Kitchen

the tile

We are investing in our new(ish) house by giving the kitchen a snazzy upgrade.  Our builder grade tile 'granite' counter tops will be replaced with this pretty quartz and the 'perfectly fine' but off center and (frankly) boring back splash will be replaced with a custom designed tile treatment.

The counter tops will be dramatic, the colors are hard to see in this picture but the quartz has a dark overall appearance, with blue, cream and clear bits.  It has sparkle and we think it will be very dramatic.

To keep from turning our kitchen into a modern marvel and to blend with the existing cabinets, which are perfection and the wall color we have chosen a cream subway tile.  To zip up the back splash we will be doing a band around the perimeter of one tile of the elongated stainless tile, then three strips of that organic looking 'stone' and then topped with another band of the stainless.

the counter top material

  

The band will be topped with the subway tile and where there are edges that are transitions to drywall, such as where they don't meet an upper cabinet, the subway tile will have a bull-nose edge for a nice transition.

Our builder kitchen has pretty thick tile as the back splash and where it "ends" it is an ugly transition.  The bull-nose effect will make it look far more polished and high end.

We've seen a few other kitchens in the neighborhood and while our plan is to live in this house for the long haul we do think that the change will help at re-sale time.

The process of designing a new look is daunting, especially when there are two people to please, but with the help of the tile specialist it only took about an hour and a half to narrow down the selection that she pulled and then design the layout.

Of course we selected our counter top surface first.  We were originally looking at granite, as that is THE material that everyone expects, but we were drawn to the depth and sparkle of the quartz.  Honestly, when Jason first said quartz I was thinking of a terrible 70's looking material, but the stuff we looked at was very impressive.   Unlike granite we won't have to seal it and unlike marble we don't have to worry about stains.

I hope I love it as much when it is installed as I do with the sample.    The installation was supposed to start today, but a delay with one of the materials has pushed us back and due to vacations and business travel we aren't scheduled to start until August 20th.   Feel free to invite us over for dinner that week.  We'll be without a kitchen for 7 days.

There will be pictures of the before, during and after - once there is an after.  Stay tuned.