The taste that consumers have for a new and exciting color pallet is ever changing. Ten years ago 75% of stones sold from our shop were granite and 25% were quartz. Fast-forward to today, and the numbers have reversed, with quartz being selected 75% of the time, while granite only making up for 25% of our sales.
White & gray color stones have been gaining momentum in the past few years. The most popular countertop color these days is the “Calcutta” style quartz which is white with a gray vein.
Reason #1: Overload of the “same old” thing
What we are now hearing from the top designers in our area is that they are sick of looking at the same white & gray quartz. Consumers still view the white & gray color as an exciting choice, but the professionals are on overload with that look.
We’ve heard a lot of complaining about “the same old thing” and we are noticing some earth tones being selected in small increments.
Home & kitchen designers are hired by the big money spenders and they are able to influence their clients based on their likes and dislikes by the suggestions they make, and clients buy in to their concepts.
At the end of it all, designers deliver on stunning, masterpiece kitchens that make into design magazines, because that’s what designers were trained to do. The “do-it-yourself” designers then refer to the magazines for “design help” and mimic what they see. This is a primary example of how some fads come and go.
Reason #2: Tariffs & Lawsuits
The other paradigm shift might be due to the new tariffs being placed on products coming from the East. The gray & white quartz is now under heavy fire facing impossible tariffs. The year of 2018 marked the ceasing of Chinese quartz imports with the heavy tariffs. All manufacturing quickly switched to other nearby low cost labor countries, with India being the biggest manufacturer by far. In 2019, Cambria (an American Quartz manufacturer) won their 2nd law suit against India and Turkish imports of Quartz. India and Turkey now face the same tariffs as China in an effort to level the cost playing field and make it more fair for American manufacturers to compete.
The out of country manufacturers now have to set up shop all over again in inexperienced countries and the demand will never be met. This will cause a surge in price, and my prediction is that quartz won’t have the popularity it once had.
What’s gold got to do with it?
All of this will lead to more sales of granite, which possess more earthly tones of gold and browns. These sales may be fueled by home & kitchen designers who are in desperate need of a change.
The natural stone processors in Brazil are aware and they see this as an inevitable advantage, as the demand for granite and marble can reach the high levels it had more than 15 years ago. However, we have even seen granite pricing in Brazil rise just a little, due to the news of the American lawsuits.
We know the gold and earth tones are on their way back and we think granite will make its come back as well. We don’t know how quickly or how intense the changes will be just know that fads are cyclical and this industry is ever changing.
Kitchens usually last 15-30 years usually enough time for 1 or 2 cycles. Some people choose their design based on resale principals. They should take into consideration how long after the remodel they plan to sell and consider that in the design. Good luck.
—Morgan Thomson, Owner
