With its swirling, misty movement of thin white veins on a gray background, this dolomitic marble, also known as hard marble, adds luxe elegance and a touch of warmth to a home while also providing a higher degree of durability. Just as happy in a contemporary, transitional, or rustic setting, Donatello appears timeworn and stylish all at the same time.

With CRS Marble & Granite’s laser-focused attention to choosing only the highest-quality stones, Donatello marble fits our standard of how a fine natural stone should perform in residential and commercial settings. For this reason, we have formed a working partnership with Brazilian quarry Brasigran to bring this stone to the North American marketplace. Brasigran has been quarrying granite and marble since 1986 and is one of our trusted suppliers that seek continuous innovations in the ornamental stone trade. Brasigran describes Donatello as semi-exotic and harder than Italian white marble. As such, it holds up a little better, with less scratching and acidic etching than what can happen on traditional Italian marble kitchen countertops. Since the gray and white kitchen trend appears here to stay, our quarry has gone the extra mile to meet the need for color-appropriate stones such as Donatello. Considered a hybrid stone, it contains a small percentage of less-porous material such as dolomite or quartz, making its surface overall more durable and an excellent choice for homeowners. In fact, dolomite is often used for acid neutralization in the chemical industry, so its properties are on display in a hard marble like Donatello.

Even though Brasigran is a high-tech facility, each stone is still individually touched, inspected, and processed by a person, which is in keeping with CRS’s high standards. Stones are processed in one of several ways – polished, sawn cut, sanded, rock-faced, sandblasted, or tumbled – providing a variety of looks to the marketplace to suit any homeowner’s style. See Donatello on display in our showroom. Do you see a misty sky? A storm brewing? A swirling pool of ocean water? Regardless, you will find it will blend with almost any existing design style in your home.

SUNNY SURANA is president of CRS MARBLE & GRANITE. Visit the Raleigh showroom at 7521 Exhibit Court, see CRSGRANITE.COM, or call 919-784-9282.