@Nancy Jackson, it will depend on how busy your slabs are and your own taste. Personally, I like slab backsplashes with a beautiful marble, but with a busier stone, I like a tile backsplash. There certainly is no right answer here.

@Nancy Jackson. Agree, granite more costly than tile backsplash & possibly too busy. One other thought, granite backsplash will be much thicker than tile, therefore eating up some small amount of counter space.

We are about finished, just some cabinet shelf adjustments behind the glass and some roller shelves to add.

@Admiral8 Everything looks great! Your photo is giving me more ideas. Can you share your info on backsplash tile & hardware. I do like the gray tiles giving more contrast against white cabs & 2 toned pulls. Thanks

This is the tile.

The brand is Sonoma Tilemakers.

The hardware is Amerock Esquire.

I have Blue Dunes #1 on my list but have been worried if the "blue" im not seeing in the showroom is going to show up and be too prominent in my kitchen remodel. Your kitchens look beautiful and i dont see "blue" when I look at your pictures. Do you see blue in it now that its installed? i have also been debating getting the leathered? Are you happy with the leathered finish? Also trying to figure out what backsplash I would do. What did you end up going with? Everytjing you chose looks beautiful!

Thank you! I don’t know where the “blue” comes from, I see none in my countertop. I am happy with the leathered. That is what was available and I haven’t seen blue dunes in another finish. It has a bit of texture and doesn’t show water spots or dirt! My backsplash is a crackled glass subway tile in a very neutral oatmeal/grey color. The crackle gives it some personality and a kind of wave but the backsplash doesn’t compete with the countertop. Just this week I got an apron installed around my lower cabinets and we will put some lighting under there, which should bring out the tile better. It’s been a long year finishing! Good luck, I hope you a
Share a picture with me when you get installed!

Thank you for letting me know about the "blue" not being an issue and you being happy with the leathered finish! I love the slab you chose for your kitchen. The other countertop I love is Fantasy Brown. Many people mistakenly call it a Granite but it's actually a very hard marble. I think it is gorgeous, but it's not as hard as granite and it is possible to scratch or etch it. So I think I will probably go with the Blue Dunes. I'd love to see your backsplash. The backsplash is always one of the hardest decisions for me!

Update. Kitchen re-model

complete. Blue Dunes granite - leathered then iced (polished)- was the best choice in my entire remodel. I’m happy with how it all came together. Good luck with your

remodels.

LOVE IT!!! It looks so good! The backsplash turned out fantastic too. Can you tell me what it is? You and @admiral8 both knocked it out of the park!

Love those gray shelves as well. Perfect touches.

@Danna Parrish thank you for your kind words. Honestly, I couldn’t have survived without all your help on these private remodeling groups. It has been a long process, but worth all the sleepless nights. Up next: master bath. In dire straits after 35 yrs!! It is time for update.

@Danna Parrish backsplash is 4”x12” honed porcelain. “STANZA” collection - white marble-look from Garden State Tile. https://gstile.com/product/white-4-x-12-2/

Thank you for sharing I love it. Perfect compliment to the countertops

I elected Blue Dunes matte (leathered) for kitchen that is under . Now I'm looking for a backsplash. If select tile is it difficult to keep grout lines clean and looking new especially the area behind cooktop? I've never had tile for backsplash.

It looks wonderful and came together beautifully -- that granite really is fabulous!

What is the "iced" / polished and who does that? I think that might solve my dilemma over using a color enhanced sealer that my husband wants to use to bring out the colors more. He feels the stone itself lacks depth or maybe luster. We both love the leather feel. Thanks for any help along these lines.

This thread on Blue Dunes is a little old but I wanted to post our shots. Our new kitchen uses it (we chose it after hours in the slab warehouse) and has white/gray tiles for the backsplash, they look handmade but are not (we chose simple squares). The slabs were 3cm thick so the installer did not want to use them as backsplash; I think we dodged a bullet because it would have been too busy. In these shots the faucet for the second sink is not yet in. The color of the new cabinets (we left the old ones in the cherry wood finish to blend with the rest of the trim and house) is Sherwin Williams Software (7074); I checked the color blend and it has a touch of maroon and a touch of gold in it, with black and white. It is hard to get a shot of the granite that shows the kind of depth it has, which really attracted us. It is quite different from the old speckled granite of 20-30 years ago.

Really gorgeous kitchen @WA Jones! You too @jamsession if you're still reading this post. Beautiful counters!

Thanks, we're very happy with it. If I can find "before" pics I'll post them too.

Here are some pics (taken with telephoto lens) that show the old kitchen. The lens makes it look much bigger than it is. We found the tiered island unusable and the opening to the dining room meant you could never escape the kitchen. The new island is actually much bigger than the old one as the remodel involved moving a structural wall out 5-6 feet (where the large sink is).

I'm considering Blue Dunes for my kitchen. Love seeing all the photos here! I'll have natural maple cabinets for the perimeter and a darker (chestnut) island. I With wood cabinets and oak hardwood flooring, I don't want more brown on the countertop. I like the gray, taupe, and blue (very subtle) of Blue Dunes. Haven't decided yet though and if I do get it, the slabs are all so different. Some are really brown.

@cgs
Definitely search for the slab that excites you. They are all so different in color & movement. Good luck in your search.

I love yours. I wish I could find one with more gray and white. I got a sample of azul celeste, which is supposedly another name for the same thing, but it's got more brown. Also looking at the various river white/new river white/thunder white but I'm not crazy about the red specks that are so prevalent up close. I may go back to one place tomorrow and look again to see if the Blue Dunes there is browner than in the picture I got or if it's really more gray. Then go to another place further away next weekend. I started a thread asking for opinions. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6432122/granite-with-natural-maple-cabinets

@cgs Yes, Azul Celeste & Blue Dunes are supposedly the same granite. I also traveled to numerous stone yards (& many miles) until I found the “right one”. I always brought a sample cabinet door & floor sample with me. Also took photos & made notes of each slab I saw. It’s a process, but wanted to get it right since it’s so costly. Also i with you, not a fan of any specks in granite. Prefer movement instead. Keep searching.

I went back to the granite place and they had 4 different lots of Blue Dunes. Two were pretty brown/golden, which isn't really what I want. The other two were more taupe/gray/blue. One of the grayer ones--I didn't like the look/flow. I really liked the flow on one of the more golden ones. But the color is more important. The one I thought I might go with actually isn't large enough so I'd need two slabs. The show one more on their website that I didn't see when I was there--I think the right color, pattern and size. I'll have to call or email them and ask about it. It might be gone though.

I also saw Fantasy Brown which I didn't realize is actually gray. I thought that might be "the one" but was worried it has just a touch of very subtle rose/pink which will make me crazy. My current beige laminate countertop has a slight pink hue, at least to me, and I never liked it. Plus I didn't realize Fantasy Brown isn't really granite until I did some reading here. The guy at the stone place said they had both granite and dolomite FB, so I don't know what that means. I brought home a sample of it, but it's hard to tell anything from the small sample.

@cgs Hi! Sorry to hear you had little luck today. My Blue Dunes has no “golden” color as you mentioned today. Only gray, white, charcoal, streaks of taupe & few streaks light black. Maybe track down another stone yard. Website photos just don’t reveal true colors, best to see in person before committing.

Many people do have Fantasy Brown and love it. My understanding: it is dolomite, NOT granite. Also check River Blue which is also a dolomite with similar colors.

Are you on Facebook? Helpful private group is ‘Kitchen Remodeling Ideas’. You can seek out others for advice who have FB counters. I can invite you in if I had your facebook name. Here is the group👇🏻

I found a slab online that looks more like yours @jamsession. I emailed the place asking if they have samples from that specific bundle, but I'll probably just go there next weekend. I really hope it looks like I think it does and I can finally be done with this. Last (and I think only) remaining big-ish decision after granite is backsplash. It'll be plain, so hopefully not too hard.

Hope it’s exactly what you’re looking for. 🤞🏻. @cgs And YEP, backsplash is one more biggy. I brought many tile samples home, but didn’t make my final decision until AFTER cabs & counters were fully installed. Kitchen really comes together at that point so you can see tile samples in your space. Let me know how you make out.

Ugh, this granite decision is the worst lol. I looked at the inventory online for this place and wrote down what I wanted to see, but none of the bundles I liked were out for display. So I asked about them and they said they could pull them out for me. But I had like 6 or 7 I wanted to see and that seemed like a lot, so started with 2 and then pulled one more.

The Blue Dunes I had high hopes for was much browner in real life. But when I got home and looked online again, I saw that the slab they pulled looked nothing like the picture online--the pattern was completely different. The one they pulled was labeled with the right number, so not sure what's going on.

There was a Blue Dunes on the showroom floor that wasn't online and I liked that one. I might get it. I'd still prefer more gray and less brown, but I kept going back to it. And when I spied it as I was coming around the corner to the next aisle, I liked it, which is what keeps happening when I see Blue Dunes, so maybe that's telling me something. I just don't want to get and feel like my whole kitchen is too brown.

My husband, who has mostly stayed out of all the choosing and decision making for everything, decided to go with me. He said it was too brown, but partly was echoing my concerns (brown floor, brown cabinets) and ultimately doesn't care that much and said I should get it.

We looked at Lennon, but as much as I keep looking at it, I keep not *quite* liking it.

We also looked at various silver cloud/silver stream, which husband initially liked, which surprised me because it's a lot of movement and I didn't think he'd like that. Very swirly black and white.

I might call Monday and take the slab in the picture. Or I might go back next weekend and see if I can find the one that looks more gray online, though I know it has brown in it too. Here's a link to that one.

https://www.msisurfaces.com/slabinventory/search/slabs/granite/azul-celeste/baltimore-slabs/shr653-07/msi/

@cgs. Is the photo you posted the one you actually saw today on floor? Ok, then it may have a little more brown movement than mine, but not much. If it matters, that slab may “tie-in” & compliment your brown cabs / floor instead of totally ignoring it. And the balance of gray / cream in the slab will let focus on a “gray” kitchen you want. I’ll post photos of my actually slab mine that i took. You’ll see streaks of brown, but once installed the grays stood out more than brown. I still wanted brown to warm up my space & I did brown flooring

@csg you can see I had them place the heaviest brown streak movement right across my island. I wanted that as a focal.

Thanks @jamsession, that does help.

The photo is one I took at the warehouse today.

The reason I worry about "so much brown" is that years ago, I went to someone's house and they had oak floor, oak cabinets, oak table and oak chairs and it was all the same color and wood and it was like you couldn't see anything because it was all just flat lol.

But I realized looking around my house that I don't think my dining room (oak florr and dark wood table and chairs) is too brown, or that my living room (oak floor and sort of beige sofa) is too brown. There's contrast, so it's ok.

I'll have natural maple cabinets (which are very light, though they will darken/yellow) on the perimeter and a dark brown island (maple wood with chestnut stain.) The island is a brown brown, not a red brown. I think the taupe in Blue Dunes looks good with it. And maybe the brown does tie it together without being overwhelming.

I'll have to decide whether to call them and take the plunge or go back next weekend and take one more look. I could have them pull the 3 other slabs I didn't look at--a new river white that didn't look like it had so many speckles, and a Silver Cloud that was less aggressively varied than some of the others.

Another thing I'm wary of is pink tones. It's a fine line between beige and pink. I had beige paint in our bedroom that I hated because it looked slightly pink to me (and in general I have found I don't like beige walls), and our current 30 year old laminate countertop is non-descript beige and I always felt it leaned just slightly rose/pink. The Blue Dunes didn't have any of that.

Thanks for the support!

Jamsession-im in process of kitchen remodel and going with Blue Dunes. i

absolutely LOVE your finished project. in the pictures, the island countertop looks ”thicker”. is this just photo illusion or is it indeed different? Thanks so much for your ideas!

Hi @HU-722829404. Thanks. And YES, my island granite is beefed up (doubled at 6cm) more than the normal perimeter counter thickness (3cm).

My fabricator did NOT do the mitered edge, instead we chose the “layered” double technique. Long ‘slices’ (See my diagram) were securely attached under the entire outer perimeter of top granite counter to appear as double thickness. This was done at their workshop & then installed as one complete counter. Hope I explained this clearly. 😉 Good luck with your project.

Thank you soooo much! This is super helpful. i just love that look, and i guess Ive probably seen this subtle difference before, but never thought too much about it.

At Judith Young. Oops, just seeing your 4/2023 post asking about my leathered “iced / polished” blue dunes granite. Your project is probably complete by now, but maybe this will help someone else reading the post.

Iced/ polished is an added process after granite is leathered that a fabricator does in the workshop prior to installation. They told me he gently polishes the raised portions of leathered slab to give it a subtle sheen. It is hard to capture it exactly in any photos, but is very obvious in real life. My granite counters are extremely low maintenance in every aspect. No pampering.

The slabs I found in the stone yard were already leathered & iced, otherwise they would be an up charge for this final process.

@Judith Young. Hi, please find my response to your older comment. 🫶🏻

Thanks for posting- this also helps me.

@jamsession Thanks for all of the great discussion. After many months of agonizing over our upcoming kitchen remodel (100+ yo New England colonial), we have invested in a slab of leathered Blue Dunes (no blue!). I see that most of the posts feature white cabinetry, but we chose red oak to match the existing style of the home. The issue is choosing flooring that plays well with adjacent narrow plank golden maple floors in dining room. We plan to extend the kitchen flooring into an expanded mudroom, so would prefer a durable material like luxury vinyl planking if we can find a compatible look, or LVT that does not resemble wood. Has anyone had any experience with LVT?

. @eveHiatt hi Eve. we installed CoreTec Grande LVP (color Goldin Oak) in our kitchen and 1st story. An adjacent room (Den) has real, red oak, narrow plank hardwood. That room is sunken with step down so there is a break where it meets the kitchen LVP. Totally diffferent color and with. Did not try to match the 2 floors. The LVP is really thick (15mm) and quite solid planking. It’s been 12 months and no issues. Good luck finding the right color to complement your cabinets and adjacent maple floor.

Gorgeous!!!

There are some LVP products that have a pattern that looks more like stone rather than trying to mimic wood. This is what I used since I did not want 'fake' wood abutting real wood. The product I selected was by Shaw. I can't recall the Shaw line, but the color was Kingston which is discontinued. But I think they have about 6 other patterns (all stone) in this line. I'm sure other manufacturers also have stone look vinyl. Here's a pic.

Jamsession-Thanks so much for all of your help. I finally finished my kitchen and wanted to share pics. I went with the
Leathered blue dunes and decided to go for the mitered edge on the island. I absolutely love love love it! Thanks for the inspiration!

HU-722829404. Welcome. Your kitchen looks great. So similar to my layout . Enjoy it.

@jamsession I just purchased BD for my kitchen reno. I was hoping you could share your backsplash and your cabinet hardware please?