Why are you wanting the outdated cold tones is the first question? Even pure white will be better than anything gray. Second is why are you looking at quartzite at all if you have a limited budget??? First, establish a budget yhat uou can live with, and stop looking at quartzites at all. Look at quartz and granites.

What color are your cabinets and flooring?

I have a small galley kitchen and am a sucker for using color to make a galley feel larger, lighter, and less like a bowling alley. My neighbor has dark soapstone in her galley and it does suck the light out of the space, but part of that is because the aisle is quite narrow and the cabinets are a dark wood.

Have you considered jet mist, aka virgina mist granite? Some folks who don't want to use soapstone like this as an alternative.

Depending on your cabinets, you could go soapstone or dark on one side and lighter on the other. I have two different surfaces on each side of my galley and it really helps open it up - a walnut boos butcher block on one side and white corian on the other.

If your galley kitchen is well lit, I dont't think soapstone will soak up too much light. If the kitchen is not well-lit, a lighter countertop won't really brighten it. I've just been countertop shopping and it seems like all the quartzites really need some nice light to show off all their beauty. But I suspect that's true of any natural stone.

To your question, though, here's a seller local to me that has many different quartzites in stock, many of which have a movement similar to Taj Mahal but with more gray coloration. If you're in the DC or Baltimore area you can check them out, or look at the names and then see if there's something similar in your area. They are beautiful stones but I can imagine that some of them are quite expensive.

https://www.gramaco.com/products/?slabs=1&type_category=quartzite

Thanks all.

cs929: Im in the San Francisco area.

Monica: I didn’t say I have a limited budget. I do like the quartzites with the gray and white. I like warm colors, just not a fan of beige.

Kendra: great idea. My upper cabinets are white and lower are gray green. floor is wood.

I‘m already splitting the color top and bottom, it might be too much to have different counters as well in a small kitchen. Maybe soapstone won’t be too dark