S Floor Services Houzz“ to find all of the discussions where G & S Floor Services discusses Ciranova products since he’s an expert.

Here are some photos of a board I did. It’s a very old red oak board - sat in basement for 20 years. I also did not use very much stain. I’m going to do another experiment in a couple days. You can still see the difference. It is more apparent IRL than in the photos.

Maybe a bit of overkill - was just showing board next to different colors - in order to see how the color changed. The red oak section is in the middle. I did a little sanding and then wet one side of the board before applying stain - the other side I all,ied it directly to the sanded wood. Probably should have sanded a bit more (I was in a hurry) - will do so next time.

The board definitely reads more yellow in the photos vs. in real life. My red oak floors show more yellow in photo - European white oak floors definitely read more yellow. I am getting ready to refinish my wood floors (the reason for my experiments). I am trying to decide whether I should refinish the European oak floors at the same time. . .

@D H - I just typed out a detailed comment - hit submit - and it disappeared. . .

This one will be shorter - LOL!

The stain reacts with the tannin in the wood. White oak has more tannin than red, so it will react.

I discovered the reactive stain here on a Houzz. Someone used them on red oak floors - I can’t remember the user - but I will find later. Although, you probably will find it by doing a search in discussions - use “red oak” and “kitchen” and “Ciranova pink blocker.” Also, G & S Floor Services is EXTREMELY knowledgeable about Ciranova products. I read a comment from him - and then did a search to find others ones.

Ciranova has other reactive stains which are beautiful. Apparently, you can use the pink blocker and then use another one if you want. G & S said that the pink blocker is much more consistent/predictable than using bleach. I’m getting ready to order a stain kit so I can test some out!

If you go to their website - they have a time lapsed video showing how it works.

Ciranova has reactive white stains - which would probably look nice on white oak.

Here are some photos from a board I used it on. It’s an old board - 20 years. I sanded a little. I put some water on one side before applying stain - left other side dry. I didn’t use very much stain. The board does not photograph well (neither do I - LOL!). You can definitely see a difference that the water made. The board looks much better in person. I imagine that when I do a proper sanding + water pop the board + use more stain, it will turn out even better.

This is probably overkill - I took several photos a couple weeks ago - set board on different backgrounds. In real life - the part of the board that i put a little water on does not look pink. The entire board DEFINITELY reads more yellow in photos than IRL (as do my old red oak floors and European Oak floors upstairs). I’m getting ready to refinish my red oak floors ( thus the experiment!) - I’m trying to decide on whether I shoukd refinish my European Oak ones also. . .

@dmac1108 thank you so much!! It looks awesome and looks like it works so well. I wish I had known about it earlier, but it's great to know for the future! I really dislike the pink/red in the white oak when stained, especially when some of the wood doesn't look that way. my floors were pre-stained and finished and I really hated the way there were 10 different shades of wood in different color tones mixed in. If I ever need to refinish the floors in the future, I will test some of this out to see if it works.