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Neutral stone colors provide an excellent foundation for designs. They can also bring out the beauty in multiple species of wood cabinetry and furniture. The showrooms at Marble and Granite hold over 60 types of sand and beige natural stone products for your kitchen, bath and beyond.

Granite The beautiful Giallo Venezia of Brazil offers consistent color with fine granules resembling sand. It works beautifully in conjunction with light hardwoods. Also from Brazil, Narcarado (Quartzite) gives owners a smooth beige base with streams of rose, burgundy and touches of gold. Bring out the red tones in this stone with mahogany or cedar wood cabinetry.  To leave a bigger impression, try the bold veining and hues of Ghibli Gold from India. It is ingrained with ribbons of rust red and amber.

Marble Creama Luna of Italy provides owners with a base of consistent, milky marble with hints of gray. Its fresh color brightens any kitchen. Breccia Oniciata hails from the same country, with smooth waves of brown, tan and beige; it’s like a swirling cappuccino for your surfaces. Beige, green, and gray intertwine to bring us La Dolce Vita (Quartzite) from Australia. Its cool, earth tones are a lovely addition to tranquil baths.

Order your natural stone products from Marble and Granite. To schedule a consultation call 877-39-STONE.

Source: Marble and Granite

Image Source: UnitedMarble.com

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While black countertops are dramatic, white countertops provide a foundation for numerous design styles and create the illusion of space. Marble and Granite carries nearly 100 types of white countertops. Chose from natural stone such as marble and granite or engineered stone like CaesarStone.

For the whitest white, Crystal Glass offers Crystallized White and Milky White slabs in polished 2cm and 3cm grades. CaesarStone's Blizzard, and Pure White quartz surfaces provide a bit of variation within the material for subtle hints of gray and tan. Nougat and Eggshell are beautiful neutral colors that works well with cool and warm earth tones.

The unique patterns of marble create white countertops with a twist, including veins of gray, silver, and even greens and yellows. Supai and Guatemalan Danby provide fairly consistent color with little veining. In contrast, the dramatic patterns found in the Egeo Ondulato and Calacatta Original add visual interest to your surfaces.

Granite provides similar variations among white varieties. Bethel White and London White hold consistent color and are like blank slates for your kitchen or bath design. The exotic Golden Romano from Brazil streams tan, gold, and black through its white base.

With hundreds of selections to chose from, you are sure to find a natural or man-made product to complete your kitchen or bath. Visit our showrooms conveniently located in Westwood, MA and Milford, CT.

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You’ve learned What Gives Granite Its Color and Pattern,  now explore the vast variety of granites that Marble and Granite has to offer. In the upcoming Color Series, take a look at product options within each color family. This week, we will explore black granite.

We carry 27 different types of black granite, including Cambrian Black, Atlantic Black, Smokey Black, Anthracite Black, Impala Black and three types of Absolute Black, among others. The truth is, black isn’t just black. Buyers can choose from a variety of options with different degrees of sheen, shimmer, different size granules, and hints of other minerals for varying influences of color.

Our international buyers seek granite from the far reaches of the globe including Brazil, India, South Africa, Ukraine, Canada, and China. The diversity of stone—even in such a seemingly simple color like black—provides consumers with the variety needed to find the perfect fit for their design.

Image and Source: MarbleandGranite.com

Marble and Granite carries quality slabs of natural stone that can be customized to meet your personal style and taste. The Marble Institute of America provides consumers with a few guidelines for customizing the edges of their natural stone products.

Edge profiles (or edge details) describe the decorative edges carved into natural stone. In addition to adding visual interest to the stone, edge profiles also create tactile differences that may effect the functionality of your space. Smoother edges are usually desired on countertops, especially near areas like the sink where someone washing dishes might rest his or her weight. In contrast, crisp edges are often more desirable for tiles.

For contemporary designs, consider more simplistic edge profiles for your countertops such as Pencil Round or Double Pencil Round, Radius or Double Radius. These edge types provide cleans lines with a bit more visual interest and comfort than Straight with Chamfer Eased edges, for example. For traditional designs, consider Ogee Roundover or Cove Dupont edged countertops. Such detailing complements the ornate accents of traditional and old world designs.

Source: Marble Institute of America

Image Source: Granite - Charlotte

May is National Remodeling Month! This is an exciting time to remodel your kitchen or bathroom into the space you’ve always dreamed about. Concerned about where to start with the natural stone component of your project? Try the Stonepedia app for your mobile device!

Yes, there is an app for that. Stonepedia provides users with a storehouse of more than 1,400 pictures of over 500 different types of marble and granite! Download the images directly to your mobile device including iPhones and iPads. Need a second opinion on your natural stone selections? Email or Picture Mail samples to your partner or friends. It is a great way to find the direction for your next project.

Stonepedia also offers customer support. If you have questions about the qualities of a particular stone, its installation or maintenance, Stonepedia can provide you with answers! Get expert advice from the minds of the Marble and Granite Inc crew, the creators of Stonepedia and the one of the largest natural stone distributors in the region.

Marble and Granite has the resources and materials that you need to make your project a success.

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Appreciate your granite countertops for all of their natural and intricate beauty. Marble and Granite has buyers throughout the world locating and selecting high quality granites with blends of minerals to provide unique colors and patterns for your home.

Granite is one of the most common igneous rocks used in residential design. Mined from all continents around the world, it is composed of numerous minerals that have fused together or formed under high pressure. Common minerals found in granite are quarts K-feldspars, plagioclase feldspars, potassium, and micas.

Quartz is one of the last minerals to form in granite. It acts as a bond between other minerals. Although it is colorless, it often appears gray because it reflects the colors of dark and light minerals around it. Mica is found in two major varieties in granite: muscovite, biotite and lepidolite. Muscovite and Biotite are forms of mica that quartz may reflect for its silver and black properties, respectively. In lepidolite form, mica may give granite a or violet of pink color.



Additional color sources in granite include K feldspars. K feldspars provide a variety of colors for granite including blues, blacks, pinks and yellows. Plagioclase feldspars are often white with a pearly finish.

For quality granite products in colors to match any design, call Marble and Granite at 877-39-STONE.

Source: Galleries.com

Image Source: Caesar Stone

After reading an article about countertop pricing, which begins on p. 74, in the January 2011 issue of Stone World, we want to offer this advice to countertop fabricators:

Taking the time to relay important details to your customer is a key factor in selling your service.  The Home Depots and Lowes of the industry sell their countertops as a SKU, so competing on price is not a competition at all.  Also, break down an ad that lists multiple offers because the listed items are not always relevant (they might already be included in the service and are not really a deal.)

There is a need to determine fixed costs (business costs that do not change) and variable costs (business costs that change with level of production.)  Direct costs such as freight, materials, power, tools, commissions, labor, etc., do not change.  “Indirect costs” are things such as administrative staff, insurance, marketing, and safety programs.

There are various pricing strategies in the market:

• Square-foot pricing: not very effective when differentiating businesses


• Good/Better/Best pricing: varied pricing for different market segments (retail, k&b, designer, contractor, etc.


• Bundle pricing: encourages the use of a product in quantity by offering a discount   for volume, allows for profit maximization


• De-bundled pricing: encourages customer to upgrade and choose


• Premium pricing: geared towards unique and high quality, maximizes profit


• Penetration pricing: for use in new and different markets

Tools such as software, time sheets, and job cost sheets help determine the level of cost in a fabrication business.  Detailed pricing sheets that list cut-outs, edgework, radius corners, bump outs, lamination, seams, etc., are itemized so you are able to break down every detail of the customer's particular job. This is where you can possibly negotiate details with the customer if they do not like the price.

In a competitive market where price is always the first topic of conversation, it is important to outline the details and importance of your service. Check out our post about the factors affecting the price of granite.

Continuing our video series on natural stone properties, we present "Introduction to Natural Stone, Part 2."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoxYW0EWXW0

Browse our inventory of imported marble and granite, available wholesale at Marble and Granite Inc. in Westwood, Mass., and Milford, Conn.

There is only one slab left of our extra-large verde saltan marble, an elegant and durable natural stone material ideal for any application. It is from Lot #8569 and measures 140-by-58 inches. Green-colored stones, or serpentines, are glamorous options for kitchen and bath countertops, replacing neutral beiges and whites. Due to the high concentration of serpentine minerals, these green stones are significantly less porous and much denser than other marbles. This allows for installation in high traffic areas such as kitchens and even kitchen islands. Plus, you can't beat a seamless countertop this big!

Contact Marble and Granite Inc. for more information.