Imperial Danby sample test

As promised, we put our honed Imperial Danby sample through a rigorous test to see how it would fare in our messy, three-kids-and-two-enthusiastic-cooks kitchen. We eat at home for almost every meal (husband and son excepted). My oldest is learning how to cook, and the little ones love to help. So our countertop must endure careless handling and emerge in reasonable shape.

First, we applied sealant twice as called for in the instructions. This is an unnamed, top-of-the-line sealer purchased at a specialty store. Unnamed because my cautious spouse doesn't want to invite legal trouble.

Here's the sealed sample before testing. It's absolutely pristine with some natural and beautiful texture variation.



Here are the test items (left to right): (top) pizza sauce, soy sauce, a decent and cheap shiraz, (middle) strawberries, coffee, (bottom) lemon, and yellow mustard. We smushed, poured, and otherwise put the test items on the sample.







We left the items there for one hour. Here are the results. This is the most serious etch. Surprisingly, it was the red wine. You can feel the much rougher texture with your fingertips. There is also a visible color change. I don't know if it's actually a stain or if it's a very severe etch.



This angle catches the etching best. Unfortunately, our countertop will have a window behind it similar to this. So the etching will be very visible and pronounced.



Result. Well. You can't believe it until you see it. I'd heard that marble etches. It does. Seriously. These photos were taken right after the sample was washed and dried. It remains to be seen whether the marks fade. I'll let you know.

I'd mentally downplayed the etching, thinking to myself how much I love patina. There is patina which reads as natural texture. And then there are large splotches. Maybe after time, the splotches blend together to become patina. I'm going to have to think this through. It may be acceptable or we may be back to the starting point. The latter would be very, very disappointing. I've been obsessing over cabinet color choices paired with the white marble. Ditching the marble would be a huge design setback.