Beautiful Stone Surface Colors for Your Kitchen

by Rachel Lyon, Editorial Director for Direct from the Designers™

Are you looking for some kitchen inspiration? You can’t go wrong with the beauty of natural stone! Whether you’re looking for countertop or backsplash ideas, here are some amazing looks for kitchens of all kinds.

Earthy tones are great if you have a traditional house—think a little woodland cottage or European country home. Creams and light golden browns adapt fairly easily and look great with deep natural wood cabinets, while darker hues are starker and require careful balancing with other kitchen features.

If solid/base earth tones aren’t your style, keep it bright and fresh by finding stone that offers brown as an accent. It’s the best of both worlds and simple to match, but make sure to consider the different brown colors in the room. Somebody with a walnut hardwood floor would probably want touches of a richer and deeper hue than somebody with maple, for example.

If you’re going for a light and warm look, consider marble with a white or near-white base and sandy or golden veining. This aesthetic is perfect for bright Mediterranean designs. It’s also great to add a warm pop to an otherwise plain or bold black and/or white kitchen.

On the flip side, you can also add warmth with a base color. Look for subdued tones unless you really want a statement design! Most grays you see are cool, but warm versions exist, and they typically come in shades of mauve. They work great in bright modern and traditional designs alike!

Most stone tends toward neutral colors—gray, brown, tan—but you can find a few stronger colors in the mix. If you want an earthy look with more oomph, consider green to provide a lusher appearance. If gray is too plain, a touch of blue could make your countertops cooler. Are you a passionate chef and like a bold look? Look to red to liven things up. You can let color theory be your guide to set the right tone.

Perhaps you’re on the lookout for something really simple to match a minimalist contemporary design? Pure solid-colored stone is rare in nature, but there are options that look solid from a distance. Match their subtle tones to your design to make sure your counters blend rather than attract attention for the wrong reasons, and then appreciate their finer details up close.

High-contrast stone options that have fairly even amounts of different colors—as opposed to solid colors with veining—are a sure-fire way to create a unique kitchen design. Saturated colors can come off very strong, but grays and subdued hues are usually safe. You can also consider contrast with different levels of shimmer to raise the design stakes.

The examples shown here are from Cambria®, a family-owned company that produces outstanding American-made quartz slabs. Check out the huge variety of options with their digital Design Palette and imagine what you could do in your own kitchen!