All About Our New Quartz Countertops

Are you all ready to talk about countertops?!  Recently I shared our new island countertop with you and honestly, I could not be happier with our decision to get quartz on our kitchen island.

Before we had a black granite countertop that matched the rest of the kitchen and it was in decent condition but it had a prep sink that we never used.  Many years ago we discovered that our faucet swiveled ALL the way around and still worked full force for little hands.  Ask me how I know.  Yeah.  It wasn’t a good day in the Bower house.  The floor was flooded and the kids were screaming and crying because they didn’t know what was happening.  It was enough to make me pull out the rest of my hair.

The kids also felt like the faucet was a really great spot to wash hands….but we never put soap over there….so there was always a dripping situation to and from the ‘kid sized sink’.  It was just easier to turn it off and we never looked back.  I told Jeremy that ideally I would want a big island that had maximum seating…or a big flat buffet surface for family get togethers.  This is our Thanksgiving ‘table’ that holds all the food and every year the sink drove me nuts by eating up valuable turkey real estate!

My first instinct with all things home improvement is to check out inspiration online.  Everywhere I looked the counters were light and bright and beautiful.  I love the look of marble (obviously.  I have it in our kitchen backsplash, upstairs bathroom and downstairs bathroom.) but the marble is just not a good fit for my family (it can etch and scratch and stain in a way that granite can not).  My friend Sherry got quartz on her island and she loves it so I headed to Home Depot to check out the quartz options that they had available.

Honestly – I didn’t need to go anywhere else because the picture online sold me hard for Calcutta Gold quartz.  I mean, can you even?!

The benefits of the quartz are clear – it’s non porous so it resists scratching, staining and scorching better than marble.  There is no special cleaners or sealers required (good because I probably would fail at that anyway!) and it’s antimicrobial and ready to install.  The only little issue we had was that there were no samples in our local store….probably because everyone already took them home!  They did have a very little picture of it that appeared to be super blue-ish gray and not what it appears to be in pictures.  So we ordered it out of faith and asked if we could go to the distributing center before they cut our slab.  They were happy to make the arrangements (Thank you Carol!) and when we got the call, it felt like getting the golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

We went in and BOOM.  Can. Not. Even.

Just for reference – the little sample picture that they gave us vs the real life thing.  The actual slab was PERFECT in terms of color.  A true white with only the slightest warmth.  It was WAY better than the sample.

I blew it a couple kisses and dreamt about living in a Calcutta Gold world that night 🙂

The distributer also had a TON of other fun stuff that I explored.  Love seeing all the countertop options.

And this was something new to me – called Dekton.  It is apparently the most hard-core counters I’ve ever heard of….completely scratch resistant, can look like stone or wood, stain-proof, scorch-proof and waterproof.  Sounds incredible right!?  It’s used in outdoor kitchens a lot and it’s freakin’ legit.   Here is a link for those of you looking for more info.

When I was about to leave, the guys at the distributors were super nice and gave me a sample of the quartz.  You know me and gifts y’all.  I cried.

Having that on hand was amazing.  I immediately compared it to the cabinet color, the floors, the backsplash – it was PERFECTION.

So now all we had to do was say bye to this good ole boy.

Jeremy first unhooked the plumbing and capped it and turned off the water.  We figured that maybe one day we could put something else over here that would be more useful….a small dishwasher or an ice machine is what we were talking about.

Then he scored the silicone that held the counter in place.

A couple last photos of our before….

Me telling him to use his legs and him saying his legs weren’t long enough….

Finally we heard the pop of the silicone and we had lift off.  Literally.

We carried it out to the garage and got the rest of the island ready for the new counter.

The guys literally carried the new one in and popped it in place in two seconds.  I rapid fire shot my camera and ended up with this….

Then they carefully measure all the overhang to make sure it is evenly placed and we watched as they used silicone to adhere it to the cabinetry.

Apparently the quartz can have some air bubbles on the sides when it’s made so they use a white goop to fill them.

So then the installation guys left us and we were standing there stroking the new island countertop and realized something….our countertop wasn’t shiny.

Honestly I didn’t even notice for a solid five minutes because we were looking at the veining and the color so intensely that the shine didn’t cross my mind.  Then I realized it and thought “Oh it’s probably just dusty”.  Nope.  We had accidentally gotten the wrong slab.  We had gotten the more expensive matte finish…a finish that we didn’t even know was available.  And then I was even more confused.  It is basically like being the Bachelorette….who do I love more?  who do I see a future with?  who wants to deal with my babies?  All those things entered my mind when I was making the decision about the counters…..do I go with the polished and wait another week for them to cut a new slab or do I keep the one that is right in front of me that is more matte?

In the end, I told Jeremy that I wanted the polished…even though it was the less expensive of the two finishes.  Since the rest of the granite countertops we have are polished, it made more sense.  And I think that the shine makes it look like a real slab of marble…which is the original inspiration for the change.  He made the call and Home Depot contacted the distributer to let them know of their error.  I would like to make that clear – that it wasn’t a Home Depot thing…so if you do decide to order this, make sure that your local distributor does the right finish.  We literally handled nothing and they installed the new countertop in less than ten days while we used the matte one.

I think in the end, it was a good call.  The new one is reflective and still has all the same veining and we honestly could not be happier with it.  Plus the price was WAY better than the marble counterpart.  The quartz was $19.95 per square foot and the marble we had priced out was AT LEAST $40 per square foot.   And it was probably a good thing that I had gotten the first one erroneously – because if someone told me later that a new finish became available then I might have wondered if it was a better fit for me.  I think if my kitchen was more ‘from scratch’ than a remodel then I might have even considered it!

So that is my countertop recap and the experience with getting our Home Depot Calcutta Gold quartz.  Here is the link again for anyone countertop shopping!   And I would love to hear if you had any countertop mixups or if you got something by accident for your home and ended up loving it even more!