If you’ve ever done this, you, too, have faced the galaxy of options: quartz, quartzite, granite, marble, soapstone, butcher block, concrete, ceramic tile, Corian, stainless steel. I’m surely missing some. Fortunately, I got some professional help, which Lord knows I could use more of, to narrow my options.
In an uncharacteristically practical move, I brought in a designer to help create a plan before I tore up my kitchen and relegated my husband and me to microwaving dinners in the bathroom and doing dishes with the hose. Like any good plan, this one started with defining the problem: I want a change. My 20-year-old kitchen, while in good shape, has the same brownish-blackish granite I have had in every kitchen in every home I’ve owned dating back to the 1990s.
That granite (Santa Cecelia) and others like it were the coveted choice back then. It’s been a good run, but I’m ready for a lighter look. What I don’t want to do is replace or reface my medium-brown kitchen cabinets, which match the cabinetry throughout the home.
Fortunately, the designer, Sally Ward, agreed. We will keep the cabinets and the overall layout of the kitchen, but replace the dark granite counters with something light, swap out the vintage hardware for something more contemporary, and replace some, but not all, of the appliances, which are on their last legs. She assigned homework.
She sent me some links to read about counter materials and gave me the names of stone suppliers to visit. “All.
