Kitchen countertops?

Parent Cafe
61

<p>More re post #51.</p>

<p>I think stone countertops and stainless appliances are the top two items. Bar sink? Optional, imo. (We had one in previous kitchen and rarely used it, although a nice add if you have many cooks. We had a garbage disposal put there, because what’s the point if you don’t? We used it more for veggie prep than “bar”). </p>

<p>If your cabinetry is decidedly low end, then I think it needs replacement. Which can be done reasonably, btw. If it’s not obviously low end and you like it, then keep (paint, refinish, change knobs and pulls if needed to update or change look).</p>

<p>Great looking backsplash is important imo. I don’t like “busy” (lots of patterned tile), but that is just personal opinion. But backsplash from counter all the way up to cabinets elevates the look and makes cleaning easier than a painted surface anyway.</p>

<p>Cool looking faucet - either gooseneck or pull-out for easy filling of large pots is a good feature. Undermount sink is great. Looks good and easier to clean (no seam for grit and crumbs to get caught).</p>

<p>Variation on BunsenBurner’s warming drawer. We have a DCS gas range (<a href=“http://www.dcsappliances.com/indoor/index.php?id=22[/url]”>http://www.dcsappliances.com/indoor/index.php?id=22&lt;/a&gt; - not a great photo but the best I can find). DH insisted on getting the shelf with warming lights as part of the vent hood. I thought he was silly. I love it. Keeps things warm without drying out/overcooking. I’ve never had a warming drawer so don’t know if one is better than the other, but this is like magic!</p>

<p>Also, if getting a gas range, this one (and I’m sure other brands) have sealed burners. Completely easy to clean! A must.</p>

62

<p>We redid 2 previous kitchens, replacing formica tops…1st time, we used Corian—huge improvement, and I loved it.</p>

<p>2nd kitchen, we decided to use granite–wanted more color, and “heard” that granite was more the norm for our neighborhood; were doing it for home value, as well as sellability–pattern was sort of like the link mmom(?) posted above, but with some “warmer” colors too. Think—hides most every food crumb. </p>

<p>Comparing the 2…I’d never go back to Corian. Although I loved the look of the Corian sinks, it really was difficult to keep them really clean looking, and the Corian did show knife marks. What we were told at that time was that you could put hot stuff on them, but never to do it on a seam. (I always used hotpads, nonetheless). </p>

<p>I wouldn’t like Granite if it were too white or too black (I’d never be able to keep it clean and crumb free), but my mixed colors/medium color is warm and very user-friendly. We subsequently moved, and our new house already had very similar countertops to our old ones.</p>

<p>One note on Granite price…shop around. I became a mini-granite expert at the time, and went everywhere from hoity-toity kitchen design centers, to granite-only places, to the big box stores. You have to do your research at the big box stores (regarding thickness, etc.), but…we got the granite I loved at literally half the price of the hoity-toity place, at Lowe’s. We insisted on going to their supplier and hand choosing the specific slabs of granite they’d be delivering (you want to make sure that they all came from the same rock. We told them that when we bought it, and then arranged everything with the installers when they actually came out to measure. Had to be a bit insistent–it’s not the norm, but it was worth it). Bottom line, it was the same stuff–same name, same thickness, same colors, and $5000 was in our budget for the project, not the $10,000 we were originally quoted at Hoity-toity R Us. Also, I wanted a backsplash, but didn’t want to pay the price of using the same (thick) granite. We chose one that also came in 1/2 inch thickness, altho it wasn’t from the same cut, it was the same general stone, and looked great. We got undermount deep/gourmet stainless steel sinks–great look.</p>

<p>The granite-only place was informative—they had photos of getting and cutting the granite in Italy. Think of a huge loaf of bread being sliced—that’s what they do with these huge boulders of granite.</p>

<p>All that being said, the silestone displays also look nice. And, we’re buying an investment house as a rental property—this weekend, we found 10’ premade sections of formica type countertops in very attractive colors, that were $83 for a 10’ section, avail at Lowe’s and Home Depot. Decided our renters don’t need granite :)</p>

63

<p>Just built new- surprised noone mentioned, we used soapstone in our kitchen. Iwasnot a fan of shiny granite. An scratches just get sanded with a fine sandpaper and no chem sealers only mineral oil. LOVE IT! (but if you want the all uniform look all the time it might bug you) Also have carrera marble on butlers pantry, a trick for any stains on marble is to put some pumice paste and cover with saran wrap, use masking tape and let sit 24-48 hours and it draws out the stain!</p>

<p>My favorite things in kitchen are pot filler over stove, refrig drawers in island and instant hot in sink. </p>

<p>Things i really didn’t like from past, really just the garbage compactor-GROSS!</p>

<p>Oh also have limestone floors in kitchen with color and movement that you can’t see any dirt:D</p>

64

<p>Also as far as resale- we are builders and granite or stone is always worth the investment, also in master bath. Definetly shop around, prices vary greatly. and if you are doing bathrooms got to yard and ask to see remnants, as they are small and will be sold very inexpensive and in many cases are large enough for bathroom!</p>

65

<p>I love this discussion. We definitely need a new kitchen faucet (leaks) but it is rust-welded to the sink, and while we’re at it we might as well get a new countertop, and the wallpaper is ugly, and the vinyl floor is 25 years old…:D</p>

<p>So, yeah, a new kitchen is in our future. Just depends on the college plans of kid #4!</p>

<p>We do have corian sinks in our bathrooms, and they tend to get stained if colored soap sits in the “soap dish” area. Bleach will not take this stain out. Boo hiss.</p>

66

<p>My in-laws installed beautiful handmade tiles in their kitchen when they redid it in the 60s. A friend made sepia tiles for one wall with designs representing their family and interests, and did a colorful mosaic design for another wall. Alas, these heirloom pieces will surely have to remain firmly attached to the wall when they sell the house.</p>

67

<p>We went from formica countertops to Corian. We couldn’t afford granite and were told that there was more maintenance involved. Don’t know if that’s true or not. We didn’t get a Corian sink. We stayed with our stainless steel. DH just put in a new faucet to update it it. It looks fine with our Corian and cleans up well. We live in a neighborhood that was built in the 80’s and early 90’s, not what anybody would call “high end” so we would prob. not have gotten the price of the granite back out of the house when we sell it in the next 5 years.</p>

68

<p>Someone asked about things they would include in a remodeled kitchen; we just went through that last year and here is what I love and would heartily recommend:</p>

<p>–plan for STORAGE, STORAGE, STORAGE!!! We actually kept and re-used our low-end white cabinets on the walls and added two islands (we expanded our kitchen into the “great room”): one for clean-up and one for prep/eating. The islands are a warm hickory and the look is great! </p>

<p>–deep drawers for pots/pitchers are wonderful!</p>

<p>–designated area for baking where dry ingredients, measuring cups/spoons, pans, mixer, etc. are all right there;</p>

<p>–A lower cabinet with vertical dividers for storage of cookie sheets and cutting boards and broiler pans, place mats, etc.</p>

<p>–COFFEE station by the stove with cups/travel mugs (also tea, hot choc, etc) stored in deep drawers right under the coffee pot. I am a coffee NUT :)</p>

<p>–a pot-filler faucet over the stove…shop around online for these! Prices vary wildly and you do NOT need to pay hundreds and hundreds for these!</p>

<p>–a really good vent-hood vented directly outside, preferably;</p>

<p>–careful planning so that prep/clean up areas are separated. We ended up with two sinks and that has been great! Originally we planned for the “prep sink” to be a smaller one, but the counter people made a series of mistakes so we actually ended up with a large, very deep sink (think: bathtub for eventual grandbabies! :slight_smile: ) and I LOVE it for cleaning large items…</p>

<p>–we used those low-end white cabinets to create a wall of storage for dishes (right by the dishwasher) by using UPPER CABINETS as both base and upper units on the wall. You end up with a narrower base cabinet/counter that we have used as a “buffet” area for large groups. Of course, this also takes up less of a “footprint” in the floorplan, and the space is all used very efficiently for dish storage.</p>

<p>–spend time and resources designing/installing lighting for your kitchen. We have under-counter lights as well as can-lights which highlight each area of the kitchen and most are on dimmers. I love the effect! The fixtures are NOT high-end but look great.</p>

<p>Note: my h and I did most of the work in this kitchen ourselves…we had a guy help with the knocking down of walls and such, but we were only able to do this with a LOT of our own “sweat equity”! It has been worth every bit, though! I am so glad we did this and now can enjoy our kitchen!</p>

69

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<p>This is an excellent idea. We have a vertical cabinet, and I only wish I had a second one. I also store my serving platters, and oversized plates in it.</p>

<p>I love my pantry, with pull out drawers. The lazy Susan as a corner cabinet is great.</p>

<p>I think that having someone take the time to plan out where a diswasher goes, the sink should be, and the general layout/flow is very important for anyone who is completely going to rebuild a kitchen.</p>

<p>BTW, I love my double oven, and microwave with browning feature (this required an electrician first, but we had one coming for our lighting anyway).</p>

70

<p>I have a vertical cabinet, but it’s not nearly big enough. My mother used to have one over the fridge. That works quite well especially if you have a deeper fridge with a deeper cabinet.</p>

71

<p>BTW, there is an EXCELLENT computer program called Interior Designer by Better Homes and Gardens (we used v. 7.0)that allows you to design anything from a complete house from “scratch” to a single room. You can insert almost any architectural feature you can think of (windows, doors, trim, etc) And for kitchen planning, you “drop” in various kitchen cabinet units and styles, appliances, style features (paint, tile, flooring, etc) and then view your project as a 3-d image or as a conventional floor plan. We used this in our kitchen planning and it was WONDERFUL! And so much fun to see the “real thing” after looking at the representations and planning for so very long!</p>

72

<p>I’m terribly confused by the problems you all are having with granite. I’ve had a granite table, unsealed, for 12 years. No stains. I’ve even scraped epoxy off it with a razor knife. I’ve had granite countertops in four houses now without a single stain, and I refuse to seal the granite. Good granite is not a porous rock. </p>

<p>When I picked out the six different stones we have in our house (two different tables, two desks, the kitchen, bathrooms) I did the following to a small piece (with the permission of the granite yard): *scraped a key over it as hard as I could (did that with the tile too) and *rubbed grease on it (followed by detergent) and *poured red wine on the finalists. Unsealed.</p>

<p>My granite looks great. There’s a little mineral deposit next to the sink, but only because I’m too lazy to scrub it off. I’ve never sealed it. The marbles in the bathrooms look great. The fossil stone that I used as desktops looks great. I’ve never sealed any of them. Believe me, no one is sealing the stone you see used as floors all over Europe.</p>

<p>Cheers–most of the kitchen stone is Juparana. I love it.</p>

73

<p>We redid out kitchen using Corian and it has worked out well. I am careful not to put hot pots directly on it. Our installer created for us a large piece of material about the size of a breadboard that is heat resistant and totally matches our counters but can take the heat and I just keep that handy to put hot stuff on. We did not know about or request this so it may be standard.</p>

<p>What I did that I love but don’t see others doing is we continued the Corian right through the backsplash. While tile is pretty I don’t like having to deal with grout and the Corian is totally seamless and everything wipes clean so easily! We actually have a subtle beige neutral pattern on our counter and a similarly colored solid for the backsplash but you do not see any line or joining where one becomes the other! The installer joined them seamlessly and one just slides into the other. It is amazing to me. I like to keep my cleaning simple and I can just wipe the counter and go right up the backsplash with no crud or sharp corners all the way up to the cabinets. It rounds the corners etc. and IMO it is the best decision we made but I never see this done by others. I guess people like to have pretty decorative backsplashes but I am for plain and simple. I have pretty canisters, etc. instead.</p>

<p>I also like Zodiaq and other formulations (Silestone?) which are composed of both stone and Corian as I think they may combine the best of both. I did not want granite because I like having no seams and sealing is something I would like to avoid. But I love the continuous run from the counter through the backspash. </p>

<p>If I were to redo now I would make my counters hang over a bit more so no spills drip onto the lower cabinets and I would have had the soffits torn out so the cabinets could have gone all the way to the ceiling for more storage.</p>

74

<p>I don’t reseal my granite either, although I do use a special cleaner, by a company called ?Black Mountain? that gives it a lovely luster.
Drawers are the best, best storage solution. Other neat things that we have:</p>

<p>A spice rack at the end of our island, it is open we had just enough room for it, you can’t see it coming in from the family room. We also sacrificed part of an upper cabinet to make cubbies to store mail and the phone book.</p>

<p>Our electrical outlets and lights are hidden under the upper cabinets.</p>

<p>We have a central vac, so we added a vac pan, which is an outlet at floor level that you can sweep crumbs into.</p>

<p>Anyone who has had Silestone or Zodiaq for awhile - does it show scrapes or knife marks?? My MIL redid her kitchen a few years ago, and put in Corian, a oatterned Corian purposely chosen to hide marks, but she feels they show anyway, and it bugs her.</p>

75

<p>When we built our house 3 years ago, we considered corian, but went with granite. We wanted a dark color and found that while you can sand out marks on corian, if it is a dark color, you will see scratches. So if you do want corian, go with a lighter color.</p>

76

<p>Does epoxy grout resist mildew??? If you use it in a shower, floor, etc, can it be used at the juncion with another material, or do you have to use caulking there??</p>

<p>We live in the “mildew belt” and getting it out of my shower would be worth redoing the bathroom.</p>

77

<p>jyber,
We also did the whole backsplash in Corian. I too love the easy clean-up. I even went so far as to do the boys’ bath tub surround in Corian—it has been great–no grout!!</p>

78

<p>dmd,
Do you have marble in your shower? I am hard pressed to find anything that cleans well (as in cleaning the grout–we have 12" squares in shower) but doesn’t hurt the marble. What do you use for that?</p>

79

<p>Anyone who wants granite but doesn’t want to spend the money – consider granite tile.</p>

<p>We did this in our kitchen. We got 12" x 12" tiles, which minimized the grout, and went with a dark grout to hide any possible mold or discoloration. The tiles are so large that we feel we have plenty of flat surface to work with. </p>

<p>I’m pretty lucky in that I live in an area known for its granite, so I went to a specialty granite store. </p>

<p>We’re very lazy, and haven’t done anything to our counter tops. They still look great. No chipping or staining.</p>

<p>The cost: came between laminate and corian (closer to the laminate, actually) which was exactly what we wanted to pay. I feel like I got granite countertops at a bargain price. And everyone who sees our kitchen compliments it.</p>

80

<p>sly_vt–what did you do for the edge of the counters?</p>