
Quartz Counters: Why you should always double check
When it comes to countertops, I am typically specifying quartz counters or granite counters for bathrooms and/or kitchens. In a recent project, I had worked with the clients to find the perfect creamy quartz counter for their kitchen. As you know, there are various shades of white/cream so getting this right was super important. Whites fall into 4 categories
- blue white
- true white
- off white
- cream

If you’ve ever had to choose a white before, you may realize just how many whites there are. It’s super important to get it right!
Quartz Counters: The Benefits
Most of my clients are leaning towards choosing quartz counters for a couple of reasons:
- Quartz counters are loved due to the fact there is virtually no maintenance needed (as opposed to needing to seal granite from time to time).
- The quartz counter sample that you see is what will be installed. There’s no need to go to the yard to select the exact slab (like I recommend doing with granite).
So what the hell happened?
Let me first say that this is not going to be a bashing post about the quartz company. What you are going to read below are just the facts (that is why some people call me Frank: I’m honest and direct with my words). Here are the events of this quartz adventure.
Quartz Counters: Selection
When I work with clients, counters are the third item we look at (after selecting the cabinet colour/style and flooring). What was already solidified were the cabinet style, the cabinet colour and the flooring. This particular renovation project is an entire home renovation. The exterior walls were taken down to the studs and all interior walls were removed (except for one). The reason I mention this is that every decision that was made was based off of our foundation palette and the path this home was going down. The foundation palette falls in the ‘cream’ foundation palette. There is not a stitch of true white, there is not an ounce of grey. This is a creamy, warm house. Period.
The cabinet colour is Cloud White from Benjamin Moore. Cloud White falls in the off-white category so you would think there were many options for counters. Not so. Cloud White can work really well with greys however as I mentioned above, there is not a stitch of grey in this home.

After looking at many quartz options, we were down to two choices:


With the entire home vision in mind, my choice for my clients was Snowy Cliffs. It’s super soft compared to Himalayan Moon and would work perfectly. Decision made! Once we made that decision, the backsplash and wall

Quartz Counters: Install
I always get excited when kitchen cabinets get installed and then I’m super excited when the counters go in. For me, it signifies that we’re about 3/4 of the way done! It also allows the clients to get excited too as they can now start to see their space come together. Although the space has been in my brain since selections were made, it’s pretty hard for my clients to see into my brain and see what I can see (the vision of the space).
My fabricator came on his scheduled date and install happened without a hitch. My fabricator texted me when he was done and then sent me a picture. Let me first say that I know

Subtle Colour Change
Now you may be thinking,
Really? You are having an issue with the subtle colour change?
Here’s what I want you to realize. While yes, the counter was not bad, it was not what we had picked out. It was not part of the vision of this house (again – not a stitch of grey to be seen anywhere in this home). What I also want you to understand is the big picture. I know the flooring that was going into this home as well as the furniture coming into this home. I know my clients’ tastes and likes and I also know every painstaking decision we made was based off of a warm and creamy feel for this home. The Snowy Cliffs that was installed instantly turned this into a cool space.
Quartz Counters: What Happened?
After some phone calls back and forth between my fabricator and my Caesarstone rep, and to make a long story short, we found out the formula for Snowy Cliffs was changed. Um…..what? Yes, you read that right.
The formula for making this particular quartz was changed.
I had never heard of that before so I was a little bit shocked. All I can say is that (thinking glass half full) that it was a great day as I learned something new. It believe it’s always a great day when you learn something new. Now, how to tackle this and make it right!
Moving Forward
Here is what I told my clients after the Mrs said, “Well, I can live with it if I have to.”
Absolutley not!
No one should have to ‘live with it’. Especially when you’re going to the extent of a renovation like we are with this project and spending the dollars and time on a project. We went back to Caesarstone and looked at other options. One of the other options we looked at was Cosmopolitan White.
Since we knew that Snowy Cliffs had a formula change, we asked to see the larger slabs of Cosmopolitan White. When we saw the slabs, guess what? The large slabs were much greyer than the sample. The Mrs. was not loving it and so this no longer became an option.
Final Choice
So….on to our next choices. When we first looked at quartz, at the very beginning of this process, I had mentioned Vanilla Noir. I had used it in a past project and it is such a delicious counter. It is also quite striking to have the contrast of

While Vanilla Noir totally changes the look of the kitchen (compared to when Snowy Cliffs was installed), it is marvellous! And while a darker counter may show a few more crumbs, the veining in this counter is also a great hider of crumbs. I also know that the Mrs. is a great cleaner so I would be shocked to see any crumbs on the counter in the near future. When you step foot in the door of this home, your eye immediately goes to the kitchen! Vanilla Noir is truly the star in this space!
Quartz Counters: Why you should always double check
In the past, I never thought twice about using my large samples of quartz to make a very confident decision. After this experience, I now know to be asking the question:
Has the formula changed? May we please see a large sample to ensure the colouring is right?
I encourage you to also double check when choosing your quartz samples. There’s nothing wrong with double checking to make absolutely sure you are getting what you think you are getting.
I also wanted to take this time to let you know that Caesarstone has been absolutley fantastic to us. They have made accommodations for us to come and view big slabs, they have pulled various slabs from their warehouse and let us hand select our slabs to ensure we are all happy, and they have really provided us great customer service. Obviously they did not do this on purpose. I am thankful that we found a wonderful counter that still goes with everything and maintains the vision my clients have for their new renovation. I told you this would not be a bashing post!
We are about 2 weeks away from being done this renovation that started in August! I can’t wait to showcase all of the changes with you. I hope you’ll stay tuned!
Wow, what a great and insightful post. I had never thought to double check the formulas so my clients get exactly what they want. Bravo, and thanks for posting. Jil
Thanks Jil. This was a huge shock (at first) which quickly changed to: ‘now how to fix this’! I’m going to make sure that I double check all quartz samples (from allcompanies) from now on.
Sheri- What a great post! I certainly will be checking all my quartz slabs from here on out. Thank you for my learning moment today.
Jana
You are so welcome! Although it’s crappy to have happened, it’s all working out in the end. Cheers my friend!
Do you always use Caesarstone? Or do you recommend other brands of quartz as well?
Hi Kate,
I don’t always use Caesarstone. I have also use Cambria Quartz and TCE in other projects.
Hi Sheri,
My husband and I were just looking at the snowy cliffs for our kitchen (white cabinets and wood flooring/ neutral coloured walls) and are on the fence. Do you think the snowy cliffs still has the potential to be warm?
Hi Robyn,
It really will depend on the kind of white your kitchen cabinets are. In my project, the cabinets were Cloud White and the counter would have looked fabulous IF there was other grey in the home – which there was not. I found the new slabs of Snowy Cliffs were not the warmth that we were going for. My suggestion would be to take a cabinet front or a cabinet drawer from your home and ask to see a large slab of the Snowy Cliffs. Hold up your cabinet to the large slab (and ask if they would move the slab to the back entrance where they can open the door to get as much natural light as possible). You may be able to see then if it will be a good choice for your home. I hope this helps.
Why won’t Caesar Stone replace the slabs at their suppliers when they changed the formula /color? That would have solved a whole lot of problems.
Pat, when we went back to Caesarstone, we did check all of the other slabs and they all had grey in them. Since my clients had nothing grey, we chose a completely different quartz. Caesarstone was very helpful in sorting it all out and in the end, my clients are very happy.
I am a kitchen and bath designer and I will only specify Cambria for Quartz countertops. Cambria is the only quartz manufacturer that mines white quartz. Caeser stone is not half the manufacturer of Cambria. It is known that they change formulations and have variations in color. Check out Cambria, you will not have this issue ever again.
Bonnie, we did look at Cambria but my clients didn’t fall in love with any of their selections. We also looked at a number of other quartz manufactures as well.