What kind of countertops do you recommend?

[Laura2592]

The day has come to change the laminate countertops that came with our cottage.

I have hated them since the beginning. They pretend to be stone (they aren't) and they have a fussy edge which does not gel with the super rustic, un-planed reclaimed wood cabinets. They are also surprisingly difficult to keep sterile as things stick to them and are hard to see due to the color. The pros are they have been beat up by guests and it really doesn't show much except for the edges starting to wear.

What do you recommend as far as a countertop material in your ABB? Looks and durability are of equal importance. We have ruled out:

marble (too delicate),

concrete (our old handmade cabinet boxes won't hold it)

and more laminate.

In our other houses we have butcher block (beautiful but burns easily and needs oiled), quartz (great but a bit too modern looking for the space) granite (a possibility in a solid color honed finish, but not sure how that holds up.)

[M199]

@Laura2592 

My husband was lucky enough to get a commercial steel countertop and sink.  It get's the occasional knife scratch  but doesn't get burned with hot pots and disinfects very well.

[Laura2592]

@M199 we considered that but I don't know how it would look with the super handmade vibe. It's definitely something that would be easy to clean.  Those are the cabinets and backsplash.  

[Colleen253]

@Brian2036 @Emilia42 @Laura2592 

“Some of it is extremely dense and can be mechanically polished to the point where it won’t absorb liquids.”

That is what we learned and were told when we got the kitchen granite done. In the case of the one bathroom, the granite was preinstalled on a vanity I got from Home Depot. Probably a cheap granite.  

[Mark116]

I thought granite like ceramic or marble had to be 'sealed' maybe that is the issue.  We bought some marble tiles for our bathroom and they were not sealed, totally porous, but we bought some sealer at home depot and that worked, well enough anyway.

[Brian2036]

@Mark116 

Yes, we got a granite cleaner and a d

sealer at Home Depot also. It’s rather expensive and they recommend using it at least once a year.

[Sarah977]

@Laura2592  Okay, no one has suggested this- it seems everyone thinks in terms of a countertop having to be one integral piece.

Mine are tiled and Iove them. Sure, guests could chip one, but it could just be chiselled out and replaced (always buy enough tiles that you'll have spares)- you would never have to replace the entire countertop if it was damaged.

 

[Laura2592]

@Sarah977 I personally love a tile counter. We are going to look at a house this weekend with a really cute 1930s look kitchen and I was thinking to myself  "vintage tile counters would be awesome there." But I hesitate on it for our ABB cottage because of the grout cleaning.  As you know my guest population can be quite particular, and my space is already quite old, so I'm trying to do something that is easy to take care of. I do think the guests would break tile more easily than some other materials too. Love your kitchen! Really cute.  

[Sarah977]

@Laura2592   I used black grout because I like the look, but it also doesn't show staining 🙂 There's no reason grout has to be a light color- there  are so many nice darker colors available.

I also used silicone grout sealer on all the grout lines, I didn't depend on the sealer that is supposedly in the grout powder. 

Yes, guests could break the tiles, but even some house sitters who were really hard on my house didn't manage to break them. It's important to use high-fired, reasonably thick, really hard tiles. Even someone cutting directly on them doesn't leave scratches. You'd pretty much have to drop or slam a cast iron pan down on them to break them. (Yeah, I guess a guest could do this)

The tiles you see on the backsplash and edges would never work for the countertop- they are low-fired Mexican decorative tiles and chip and break easily. I saw enough countertops done with those and looking awful (and once tiles get chipped or cracked, the substrate exposed clay can absorb bacteria) before I built to know better than to use the wrong tiles.

It took me a long time to find those countertop tiles. I must have perused the selection in at least 10 different tile stores.

Thanks for saying you like my kitchen- I really like it, too.

[Brian2036]

@Laura2592 @Sarah977 

The Mexican tile highlighted by the glazed tile is perfect for that decor. I assume that there is terra cotta tile on the floor too.

 I can’t tell what your floor is, I assume hardwood. You might find an imitation wood product to match,

We recently put this solid vinyl plank on our kitchen floor. It locks together very tightly and is waterproof and resistant to scuffs, scratches etc.

 I can’t remember the price but I think it was around $4 a square foot.

 I would install it over a stout pressure-treated plywood base. You don’t have to glue it or nail it, it is floating and held in place by the trim.

[Sarah977]

@Brian2036  Yes, my floors are traditional Saltillo tile. But the floor tiles are low-fired. They would never work for a countertop. The countertop tiles, while natural clay color, are factory-made and super hard with a hard glaze.

[Brian2036]

@Laura2592 

I’m also wondering about slate. About 60 years ago they replaced the slate sidewalks with concrete in a small town where we lived. They gave the 4x4 foot slabs to anyone who wanted them.

The old school had slate chalkboards. If you could get ahold of some of those…

I think you can buy slate tiles, maybe fairly large ones, and if you kept the grout lies to the minimum (1/8”) it might not be too hard to clean.

[Sarah977]

@Brian2036  I lived in a place that had countertops made of old slate blackboards. They were beautiful. And I have friends who also have slate countertops. I'm not sure how they'd hold up to a constant stream of renters, though. Stuff is quite soft, actually. You can cut it with a hand saw, so it could easily get scratched if someone cut directly on it. 

But maybe manufactured slate tiles are more durable.

[Brian2036]

@Laura2592 

This black slate is available at Home Depot in 2’ x 1’ tiles.

If you use very narrow black grout lines it might not be too hard to keep clean. Or at least keep it appearing to be clean. The biggest problem I have had is that the grout absorbs grease.

[Kelly149]

@Laura2592 The counters in the barn are IKEA laminate. Clean, simple, cheap. They’ve survived 5 years of constant guests. 
another idea is poured in place concrete. We did it in our main house. Definitely indestructible 

[Sarah977]

@Kelly149  I guess it might depend on the finish, but the poured concrete countertops in the area I live, and there are many, do get white stains from lemon or lime juice. But I do love poured concrete.