Yes, She Poured Lemon Juice All Over Her Marble Countertops!

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for your input on the grout color for the kitchen tile. We’ll veer off the renovation a bit because I must share a true story about this wacky lady who poured straight lemon juice onto her expensive marble countertops.

I know. But, it’s quite a story and all true.

 

By now, we all know the last thing we should get on our marble countertops is lemon juice.

 

Yes, the acids in citrus and many other foods will eat away at the calcium carbonate, but not evenly. What’s left is a horrible blotchy mess. That uneven mess is now commonly known as etching.

So, why would someone knowingly pour a relatively cheap bottle of lemon juice all over her expensive marble countertops? After all, she must’ve had a very good reason.

Indeed.

I did…

Have a VERY good reason.

 

WHAAAAAATTT??? YOU’RE THE WACKY LADY, LAUREL?

 

Yeah… But, I’m sure you already realize that. ;]

 

Okay, I will explain why I poured straight lemon juice on my beautiful marble countertops.

 

And then the results.

Remember late last September 2023?

 

This is my exquisite slab of HONED Calacatta Caldia white marble.

I found the white marble of my dreams for my new kitchen countertops, so I bought it and waited patiently for 2-1/2 months for it to be fabricated and installed.

Finally, on the evening of December 14th, the marble arrived, along with Eric and his assistant.

 

 

More than six hours after the two of them left (and actually long before they left), I couldn’t help but notice how weirdly plastic and shiny my gorgeous new marble looked.

 

See above.

Honed marble is matte. It’s possible, you’ll get a subtle reflection but nothing like this.

In addition, there was this strange, shiny, waxy-looking texture.

This was three days later, during the cremone bolt installation. And yes, that hardware should not have been on the fragile marble countertop like that.

 

Please understand that certain lights only show the texture and weird shine. However, when you see it, it’s terrible.

What the hell did they do to my beautifully honed marble countertop?

 

Yes, they FREAKING LEATHERED IT.

 

Only natives from Braintree, MA, don’t say it like that. They call it leath-ud.

 

I had never heard of leathered marble until maybe ten years ago or less.  Before I go on, I know that many of you have leath-ud marble or leathered if you don’t have a heavy, non-rhotic R American accent. 

And– you LOVE it. That’s fine. My guess is you have a heavier figured marble, and in that case, a leathered finish in a more rustic or contemporary kitchen would be appropriate. However, it is the last thing I would put in my 19th-century brownstone condo.

 

Why didn’t you tell us before, Laurel?

 

I guess I felt a certain amount of embarrassment. I only told them two times that I wanted it EXTRA HONED, and I should’ve reminded them 20 times. Well, I assumed that they understood that this marble should either be honed, perfectly matte, or polished; never leathered. I will not comment further because this lack of _ __________ has been the theme of this entire renovation.

Didn’t you complain, Laurel?

 

Yes, I complained and got the usual gaslighting; something about the marble has been coming in this way recently. NO, it came IN honed. I saw it with my own two eyes.

However, I kindly asked Eric to come back and fix it and was assured that he would.

 

Oh, that’ll take ALL DAY, he said.

 

Sure, if you sand it with a toothpick.

Did he fix it? Well, out of the next five visits it took to do the mantel, he spent about 20 minutes fixing the sink side only. It was better but not perfectly honed. At least he was able to get some of the shine off. And then he resealed it.

Finally, I asked him what I needed to do to fix the counter myself. At first, he said they would do it, but then he told me to get 120-grit sandpaper and to get it wet. And then to get the noxious sealer, which I do not recommend: Dry Treat. Well, you can use it, but first, get a tank of oxygen so you don’t blow out your lungs and liver.

 

So, after Phillip, the tiler, left and the counters were free and clear last weekend, I decided that this would be a good time to work on the marble countertops.

 

However, first, I took another tight closeup to see the leath-ud finish on the right side of the range marble countertop.

 

Yes, there is more orange peel (and a bit of etching visible) on my gorgeous marble countertops! (Orange peel, like on my beautiful new doors downstairs!)

So, I got to work, and after about 10 minutes, the tile was better, but not better enough.

Oh, did I tell you that the leath-ud marble *etches like mad!

Yes, of course it does. So, it’s already blotchy in some lights. So, what did I have to lose? Nothing, I told myself.

That is when I lost all reason and opened my whiny Bertazzoni refrigerator. (It is going bye-bye very soon) Inside, I found a half of a cut lime.

Dum, dum, dum…

That was a composition Cale made for me several years ago. Incidentally, today, June 18th is my darling Cale’s 34th birthday.

 

At first, I ran the lime only in one section and wiped it off after a few seconds.

 

It was uniform and better, so I rubbed it along the entire 20″ wide countertop to the right of Bert and the left of Whiny (the fridge). Then I wiped and rinsed and looked carefully from all directions. It was still totally uniform and looked better every time.

I was out of limes, so I made a solution of half water and half lemon juice from a bottle. I halved it because lemons have a stronger acid than limes. There wasn’t much change this time.

 

 

Finally, with the lime strewn to the side, I poured full-strength lemon juice all over my expensive marble countertops. (See above)

 

Yes, I, the level-headed (haha) Laurel, did the unthinkable.

I wiped off the lemon juice, sanded some more, and rinsed and dried the marble countertop.

However, as I was doing this, I could already see that not only was the marble not ruined, but this experiment far surpassed my expectations.

 

 

The marble was beautiful, smooth, and 100% uniform in texture. It was HONED. This is a larger-than-life and very closeup. Those tiny white crystals don’t show and are an inherent part of this marble, a metamorphic stone.

So then I did the other marble countertops and after about 90 minutes was all finished.

Nothing was in the slightest bit uneven. All of the former etching was gone!

The countertops are completely matte and quite clean, I might add.

Then, I sealed the countertops with the sealer we used for the tile. I waited for it to dry and put everything back.

Okay, a few things.

 

No, I do not recommend trying this on ***your*** marble.

 

It is possible that yours WILL be blotchy. Mine is not.

Please know that even with the leath-ud finish, I adore these countertops. I adore the marble, but it is fragile. It really is like the proverbial porcelain doll. However, there’s nothing else like it, and I don’t regret for one second finally getting the beautiful white marble I’ve always wanted. But now, it’s even better.

 

xo,

 

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