Carrara Gioia Quartz
Today I thought I could offer a few more details on my Quartz countertops, as they have become one of my most FAQ on the kitchen remodel! I totally understand why; trying to decide on countertops is a stressful experience.
Perhaps sharing our own decision making process will help alleviate your concerns or give you some new ideas, now or down the road!
Early on in our design process, we considered all the possibilities for our countertops. Everything from wood (which we used in our English Tudor) to marble to quartz to concrete to a mix of materials.
Because our kitchen is bright and VERY sunny at certain times of the day, we ruled out wood since we worried it would potentially fade or crack as well as feel too dark for our space. Concrete was out once we decided on concrete looking floors. We also decided against a mix of materials. Because it’s such a small kitchen, we felt like a streamlined look of consistent counters would look the best.
I happen to LOVE marble countertops. I had them in a bathroom in one of our homes and thought they were so beautiful! But it is true what they say, they are sensitive.
We had a little friend visiting our house one time and he set a red popsicle on our counters. We never forgot that visit because forevermore our counter had an etched and pink stain to help us remember it! Honestly, those marks never bothered me. I think marble is beautiful as it ages. But not everyone has the same tolerance, so it’s really a personal decision.
Even this time we considered marble countertops again, but my husband let me know he really wanted quartz. He has stained our marble baking slabs by setting beets on them, so I understand his concern. :) He loves to cook but he really didn’t want to feel like he had to be cautious about beets or foods that could etch when cooking.
I like to limit our household stress levels, ha, so we agreed to stick with quartz. We had quartz counters in our last home’s kitchen and they were pretty awesome, so I really didn’t have any reservations. It is a super strong composite stone material and can be so lovely, too.
The quartz we had in our old house was Caesarstone Organic White. We had tried to avoid any obvious swirly pattern on our counters in that house because our hickory wood floors already had a lot of “movement” and a rustic vibe to them. We didn’t feel our counters should compete, so anything with a marble look felt wrong.
But this house, I was excited to look for a marble alternative. Our floors are a porcelain tile that looks like concrete, so I was excited about the contrast between the look of the counters and the concrete.
It wasn’t as easy as I had hoped to find a quartz we liked. Every quartz pattern we saw felt wrong. Either I felt like someone drew all over the slab with a pencil, or the coloring wasn’t right for our home. We also wanted a more “grayed” look, nothing too shiny, not too stark and not too yellow. We also wanted a subtle random pattern. Picky much? :)
The other piece of the puzzle was that we needed a 2cm quartz in order to fit under our windows. The best way to get the counters to fit and have a seamless look was to have a thinner countertop (rather than needing to cut down cabinets to a less than standard height).
For years I had preferred the look of thicker marble countertops, so I wasn’t too sure I was going to be happy with thinner. But after lots of research, I decided that I was actually going to love the look of the 2cm in our home! YAY!
But I still couldn’t find a marble-looking quartz that I liked. We just about gave up when our contractor suggested we try Carrara Gioia Quartz at Daltile. I had no idea that Daltile had quartz, but we ran over to their warehouse to take a look. Not only did we love it, but the 2cm was going to be in stock so we didn’t have to wait and could select our favorite slabs.
I dreamed of my countertops not only fitting seamlessly under the window, but also of a long expanse of uninterrupted counter space all the way around the corner of the kitchen.
It is not a big kitchen, but I think the seamless look of uninterrupted counters help the space to feel larger and be so much more functional.
We’ve lived with our new Quartz counters for five months now and still love them! They are super easy to clean and take care of, too (we use Thieves cleaner on them for those who are curious)!
Are you looking for new countertops?
Have you tried quartz?
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