Kitchen overhaul

[Bobby Hicks]

Creekers,

The LOML and I are in the middle of a kitchen make-over.

We've already replaced all of the 16 year old appliances.

Existing wall paper will be removed and walls painted.

Potential flooring change. Linoleum is in there now. Made a good score on 250 sq-ft (enough for the kitchen) of pre-finished heart pine flooring. Only problem is the existing cabinets are a honey oak stain and all the new appliances are white. Not sure if the pine will look right. Could paint the cabinets, but don’t really want to.

We have an island counter now. We want to remove it an install wall cabinets along the L-shaped wall where it is now to gain more storage. So far, so good. How do we match the existing 16-year-old Oak ply cabinets? I think we are going to contact the original installer to find out what stain they used. Other suggestions are welcomed.

What's a good countertop material? We have tile now and don't care for it. Considering man made (Ex. Corian), so far they seem very expensive, $49 to $79 sq-ft. For Corian and similar you have to have an installer, more $$. Are there places you can but these man-made materials in countertop sizes that I haven't found? Also considering some sort of stone (Ex. granite). We have a friend in the stone business and may be able to get a deal. Please let me know what you think.

As this progresses I'll be back with more cabinet construction questions. I've already been reading the other recent postings and will be looking at purchasing some books.

TIA

[Lee Schierer]

We went through the same thing. LOML ddn't care for the expense of corian so we went with formica. If you don't like the color you can replace it 3-4 times before equaling the cost of corian or stone.

Under counter lights are a great thing. The small puck halogens give a lot of light with a low cost and are pretty easy to install.

Make sure while you have things tore up that you look at the electrical service. Kitchen outlets should all have ground faults and you should have several circuits as kitchens frequently have multiple things running at once, coffemaker, crock pot, toater microwave, etc. Also make sure to label the back side of all the switch plates and outlet covers for easy reference in the future when you want to turn off a circuit.

[Dave Falkenstein]

Matching the color of 16 year old oak cabinets is a challenge. Most stains change color as they age and are exposed to light. Been there, done that, not too successfully. Trying to use the original color stain would probably be several shades lighter than your cabinets are now. If getting the same shade of color is REALLY important to you, you may need to consider refinishing all of the cabinets. Then the floor color can be coordinated as well.

We have Corian countertops in our kitchen. Allow me to alert you to the fact that Corian shows water spots, stains rather easily, is not safe for hot pots and pans and requires buffing to maintain its appearance. If I ever do it again, Corian will not be my choice.

There is a relatively new countertop material available that looks and feels like granite, but is actually a thin granite sheet, over a substrate. The product is called Granite Transformation, and can be seen at:

www.granitetransformations.com.

It does not need to be sealed as granite does. My neighbor had it installed, and it looks really good for about half the cost of solid granite.

[Homer Faucett]

Matching the color of 16 year old oak cabinets is a challenge. Most stains change color as they age and are exposed to light. Been there, done that, not too successfully. Trying to use the original color stain would probably be several shades lighter than your cabinets are now. If getting the same shade of color is REALLY important to you, you may need to consider refinishing all of the cabinets. Then the floor color can be coordinated as well.

We have Corian countertops in our kitchen. Allow me to alert you to the fact that Corian shows water spots, stains rather easily, is not safe for hot pots and pans and requires buffing to maintain its appearance. If I ever do it again, Corian will not be my choice.

There is a relatively new countertop material available that looks and feels like granite, but is actually a thin granite sheet, over a substrate. The product is called Granite Transformation, and can be seen at:

www.granitetransformations.com (http://www.granitetransformations.com/).

It does not need to be sealed as granite does. My neighbor had it installed, and it looks really good for about half the cost of solid granite.

That's great info, Dave! I reviewed the granite transformations webpage and was pretty impressed. However, I have one question (and maybe you can answer it). All the gallery pictures showed square countertop edges, indicating that this product does not have accompanying bullnose edges or the ability to make contoured edges. Do you know if your neighbor has a profiled edge on the countertops, or is it square? Thanks!

[James Keeler]

Have you asked your friend in the stone business about soapstone? I saw some and loved the color. It looked great with my 12 yeaqr old old cabinets, but I ran into installer issues and went with a man=made product called Silestone.

[Alan Turner]

We have some fireslate in our kitchen, and like it very much.
http://www.fireslate.com/pages/home.cfm
It is less than stone, but not inexpensive. Develops a nice patina. Think of your highschool chemistry lab tabletops.

[Jim Becker]

Alan, we considered the Fireslate...nice stuff...but went with Soapstone. Our birds were quite able to chew the edges of the Fireslate samples!

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Bobby, most of the man-made and natural (stone of various types) counter materials are in that $45-90 sq ft range. Of the man-made stuff, I like the Silestone the best. It has a more pleasant feel to my hands than Corian and similar materials.

[Corey Hallagan]

I wonder if silestone stains, water spots and is temperature sensitive like corian?

Corey

[Dave Falkenstein]

That's great info, Dave! I reviewed the granite transformations webpage and was pretty impressed. However, I have one question (and maybe you can answer it). All the gallery pictures showed square countertop edges, indicating that this product does not have accompanying bullnose edges or the ability to make contoured edges. Do you know if your neighbor has a profiled edge on the countertops, or is it square? Thanks!

The neighbor has square countertop edges, with a slight angle at the top and bottom corners, probably cut with a laminate trim bit.

[Glenn Clabo]

Bobby,
Like everything else in this world (as my dad used to say...that's why there's so many colors of paint) there are many opinions....so here's mine.

I have built many kitchens...and the counter tops seem to be the most controversal. What it all comes down to is personel preference based on budget/taste/use. I've had granite...didn't really like the cold hardness. I've had formica...newer stuff is nicer but it didn't make the kitchen special. We now have granite (for DrLOML's baking area) and corian and really like the combination. The spotting, etc is based on color more that simply that it's corian. We also got a matte finish so unless you get down level with the surface in the sunlight you don't see scracthes. We put the below in a few years ago and everything has held up real well.

All that said...we would go through the same effort to pick the coutertop all over again. It's a huge area that makes or breaks the look and function of the kitchen. I cook 4-5 nights a week and this works well for us...but I'd suggest you go to a bunch of kitchen places and touch all the countertops you can without getting arrested.
http://mishappa.image.pbase.com/u13/gclabo/medium/6973002.BreakfastBarPastryPrep2.jpg (http://www.pbase.com/gclabo/kitchen)<--Click to see the rest of the picture.