YOU are AMAZING! That is FANTASTIC!!!!!

Wow! I am so jealous! Really gorgeous already and the patina will only make it better every day. I have a questions about your island: How deep is your overhang?

Well done!

Hurray! I'm really looking forward to seeing your kitchen. I love Circuspeanuts syle with her copper counters. It's fun to see someone else using them too!

That is simply gorgeous. Just a thought....I have seen folks " make " the patina with a blow torch. It gives the most glorious colors....like a rainbow. Then you seal it. You get a controlled , if you will patina, and then get to keep it. You might look in to it. c

WOW, that looks wonderful!! The SS sink looks great with the copper counter in the pictures also. Looking forward to seeing your completed kitchen.

Those look fantastic!! And you're right: the sink looks awesome.

what sink did you use? It looks like the kraus I ordered for ours.(no cabinets yet)

Love the counter!looks awesome with the stainless.

Beautiful! Just stunning on that big stretch of island! You guys did an amazing job.

Very Nice!

Really really beautiful! I so admire those who can DIY. And I love trailrunner's idea.

Congrats!!
Eliz

Wow, that is beautiful! Great job!

You are an inspiration to those of us who plan to do a diy copper counter in the future.

Thank you, everyone! It was definitely a rewarding project, and not all that hard - or expensive. The entire hint was less than $1000, and some of that was for tools we can always use again. For a 4x10 counter, that's not too bad, I think.

The sink is a Kraus, yes - 33" single basin, rear center drain. I haven't been able to use it yet, obviously, but I think I'm really going to like it!

The overhang - on the long straight edge opposite the work area, it is 16.5". The angled edges are more like 20", but the are into a corner formed by the cabinets (the two end cabinets are each 24" deep, and the two center cabinets are each 30" deep). Plenty of knee space for everyone, though.

The blowtorch patina sounds interesting, but I don't want to seal the counter - I like the idea of the natural patina. Would be fun to see pictures of that, though!

Thanks again for all the nice comments!

Sorry for the typo! Meant the entire THING...not the entire hint...lol!

That looks both awesome and different. I love how it will add patina over time and be changing as you go. It is like getting new counters over time and never getting bored, lol... ;)

Wow. I can only imagine how wonderful that must feel to look at that truly awesome counter top and be able to say, "Yeah. I did that. Ain't it grand?" It most certainly is!! And, you are so right about the stainless sink fitting right in. Congratulations!

lust!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for the typo! Meant the entire THING...not the entire hint...lol!

That counter is beautiful. Congratulations on a job well done. Enjoy!

WOW!! What color will your cabs be? Now you have me considering a copper countertop! Do you know about how long it will take to start getting a patina so it mellows a bit? Do you have any photos of a patina-ed top to show what it will look like?

Here you go...think of the prettiest copper artwork you have ever seen....I would do this in a heartbeat....

Here is a link that might be useful: heat finish copper

And one more with directions...if you get tired of it you can do it again and again...like painting...use lemon juice to clean it all off and start again. You could have a party to do it the first time....

Here is a link that might be useful: painting with fire...

Trailrunner - those are beautiful copper pieces...you know, I may just have to do that to the scraps that we cut out/off the copper sheet. Depending on results, it would be something to consider. I just love the look of the natural patina I've seen in the photos from circuspeanut, aliceinwonderland, nottoosticky, and others...so for now, I think we'll let it go. But I would think that even after patinaing naturally, the blowtorch method could still work.

When we got home tonight, and entered the "new kitchen" area, it was so cool to have that big area of countertop for groceries, etc...even though that is not our functional kitchen. But then a couple drops of water got on the counter, and what did I do? Frantically wiped it clean! LOL!!! In my defense, our contractor has not yet seen the countertop, so we want to keep it nice until he sees it. After that, let the patina come!

Breezygirl - I don't really know exactly how long it will take, but I do recall that aliceinwonderland said that within a couple of weeks it had mellowed substantially and started to take on a beautiful brownish hue. And the cabs will be quartersawn white oak with a cordovan stain - kind of a cherry. Mission style framing.

I don't have any pictures of patina-ed copper personally, but if you read the original DIY thread in the metalworking forum (linked below) and scroll through it, you'll see aliceinwonderland's island, and a number of others as well, including circuspeanut's step-by-step instructions with gobs of pictures.

Here is a link that might be useful: DIY Copper Counters thread

Thanks for the thread link. I wonder if DH would go for it??

yum.

I love those swirls of the heat treated copper. Right up my alley too! Maybe in the next house....lol.

It took a very special vision to imagine this and it took real single-minded focus to see it through. Hats off!

There is a company that sells copper for countertops, they also make the squares for tile and put copper on ceramic or porcelain (like a laminate top) so you can put them on the wall or a low traffic floor.

I cannot remember the name of the company but they also sell it with patina and do a bunch of different designs with copper painting and I thinking through aging it.

One of their suggestions is to flow a lucite (acrylic) top on it like you might see on a bar top. I am not sure how this would handle kitchen use, a bar is wet and has a lot of blunt objects and I think sharp or hot objects would be really tough on it.

Beautiful! Congratulations on a job obviously well done! I hope you'll post some pics of the patina that develops over time.

Thanks again for all the nice comments!

I wanted to add a bit of info on the cost - we tallied up the out-of-pocket cost for the project, and it came to $800 for the (potentially) 40 sq. ft. of island (it's more like 37 sq. ft. once the corners are cut off, but we essentially made a 40 sq. ft. counter and cut off the corners...). Our contractor had included laminate counters in his bid, at a cost of $20/sq. ft. Given that we paid essentially that same amount, I think we came out ahead overall. A commercially made copper counter would cost much, much more, I believe.

For those toying with the idea - go for it! It's really fun, really pretty, and really different. :-)

Podboy333,

This might be the company you were thinking of. They sell aged copper for countertops. Colorcopper.com

They have a bunch of designs that are etched into the copper somehow. Here is one of the photos from their website.

This one looks nice with the copper sink. Very different look.

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