We decided to definitely go with quartz counters! I'm so excited! I got to meet with my contractor a couple of weeks ago to look at samples in the showroom. I was so excited to get the ball rolling!
I mentioned that I'd heard you can get quartz for only a little more than laminate these days and apparently there are some quartz choices that are more affordable but...I guess I have good taste because the sample I went directly to at the showroom was one of the more expensive ones (of course it was) And I added the ogee edge which increased the cost. Oh well. :) All in all, we paid about $80 per square foot. When I first laid eyes on all the samples, my eye went right to this one...
Daltile Quartz in "Riverbank" color.
It had the neutral colors I was looking for...grey and white. Here are all the quartz samples we brought home...
It's always a good idea to bring samples home to look at them in your own kitchen with the kind of lighting you have. Things can look a lot different in the showroom than they do in your own home. I would also recommend taking the samples outdoors in natural light. Sometimes natural light can bring out other colors in the stone that you can't see indoors.
These were the top two we were considering...
Daltile "Riverbank" on the left and Color Quartz "Breccia Bianco" on the right.
The one on the right just looked too much like a dalmation when I saw bigger pictures of it. Too many black and white "spots" I guess.
Although I was pretty sure I wanted Riverbank, I still wanted to see a large slab of it before making my final decision. It's so hard to tell on those little samples. So we drove about an hour away to visit the slab yard and see a big ol' chunk of it in person. We donned our bright orange vests and had a guide take us out to the yard. They were able to lift our choice out into the aisle for us to get a closer look...
And here it is...
It definitely has the grey and white look I was going for.
Here's a close up...
I would definitely recommend going to the slab yard before making a final decision. Our particular quartz was pretty consistent in color, but if you're considering granite, you really want to see an entire slab because granite has different patterns throughout. For example, your little sample at the showroom could seem like one color, but when you see the entire slab, you'll see other swirls and patterns that won't necessarily show up in the little sample piece.
And sometimes you can pick up on another color in the stone that you didn't see in the sample. I have a friend who had her quartz all picked out from a sample. The sample looked like a cream background with grey swirls. Then she went to the slab yard to look at a big piece in person and noticed the swirls had a lot of green to them.
Here's a picture of the sample on our existing counters, so you can get a pretty good idea of what it'll look like...
I think it will look great with our stainless appliances, white cabinets, subway tile and wood floors. What do you think?
I'm pretty sure we're going with a single basin apron front farmhouse sink too. We'll probably go with a short apron front, so we don't have to modify our existing cabinets too much. Here's the one we're thinking of getting...
And by the way, when did sinks get so expensive??? Talk about sticker shock!
As soon as we order our sink, we can get started on the counters. And we might even have enough quartz left over to redo the guest bathroom counter. I'll keep y'all posted. :)
~Lisa
