What makes a Designers Choice slab?
A Designers Choice slab is picked for its look, whatever the material. Some are classic white marbles with strong veining, some are blue, green or yellow stones, and some are black stones with bright white veins. What they share is a surface with enough color or movement to anchor a room on its own, so the slab sets the palette and the cabinets, walls and hardware follow it.
Which Designers Choice slabs are blue or green?
Designers Choice blue slabs include quartzites, granites and marbles. Constellation Blue is a quartzite with a deep blue field crossed by white and gray veins, and Valley Blue Turquoise is a blue quartzite with turquoise tones that shift under light. Azul Bahia and Carmen Blue are blue granites with a speckled grain, Blue Lagoon and Pegasus Blue are polished blue marbles, Azul Macaubas is a blue granite with natural movement, and Azul Do Mar is a blue quartzite.
On the green side, Picasso Jasper is a green quartzite with darker markings, Majestic Nuage is a green quartzite with subtle veining, and Vitoria Regia is a green granite with a speckled grain. Alga Green, Arcadia and Avalanche are polished green marbles, and Olive Green is a honed limestone with small fossil and shell traces across its face.
Yellow, gold and red slabs
Designers Choice yellow, gold and red slabs are mostly polished marbles, with a granite and a quartzite among them. Giallo Siena is a yellow marble with darker veins that change in width and direction, and Nembro Giallo and Broccatello di Siena are polished yellow marbles. Magma Gold is a yellow granite with a fine speckled grain, Thesaurus is a yellow quartzite, and Calacatta Gold, a white to light beige marble, brings gold into its veining. Red stones include Rosa Namibia, a polished red marble with subtle veining, and Red Bordeaux, a honed red marble.
Black and white statement marbles
Black and white marbles in Designers Choice pair a dark or light ground with contrasting veins. Negro Marquina Supreme is a deep black marble with white and gray veining, Nero Africano is a black marble with subtle veins, Grand Antique is a black marble listed at 1 1/4 inch, and Calacatta Black is a polished black marble. In white, Calacatta Paonazzo has gray veining on a white ground, and Calacatta Lincoln and Calacatta Cielo are white marbles in polished and leathered finishes. Zebrino, a gray marble with darker and lighter streaks, and the honed Cipollino Gray fall between black and white.
White, gray and warm neutral slabs
Designers Choice also has quieter stones for a room that wants movement without strong color. White quartzites include White Mustang, Polaris, Tahiti and Luce di Luna, and Colorado, Meridian and Branco Itacare are gray quartzites. Warm neutrals include Sahara Noir, a honed deep brown marble, Port Laurent, a polished brown marble, Sauvage, a brown quartzite, and Sensation, a brown granite, along with beige stones such as Botticino Semiclassico, Diana Royal and Sky Gold.
Stone types in the group
Marble is the largest material in Designers Choice, followed by quartzite and granite. A few honed limestones complete the range, including Jerusalem Gold, Jerusalem Honey Gold and Ceppo di Luna, along with Mystic Brown travertine and Pietra Cardoso slate. Quartzite and granite are hard, dense stones that take daily kitchen use well, and marble offers the widest range of veining and color across the group.
Finishes and thickness
Polished is the most common finish in Designers Choice, since a polish deepens color and sharpens veining on a stone chosen for its looks. Honed, leathered and textured slabs give a softer surface, and some stones come in two finishes: Patagonia Blue in polished and leathered, Golden Eagle in polished and textured, White Mustang in polished and textured, and Botticino Semiclassico in polished and leathered. Slabs come in 1 1/4 inch (3 cm), the common countertop thickness, and 3/4 inch (2 cm), used for walls, backsplashes and vanities and listed for countertops on some stones, such as Calacatta Paonazzo.
Choosing a statement slab
With strongly patterned stone the individual slab matters more than the name, because color and movement can change a great deal across one quarry block. Where a stone is offered in batches cut from a single block, slabs from one batch match each other most closely, which matters for a kitchen that needs two or more slabs. More on how slabs are sold and quoted is on the stone slabs page, and the full marble range is in marble slabs.
