The progress in our beach home kitchen remodel is slow going, but it is moving forward as best as can be expected for our part time home. Since my husband’s business is located several hours away, we can only be up here on weekends and that makes it difficult to get much done. Besides, who wants to work when the beach is just steps away and right out the door!
We had the new countertops installed last weekend and on Friday the plumber installed the new sink. I love them both and my dream kitchen here is starting to become more of a reality, and done with our budget in mind. Today I’m going to share a KITCHEN COUNTERTOP COMPARISON with you and what we selected.
I feel pretty confident to share knowledge of kitchen remodeling with you, as my husband is sitting right here and serving as my home remodeling consultant He has run his construction and remodeling company for 30 years now and they specialize in high end (mostly) kitchens and bathrooms. Disclaimer…just because he and his subcontractors do these high end kitchens, it DOES NOT mean that we have the $200K budget that a current client has for her kitchen! No way…no how, but it’s nice to see and hear about. Here is a bit of my husband’s advice…
1. MARBLE
Marble is a GORGEOUS natural excavated stone that has movement and a textural look in it’s veining throughout. As you’ve probably heard, it’s main drawback is the fact that it is extremely porous. It’s not stain resistant and although sealed by the fabricator (whether honed or polished) it has a tendency to stain and scratch over time. Red wine, coffee, acidic foods can be a disaster if not immediately cleaned up and you should know that going in when selecting that surface. We went back and forth between marble and what we eventually selected for our kitchen and conducted our own little stain test with a couple of samples from the fabricator. My husband has seen more than his share of clients that have had issues with their marble countertops over the years. Some fabricators make you sign a release waiver if marble is your ultimate choice.
2. GRANITE
Another natural stone choice, we have granite in our Miami kitchen that has been our countertop material since remodeling over 10 years ago. There are so many things that I love about granite…it’s cold feeling to the touch, the movement and call me old school but I really prefer natural stone to other surfaces. It has worn like a rock, is easy to clean, doesn’t stain and simple to care for. We also have granite countertops at our Miami house in 3 bathrooms and the laundry room. I see no drawbacks other than the fact that we wanted a white countertop at our beach home, and the lightest color in granite to be found was just too grey.
3. QUARTZ
Quartz seems to be the choice of most kitchen remodels and doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon. When you walk into a kitchen that was remodeled when we did our main home back 10 years ago, you’ll almost always seen granite. Every tract house that was built in Florida where I live at that time also had granite countertops. Will we see this with quartz ten years from now, where a remodel time stamp will point to 2015-17 and there will be a new best thing? Only time will tell…but quartz is here to stay for now and very practical. There are so many great qualities to quartz, which are man-made countertops formed by combining 90% ground quartz with 8-10% resins plastics, and pigments. They are as hard as granite and perfect for a family home, resistant to wear and scratching. Although available in a variety of colors, most remodelers choose white quartz that looks similar to marble and bring lots of light into the kitchen. We looked and looked and looked at quartz and saw loads of slabs at the stone-yard. One thing that quartz did not seem to have was authentic looking veining and movement and that was something that I wanted.
WHAT WE CHOSE
We ended up selecting a natural stone called QUARTZITE, not to be confused with quartz.
Quartzite has the look of marble but like granite, it is known to be extremely durable. There is beautiful veining in the stone that varies from slab to slab with no two slabs being exactly the same. It can be a little bit more costly than marble or granite, all depending on the stone yard and the slab that you select. My husband is the practical one in our team of two and I am the right brained artsy component…so the mined in Brazil quartzite (MADRE PEROLA WHITE) was our compromise.
We needed two slabs for this kitchen and had the fabricator come and measure and set up the templates. Then we went back to the stone yard and laid out the templates against the actual slabs to see how the veining would work best. The veins in our slabs are a combination of both pale green and grey and the beautifully thick quartzite has some sparkly bits that catch the light…which are truly stunning!
The natural slabs are thick and just so stunning! OBV…we aren’t finished yet, and the knobs need replacing because they are worn from the salt air here and use;-)
Another practical choice…the stainless drop in one bowl sink. More about that later in a final reveal post with all sources given. We reused the HansGhroe-USA faucet from our previous sink that I received from our supply house in Miami.
More to come on our beach kitchen remodel as we make progress over the next month or so, but for now I’m sharing some kitchen remodeling ideas and projects from a few more blog friends. If you are looking for a (affiliate) COUNTERTOP SEALER, THIS ONE is highly recommended by my husband and the fabricators too.
Original article and pictures take shabbyfufu.com site
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