Sallysue, You are Adorable! You are on the first part of the kitchen reno journey and you are having a blast. Soak it all up and fall in love with all that you see. To me this is good stuff because the ideas, colors, images, materials that last in your brain as you go on this journey are the ones that you love the most. And of course you love everything you see, Kitchen fans always do. The link and picture below? It is a Quartz but I have no idea which one. I believe it is more of a solid color quartz with little movement. And I can see why you love it. I love it too. It is from a website called Custom Kitchen Quartz Surface Countertops. But this could be a borrowed image from a major company like Dupont, Cesearstone, Formica, Wilsonart.... The good new is that you can save this picture in your "Clippings" Wait, Have you started your clippings on GW? See the little green leaves on the upper right corner with a pair of scissors? Well you can click that and start to save your favorite ideas. And as you go through this kitchen journey you can start to weed out the TRUE loves from the kind of loves. Because over time you might find even more favorites. And if you happen to open another post about Faucets or molding or floors, or paint color you can save that link to your clipping so later you can go back and find it. Oh and before I forget I like the Florium Tundra even better. It will lighten up the backsplash even more. And the soft warm colors will go with the Hickoy too. All good stuff. ~boxer Here is a link that might be useful: Corian and Zodiaq colors

Jdesign our project was about 20 miles north of NYC. My original impression was to much white, but when finished I will say the white Corian counter and island cabinets were unlike any kitchen I have ever seen. Normally we install the kitchens, but this was done by a Boffi installer. It took about 9 days including setting of appliances with help for 4 days. I will say that the installer was in no hurry and treated every cabinet install with the up-most care. Counter tops came with sink installs from Italy. Even the Gaggenau cooktop came installed in a stainless counter. I will say I was disappointed with their sinks which are stainless. As for as Corian being used for the counter it was the ultimate for this kitchen. The client had it seamed here rather than the Boffi install of butting it with visible seam. Like I posted earlier a 16' island with no seams is amazing! The client has large parties and it becomes a buffet table with tons of food on it. At the end of the day cleanup is a snap and the kitchen counters look as good as new. If stained or scatched a little buffing with pad and all is good. This is one kitchen that stone would not work in. Modern design in my opinion works better with solid surface. I think granite and marble work well in some kitchens, but not to the extent that I see on GW. It seems to be a must have upgrade or standard in new home construction. My take is install what makes you happy not what will impress others.

A year ago I had Cambria Quartz "Darlington" installed in my medium sized 10 x 15 kitchen w/snack bar. I had Difinity "Quartz "Cerrado" installed in a bathroom that gets a lot of use. I had Corian "Witch Hazel" installed in my laundry room 7 ft. folding counter. I love the looks of all, but Corian was just as expensive as the Difinity Quartz and I had scratches in the Corian folding counter almost immediately after installed. I am a very careful person and take very good care of everything I own. The Quartz counters are still perfect even after sliding plates, etc. over it. I am now looking at options for another remodel project and after reviews read, I don't understand how Corian holds up as well or better than Quartz and is very comparable in price. I think I will stick with Quartz but not pay the high price for Cambria brand.

I just found this info regarding The Onyx Collection. I know Corian uses something different, but I don't know the difference as far as durability. Onyx Collection: "63% of our products is a hydrate crystal--Al2O3+3H2O. Alumina is also the main ingredient in Corian© and all "solid surface" products. The main ingredient in our product (alumina trihydrate) is in roofing materials and the plastics inside automobiles to slow flame spread and as a smoke retardant. It is in the plastic coating on the wiring in your home (in a much smaller percentage). Different than Corian: Our other 37% is a special polyester resin we developed over the last 22 years (and continue to improve) to get the properties which allow us to say "Yes, Guaranteed Forever". We all try to get properties which make our products work best for our applications. Our application is the bathroom. We believe our resin serves this purpose well. Corian© uses acrylic resin, others use various blends of polyesters or modified acrylics. We prefer our resin for our products and it serves us well. We use cultured marble type molds to cast our products. The solid surface industry casts sheet goods and fabricates their products. The cultured marble industry uses calcium carbonate as their main ingredient. Our Gloss finish does have a gelcoat on the surface (about 15 mils) similar to cultured marble. Our Gelcoat is ISO-NPG. ISO-NPG gelcoat is a tight molecule--very resistant to water penetration. Our Matte finish does not have gelcoat on the surface. We use a different blend of resin for Matte. Our products are real hybrids. The resin in the matte finish--we substitute 30% of the normal ortho resin with ISO-NPG resin. This increases the ability of the product to resist moisture penetration. This is necessary without the ISO-NPG gelcoat coat which is on our gloss products. We achieved our Matte Finish "look" by lightly sanding the panels and then applying a permanent sealer to the surface. There is little to no shine on Matte Finish Panels. Many colors are available in a Matte. " So, I could get a matte base instead of glossy, but they do not have many colors. Only 17 matte colors. Top is Snowswirl. It is not listed in either the glossy or matte. Will call tomorrow to check for gel coat. Middle is White matte. Bottom is Platinum matte.