Countertop Selections

Going to the warehouses to look at the countertop selections was a lot of fun- and a bit overwhelming!  We had a pretty good idea of what we were looking for, but I can see that if you were open to anything- you could have a really hard time deciding!  There were so many beautiful choices!

We knew that we wanted a dark gray for the outer countertops.  I wanted it to look like soapstone.   (We had researched doing soapstone, but it sounds like there's more maintenance, and it isn't as durable as granite).  We landed on "Absolute Black".

I didn't realize that there are different finishes that you can get- honed, antique, leather!  We knew we did not want a shiny finish for the outer counters, since soapstone is typically more of a matte finish.
The leather finish was too much texture... I felt like it would be tricky to clean and grime could get in there.
The antique had a very little bit of texture to it, was a matte finish.
The honed was very smooth, just not shiny.  It was also a matte finish.

We took some samples home to decide between the honed and the antique finishes.  After some voting with the kids, and test on fingerprint resistance... we decided on the antique finish!

Really hard to take a good photo to show the texture of the finish!

For the island, we were thinking we wanted a marble-look, but again wanted less maintenance and more durability than marble itself (knowing that the island will bear the brunt of the wear & tear of the kitchen!)  So, we looked at a lot of white with gray & black stone.

When we saw the "White Forrest" slab, we knew immediately that we loved it! It had the light gray that would go with our cabinets, and streaks of very dark gray that will match the outer countertops.

We knew we did not want any texture to the finish on the island since that's where homework & other writing will likely get done.  We went with the usual shiny finish, since it will be an accent piece.

The day after the main cabinet installation, the granite company came to template for the countertops.

The following evening, we had an appointment to pick out the exact portion of the stone that we wanted for the island.  We also could have selected the slabs to use for the outer stone, but "Absolute Black" is so consistent, that we didn't see the need.  However, the island had so many variations throughout it, it was hard to decide the section we liked best!

We decided to use the bottom right because of the dark gray band that runs through it.

A week later, the countertops were installed!  (Yes- I'm still over a week behind in posting the progress.  Thankfully, there's a lot getting done in the past two weeks!)