Monday, June 16, 2008

Our New Countertops

My father-in-law graciously spent his Father's Day installing our granite countertop. (The one he created for us out of salvaged granite). I was away most of the day for a concert, so I apologize for lack of play-by-play.

Here's the workbench...
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When We Bought... After Cabinets...
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With Granite!
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Notice the super fancy edge... I'm sure it was expensive when new.

We aren't finished yet... as you can see, there is still a gap between the stove and the counter/cabinets and no backsplash. The gap we intend on filling with a piece of butcher block counter with knife slots and a small door to hide our baking pans...

and here is one idea for the backsplash. The GREAT part about this backsplash is that we already have all of the materials, so it would be free.

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The hexagonal tiles I picked up at Habitat a few months ago for cheap!
Here's an "up-close"...

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I can't decide whether it looks REALLY good or REALLY bad. I also thought that replacing a few of the tiles with a color would look nice... I tried red below:

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Any thoughts? I think cream subway tiles would look good, too... and so would white/torquiose/red glass mosaic tiles... but both of those options cost money, so it would be at least 4 months before we could start the backsplash.

11 comments:

Robj98168 said...

I love the white small tiles with the red Looks Great and when they get grouted I think they will look fantastic!

Anonymous said...

Wow! Ogee edge and everything! Those countertops are really beautiful.

I am with robj - I think the backsplash looks great with the red tiles against your wall.

NV said...

Make that a third vote! Good job. Looking nice. :-)

Green Bean said...

Fourth vote for the red.

Your kitchen looks amazing! I can't believe how much you've accomplished and much of it with salvaged materials. Way to go, Jennifer!

Anonymous said...

I like the red (of course if it matches the wall pretty exactly). Sometimes cream can look better against a red wall, but its really touch-and-go. If you have other things that are white in the room, the cream will end up looking dirty, rather than simply reducing the contrast.

Granite looks great.

Joanne said...

The granite is beautiful--your kitchen looks terrific! I think the hex tiles look good; you probably don't need to highlight any in red.

Why S? said...

I would never have thought of the hex tiles for a backsplash. It really works though. It looks like I'm in the minority but my preference would be w/o the red. But I agree with Fred that it would have to match the wall exactly. Nice granite.

Jill -Forever and Ever House said...

Oh my goodNESS!! I am so coveting your granite. You are so lucky to have found it!! Way to go!!

Personally, I think you should do cream subway tiles for the backsplash. I think the cream will compliment the browns and creams in the granite. Just my opinion. :O)

pedalpower said...

I love your counter top!! You are on a roll with salvaging great stuff. I think I would prefer cream tiles with your granite, unless you are somehow going to have a lot more white elsewhere in the room. The hex tiles look nice though, so whatever you do you are going to end up with one great kitchen!

Amalie said...

I like the red accents in the hex tile, but the cream subway tile would also be nice...Glass tile was my first choice. Until we priced it. It was going to cost more than we'd spent on the rest of the kitchen total. That's including granite tile for the counters and the drywall.

Free is always good. And it's a special bonus when it looks good, too!

Anonymous said...

I love the counters- they look great! Also a big fan of the subway tile- we thought about doing that too!