When you’re choosing a stone for your home, there is one important aspect to remember– 

the mortar.

Being able to choose a grouting style and color for your home can be a major benefit. Many homeowners like to match their color of grout joint to the color of their siding or stucco, others like it to be totally different to get a contrasting look. Whatever you may be doing, you always want to remember that depending on how wide your joint is, the color of your mortar can be anywhere from 10-30% of what you’re seeing on your home when you’re looking at your stone or brick. 

For instance, in this application above we the same stone blend in both photos. The picture on the left is a light natural grey mortar with a standard size and style of joint and the one on the right is a darker chocolate brown muddy river mortar with an over-grout joint. Here are some other photos where you can see how much of a difference this smaller detail makes.