Choosing Quartz Counters for our Kitchen

There have been a few changes I am excited about for our renovated kitchen, but perhaps none more than having new counters. We had brown granite in our Arkansas home and brown granite again in this house. Unfortunately, brown granite is just not our vibe and I have been giddy about the opportunity to replace them with something I love.

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The slab we chose is Silestone Ethereal Glow. It is stunning! One of my must haves was warm veining. With the gray cabinets that I have planned, I want to add warm tones almost everywhere I can get them to keep everything feeling cozy and not harsh or drab. It has the prettiest gray veining splattered with lovely copper ones as well – so dreamy.

We did a mitered edge to give them a nice chunky look. The original plan was to do a 2″ mitered edge, but for a lot of complicated reasons, we ended up with 2.5″. I am really short (5’2 on a good day) and right after it was installed, I was paranoid about the extra height. I asked my family members if they felt like it was too tall and luckily they all said they hadn’t even noticed it! And I don’t notice it either.

Going into this, I did not know that quartz counters are actually somewhat of a cross between natural stone and man made material. Manufacturers take natural quartz, grind it down, and then mix it with various types of resins, polymers, and pigments to construct a slab. A very high portion of the slab (somewhere between 90-95%) is natural quartz, and the rest is made from the additives. This was so fascinating to me!

I really like the durability that quartz offers over natural stone. It is resistant to stains and is super easy to maintain. Would I love marble counters? Absolutely! Do I think that right now with three very small kids at home marble is the best choice for our family? Probably not. And do I love the look of the quartz? Absolutely!

Quartz varies a ton in price. We ended up picking one of the pricier ones, but got a good discount through our fabricator. It still ended up being quite a bit more than the granite counters my friend had installed in her home a few years ago, but granite prices can also vary widely! So I guess what I’m trying to say is shop around and be open to looking at different slabs and manufacturers, if cost is a large factor in your counter decision.

The first weekend after our kitchen was demolished Jordan and I went to look at slabs and I am so glad that we did! I did not realize just how long it would take for us to get a template done, then for them to cut the counters and install them. From when we made our decision to when they could come template was about three weeks and it was another two weeks before they were installed. I expected the two weeks from templating to installation, but didn’t expect the extra three weeks on the front end. The other timing thing that was surprising to me was the install. The crew was here for less than two hours! It was magical.

Because our sink couldn’t go in until the counters went in, we did not have a functional kitchen for 45 days. 45 days! It was absolutely hectic and overwhelming to try and feed my family without a kitchen (we did a lot of take out and rotisserie chickens and ate exclusively from paper plates). It was fun at first to go to restaurants and not have to cook, but it got old pretty quickly.

I spend so much of my day in my kitchen cooking and baking and putting together snacks – I am so happy that now I get to do it on a surface that I love!

Stay tuned for more kitchen updates – exciting things are happening!

With love,
Mercedes ♥