<p>What’s the deal granite with thickness. When we installed our 13 years ago, we put in 1 1/4". My sister just did her kitchen (in Atlanta area) and they installed 3/4" Is this a regional trend or over the years have they found that 1 1/4 is not necessary or is this a budget vs. lux issue? They both seem to look nice.</p>
<p>emily, geology was never my area of interest. Biology, yes. Dead rocks – not so much.</p>
<p>I think the hottest trend is to have different materials in different parts of the kitchen - all part of the unfitted look. So you might have a piece of butcher block where you do prep work, something waterproof adjacent to the sink, maybe with a carved integral dishdrainer like this <a href=“http://st.houzz.com/fimgs/4651dd6a00d34e23_5386-w406-h406-b0-p0--contemporary-kitchen-countertops.jpg[/url]”>http://st.houzz.com/fimgs/4651dd6a00d34e23_5386-w406-h406-b0-p0--contemporary-kitchen-countertops.jpg</a>, and marble where you roll out pastry.</p>
![http://st.houzz.com/fimgs/4651dd6a00d34e23_5386-w406-h406-b0-p0--contemporary-kitchen-countertops.jpg[/url]](http://st.houzz.com/fimgs/4651dd6a00d34e23_5386-w406-h406-b0-p0--contemporary-kitchen-countertops.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
<p>VH, It wasn’t my area of interest either but I need another science. Sadly, it wasn’t the Rocks for Jocks I had been led to believe. </p>
<p>Mathmom, my kitchen is much to small for different materials and I figure when/if I ever have to sell my house the newer buyer can just gut it if they don’t like. I might even do it again in 20 or so years! </p>
<p>My feelings though are if you stick with natural materials there is less of a chance of it becoming hopelessly dated since there are just so few natural materials to choose from.</p>
<p>I guess my kitchen is only partially outdated. Our sink is quartzite, and I LOVE it. It’s white, and cleans easily with just dish washing liquid, and an occasional wash with barkeepers friend. Counters are granite, appliances white.</p>
<p>We love it! Like I said a year ago when posting on this very thread…if the next owners don’t like it, THEY can certainly change it!</p>
<p>After spending many months with kitchen designers and contractors for this cabin rebuild/remodel it appears that honed granite and soapstone are very much on trend at the moment. I am having difficulty justifying the price and may just stick with a low end granite. H keeps reminding me it is just a cabin! ;)</p>
<p>Around here marble is popular, but it seems very impractical to me for a regular work surface (although I love the look). I wanted that look for vanity tops in a bathroom we redid, and found a granite called Antartide that looks a lot like Carrara marble (which many people pronounce carrera, as though it’s a Porsche - why?) It sounds similar to what VeryHappy has.</p>
<p>Thank you Thumper1 for the Method Daily Granite Cleaner suggestion. I am going to give that product a try!</p>
<p>Let me know how you like Method. They have a lot of products. Make sure you get the daily granite cleaner. They say their all purpose cleaner can do granite too…but personally I like the granite cleaner better.</p>
<p>Thank JShain…a poster here who recommended the product to me. I could do a commercial for it.</p>
<p>VeryHappy, I think your countertops sound fabulous. I cannot wait to hear how you like them.</p>
<p>And, I used to love collecting rocks. The quartzite in Iowa was always kind of pink and had very small crystals. Quartz had bigger crystals, and granite was a mix of crystals and colors…mostly seen in tombstones! Certainly not scientific, but I did like my rocks.</p>
<p>Thanks, MD Mom. The fabricator was just here measuring, so I should know in an week or 10 days!</p>
<p>Limestone that is sealed is beautiful but rather expensive. A limestone floor ( with radiant heat) and granite countertops are quite beautiful but again expensive.</p>
<p>I’m just not a fan of granite, but most people around here still are happy with it. Indecision on the counter front is one of the things that’s kept me from doing the kitchen renovation of my dreams, that and deciding how much to add on. My contractor keeps telling me the cost of doing a little bump compared to doing a big bump suggests going larger. Meanwhile the longer I wait the more our needs change. By the time I get around to it maybe I’ll be trying to have room for grand kids! (No sign of any such thing on the horizon.) I also keep thinking I should extend the second story over the kitchen which of course also adds dollars, but we ought to have a master bath even though without kids we really don’t need one.</p>
<p>mathmom, think resale!!</p>
<p>My feeling is the granite (or whatever counter you have) is just one part of the kitchen. In our case, that nice light granite really perked up our kitchen. So did the new white appliances. We have medium oak (guess those are outdated) cabinets, but we like them. There are many other things in our kitchen…I’m not thinking the counters are the focal point. I just wanted something that did NOT have wood trim. Now THAT was dated!</p>
<p>Believe me I am thinking resale! But I’m still undecided about how big to make the kitchen. Most in our neighborhood are nice, but not terrible large. I’ve got too small a yard to expand much.</p>
<p>We have granite and love the look. Our neighbor got quartz and, with nose in air stated “quartz is SO much better”. LOL.
Get what you love. That is all that matters.</p>
<p>We got quartz this summer. I wanted something besides granite. I absolutely love it. No special care needed.</p>
<p>We really like our blue pearl granite. It’s dark, but the light silvery blue tones give it a luminous quality. It doesn’t show dirt at all. I recommend that you get what you like. Another “trend” is environmentally friendly materials, like recycled glass, paper in resin… check out this article:
[Eco-friendly</a> Kitchen Countertops - Sunset.com](<a href=“http://www.sunset.com/home/natural-home/eco-friendly-kitchen-counters-00400000011823/]Eco-friendly”>Eco-friendly Kitchen Countertops)</p>
<p>Just remember that whatever “trend” you get will go out of favor at some point. I think we ALL remember almond appliances, avocado green (bleh), wood trimmed Formica counters, fluorescent cloud lights, and the like.</p>