Granite in Kitchen

View with stove top.

So, after weeks and weeks of back and forth, we finally narrowed down our granite color choices to just a few. Then, we went down to the cabinet place and picked out the slab that we liked best. I'd suggest doing this as there are lots of colors that are similar, but varying in price. Pick the lower-priced shades and then go pick out the slab that you like best. Even within the same "name", the slabs will vary on coloring.

We went with the normal polished finish instead of the brushed. We plan to eventually outgrow this house and the polished granite is much more common/popular than the softer-feeling texture of the brushed finish. Matt still likes the brushed best and we may keep that in mind for whenever we move to a different house.

Old, dark counters.

We ended up using the local counter top place that my parents used when they installed their granite instead of Lowe's - but not for lack of want. We loved the Lowe's guy. He was so helpful and informative. The other guys just came out about $400 less, so that was really a no-brainer.

We picked out polished New Venetian Gold (aka Napoli Gold) at $49/sq. foot with free edge profile and install - much less than the $70 sq-foot we'd estimated for the Santa Cecilia brushed. There was an extra charge for the sink cutout, but that was a standard rate. I was really happy with the price - it came out to be about 60-70% of what I had originally budgeted.

Angled close-up. It's hard to see, but there are chunks of gold, brownish-copper, metallics, and black against the tan background.

Before settling on a color, I googled a few of the color names and stumbled upon Southern Hospitality's post on her kitchen remodel. This lady is a big home decorator and I've been periodically checking her blog since. Not sure I am bold enough to do a lot of the stuff she does in her home, but it's still fun to read and get ideas from since I don't have a decorator's bone in my body!

Seeing her photos of the lighter granite, Matt and I seriously considered a very similar color. In the end, I'm glad we went just a pinch darker. We have darker solid wood cabinets with our black appliances and I think we made a good choice. I really think the counters tie the brown and black together beautifully without being as dark as before.

We saved a little money by doing the tear out of the old countertops ourselves (and by ourselves - I mean Matt did it while I worked furiously on a take home final). He said it wasn't bad - just a few screws and some scraping of the silicone off of the walls. He also disconnected the old sink and pulled out our stove.

I really like the brushed stainless faucet we picked out; it came with the soap dispenser.

The installers were great - they came out and measured for our template last Tuesday and then came back and installed the granite the next day. There was a little hiccup with the extra notches needed for our stove to fit in, but they came out right away and fixed it once we realized there was a problem.

Plumbing hook up.

Matt reconnected the plumbing to the new sink, and added an in-line filter at the same time. We thought about getting one of those separate filtered water spouts, but decided that 5 faucet fixture holes was a little excessive and opted for the 3M-brand Filtrete system that will filter ALL of the cold water coming out of the faucet. I tested it out and it tastes yummy. Anyone want a slightly used Pur faucet hookup and extra filter?

Matt's awesome handiwork with new 3M Filtrete under-counter filter!

One of the things I liked about the house when we bought it was the dark color of the countertops, but the lighter shade we have now looks so much better. It's a small kitchen and the shiny granite really seems to brighten it up a bit!

Original formica.

Stripped.

New granite!

Matt had them extend the granite out a little in the front and on the sides, just to give us a teeny bit more counter space. He also asked them to round the ends with a nice semi-circle, which I think looks great. Since I talked him into the polished finish, he picked out the 1/4 bevel edging, which also looks really good.

New black sink. It looks gray in the photo, but is shiny black in person.

I've been extremely pleased with our new sink. Coupled with the tall faucet, this deep sink gives so much more room than we had before in our ridiculously shallow (6") previous sink. Matt says, "You can hide a week's worth of dishes in there!" Ha! I'm sure it will be tested out very soon.

I'm really happy with everything and am looking forward to enjoying it for several years. This summer marked 4 years since we've been in the house, and this was the first (interior) change that we made (besides painting). We're still talking about installing that back splash this fall (which was the reason we went to the counter top department in Lowe's in the first place) and are mulling the idea of putting in real tile in the kitchen at some point as well. With Ace's recent digging and mud tracking, I'm also trying to figure out how I can budget to replace the den carpet with hardwood at some point. I hope I haven't unleashed a beast...