From your pictures, I like the Solitaj better. It seems more calm.

Neither of them are going to fool me that they are "real stone"

Is that the finished look of your cabinets? If it is, I'm not sure I would want to use a pattern on my counters with the busy wood grain of the cabinets.

Show us a sample of your finished cabinet next to the countertop samples.

If your goal is to get as close as possible to real stone, or as far away as possible from a fake look, then it says that this matters somewhat to you how fake the final look is. In this case, I would not get anything that resembles stone at all because they are all incredibly fake looking, so why not just get a solid color countertop? It may be a better choice with your cabinets too.

Also, have you seen entire slabs of these materials? You think the look slightly fake as a sample, wait until you see their veining on a large scale.

Prefer the solitaj.. either is fine though

That was my concern as well so although our first choice would've been granite, it's too busy with our wood grain. To me this is a good middle ground, not as busy as granite but not super plain white quartz.

Those are our finished cabinets in the picture.

Solitaj (the one on the right on your first photo). The less pattern, the better.

I never understand this choice when there are so many real stones that look like real stone

I should clarify, granite would only have been our first choice performance wise. Visually though I'm not a fan of how granite looks. Even if I had white cabinets. Just personal preference, although I can definitely appreciate the beauty of the natural stone.

I dont see either of those on your busy, rustic cabs. However, if I had to choose, I’d pick the fake Taj over the fake marble. Quartz imitating marble has been sooooo overused, and they’re all so laughingly fake. The Taj may be a tad more realistic.

Actually, soapstone or honed Viginia Mist would be better choices for those cabinets.

There's like a million and two choices of granite. I understand not liking this granite or that granite, but to say ALL granite is busy or you don't like any of it tells me you haven't looked at a very wide range of granite. There are other stones to look at, too. The suggestions above for soapstone or Virginia Mist/Jet Mist granite are good ones.

I'll put it this way, from what I've seen, and I'm happy to be corrected, but all the white colors of granite are too busy, and we don't want soapstone or a dark grey/black counter

See that one I think is too grey and cool tone. Besides for being busier than the quartz ones we picked out which others are saying are even too busy

I say Solitaj.

I'm with you. I've never met a white toned granite I like for myself or my kitchen. BUT, can we convince you to consider a solid color corian instead? Your cabinets have so much movement in them. I don't like the idea of either of your samples. I think you can do a lot better.

Can you show us inspiration pics of kitchens you like? Show us what the rest of your kitchen looks like? Maybe we can find other solutions you'll like. Cabinets and couters are so expensive. It is a shame to end up with something that isn't better than one of these two samples.

I have quartz and I like quartz! But your quartz choices are too delicate looking for lack of a better word.

As mentioned, your cabinets have a rustic feel to them and the grain makes them busy.

Do you have inspiration pictures withbthis type of wood? i am curious as ro what it is paired with.

"I'll put it this way, from what I've seen, and I'm happy to be corrected, but all the white colors of granite are too busy, and we don't want soapstone or a dark grey/black counter."

That clarifies things.

Quartz is perfectly fine in its own right, as is a solid surface such as Corian. But none of it ever looks like real stone, so don't kid yourself about that. Embrace whatever countertop material you choose for it is and run with it. Pick something that looks good with the cabinets -- that is by far more important than trying to get one that looks like stone.

I don't particularly like either of your two choices with the cabinets. They're just not quite right.

I have two suggestions. If you don't mind mid-tone, the first is leathered or honed Steel Grey granite. IRL it comes off as more of a mid-tone charcoal grey. It would look great with your cabinets.

The second suggestion is a plain white quartz or solid surface, no pattern at all. The white will lend needed contrast to the wood without being busy or in-your-face. I'd suggest a matte texture with those cabinets (I don't know if plain white quartz comes in a honed/matte texture but Corian and the like does).

@Kendrah and @porkchop_z5b_MI very much appreciate your inputs! I know there's other counters that would be a better choice with the cabs, we just do not like plain white or greys or black. Even though it's not the best match we want to like the counter in its own right as well. I was thinking we could bring in some contrast with the backsplash? Here's some photos of rustic hickory with this family of colored counters.

There is a new MSi color called Ivoritaj which looks promising and it's brighter than the 2 we have picked, but the local fabricator said it's not available yet

Which one did you go with and are you happy with it? we are trying to make the exact same decision. what bavksplash did you use?

Hi, we went with Ivoritaj! We're very happy with it :) We actually haven't done the backsplash yet, I'm a little stuck on which to do.

Hi Kay, thx for your quick response. i have agonized over this way too long. i have all three samples sitting in front of me (actually more because i have Solitaj and Ivoritaj in the brushed or honed finish also…so 5 samples!). Our house was bult in the 90’s and has wood tones of honey on cabs, floors, beams, cathedral ceiling…..have had an awful time picking a countertop that is warm but not too busy. Is the Ivoritaj finsh you chose Polished or Honed? are you happy w the color? Does the brown color in it have any goldish tones? can you post a pic for me? thank you for opinion, sounds like you had my very same dilemma.

We went back and forth for months so I hear you! Ours is polished. We really loved solitaj but went with this one because we thought since it's lighter it'll have more contrast with the cabinets, and liked that the veining wasn't as prominent. Ivoritaj veining is more blurred out. My only thing would be to get a sharper edge cut, as in ours you can see some of that printed pattern kind of disappears and there's a white area, like around the sink. A sharper edge would've taken care of that so that would be my only regret. IMO there's no gold in it, no sparkles or anything. The pics are pretty true to color.