The Search for White Quartz Countertops

I’ve been dreaming of white quartz countertops for years. We’ve lived in our house for six years and I’ve wanted to change the countertops since the day we moved in. Actually, even earlier than that….since the day I first saw them. Although we picked out the countertops ourselves, they were not what we expected.

At the design center, we selected a black granite called Brazilian Black. The sample had subtle gray specks throughout, but the granite that was installed in our kitchen did not have any gray specks in it. It’s pretty much solid black.

I was convinced they’d installed the wrong granite so we had our cousin Missy, who is a granite fabricator, come look. She confirmed it was in fact Brazilian Black, but each slab varies since it’s a natural stone. Brazilian Black slabs being sourced at that time were more solid than those from several years prior.

So we’ve lived with it….for six long years. Trying to keep the counters clean is a never ending job. They show everything…every crumb, every fingerprint, every smudge. Even when I use a granite polish on it, you can see every streak. The three pendant lights hanging over the island shine right down on the counters and highlight every little flaw. I tried to take pictures but they don’t accurately represent how bad it is — it’s so much worse in person.

I knew from the beginning that we would eventually change them, but I had no idea how hard it would be to find a suitable replacement. Several times over the last few years I visited our local stone warehouse, AGM Imports, to look for new countertops. The options overwhelmed me each time.

All I knew for sure is that I want white countertops. I love the look of marble but it’s not practical for a kitchen. Marble is very porous and stains easily. I ruled out granite because there is no true white granite. So I narrowed my search to white quartz countertops.

In addition to replacing the countertops in the kitchen, I was also searching for white quartz countertops for the bathrooms as well. The two downstairs bathrooms also have dark counters, and the girl’s bathrooms upstairs have cultured marble.

White quartz countertops for the kitchen

Recently, I recruited my friend Wendy to go with me to AGM and help narrow down the choices. We made a list of 10 to 12 options I liked. Then went back through for a second look and eliminated some. If there were two that looked very similar, we’d compare until I figured out which of the two I liked best. We left with a list of four options: White Mirror, Silver Moon, Cloud Cover and Arabescato Fonte.

White Mirror was by far the most affordable of the bunch. It has sparkles in it that pick up the color of our glass backsplash.

Silver Moon has a small swirly pattern with a slightly grainy background.

Cloud Cover has the boldest pattern in the group with large veins running through it.

Arabescato Fonte reminds me of marble and has a natural looking gray swirly pattern.

Robbie immediately eliminated White Mirror because he didn’t like the sparkle, so we took that one off the list. We also eliminated Silver Moon after finding out it had been discontinued. Cloud Cover got axed because I was worried that the pattern was just too bold. The more subtle pattern of Arabescato Fonte seemed to be the perfect choice.

I asked Missy to quote us a price on Arabescato Fonte and I about croaked when I saw how much all it was going to cost! I’m not going to lie, it was a big chunk of change. Almost double what I’d hoped to spend! We need a lot of quartz….three slabs for the whole job. It’ll take an entire slab to do our kitchen island which is HUGE. But I didn’t want to settle and I honestly I don’t think Robbie cared about the cost because he’s just so sick of listening to me complain about how much I despise our black counters!

White quartz countertops for the bathrooms

Ultimately, to help with cost, we decided to select a more affordable option for the bathrooms. Which meant yet another trip to AGM. I found two options we liked in a lower pricing tier for the bathrooms: Arabescato Pearl and Teltos Carrara.

They both are primarily white with a small pattern. Arabescato Pearl’s pattern is closer to the surface while Teltos Carrara has a deeper, more recessed pattern like marble. Here’s a comparison of the two with Teltos Carrara on the top and Arabescato Pearl on the bottom.

Ultimately I chose Teltos Carrara because it looks more like natural stone.

To further complicate matters, I saw two other options I liked for the kitchen: Opal White and Statuary Gioia. Opal White is very similar to Abrabestco Fonte but has warmer undertones. It also has both gray and brown swirls on the surface.

Statuary Gioia has a very bright white background with a much bolder pattern of lines running across it.

I got price quotes on these two as well and they were both in the same pricing tier as Arabescato Fonte.

The perfect white quartz countertop

I took home some samples and they sat in my kitchen for over two weeks. To say that I agonized over making a decision is an understatement. It’s so hard to visualize what a small sample is going to look like in your kitchen.

So I called in reinforcements, and recruited my sister Ellen to go with me to AGM and give me her honest opinion. This time we took cabinet, backsplash and paint samples with us. Below is my cabinet and wall color (Sherwin Williams Big Chill) with Arabescato Fonte, Opal White and Cloud Cover.

Ellen was not a fan of the Arabescto Fonte quartz. It has a very cool undertone, and she thought it looked lavender under certain lights. I have to admit, I could see it too and it scared me. I definitely didn’t want to have quartz countertops that were supposed to be white but looked purple!

Another week….or maybe longer….went by and I still couldn’t make up my mind until Robbie eventually called Missy and asked her to come help me make a final decision. She immediately pulled out Opal White and said it looked too dingy, and quickly eliminated Cloud because the lines running through it looked “computer generated.” Next we axed Cloud Cover because the veins running through it have a navy blue undertone which doesn’t go with the seafoam green backsplash we have. So that left Arabescato Fonte, the one that had been on my list from the very beginning.

Missy pointed out how well it coordinated with our gray wall colors. Although it does have a cool undertone, so do the walls. The cool tone of the Arabescato Fonte quartz also coordinates well with our stainless steel appliances. And in looking at the sample under the lights in our kitchen, as well as in natural sunlight in our kitchen, I could NOT see that lavender undertone that almost scared me away from it. So I finally made the decision that Arabescato Fonte is the perfect white quartz countertop for our kitchen!

I’ll definitely post some pictures of after we get in installed in a few weeks!

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