Stainless steel is pretty tough if you don't mind a brushed finish. Get a raised marine edge to catch spills and your floors will last longer too. I like stainless because it's heat proof, scratches add patina, undentable (if done right), unchippable, and has enough bounce that dishes won't break on it.

It can look very modern or very traditional (the Arts and Crafts movement used metals, as well as nicer kitchens of all sorts in the 20s).

And copper is just as good, but the patina is different.

I think dark or light is just a matter of preference...What do you want to see when you walk into the room? Which will make you feel better about the kitchen? I think I've usually had light or medium, because if it's too dark, it always seems to look dusty so easily. We're always baking, so there's always a level of flour in the air, I guess, that shows itself on dark surfaces. ;-)

I have 8 kids and have 3 types of counter in our kitchen...Laminate, stainless, and wood. We expected the wood to show some wear, and we expected the stainless to get scratches, so you have to determine for yourself if those things would bother you. The stainless is nice for setting hot things on it, and it stays pretty cool for rolling things out. As much as a couple people here love the marine edge, I wouldn't want it. I prefer a consistently flat surface, and wouldn't want to fight the edge when wiping off the counters.

The laminate is what I've had all my life, and the surface I still feel is most forgiving. I don't worry about it at all, other than putting down a hot pad if I'm setting something hot on it...Which just isn't that hard to do. It's so durable and I just don't feel like I ever have to baby it. Part of that is knowing it's the least expensive, but I have to say that it's never looked abused...'Takes a licking and keeps on ticking.' It offers SO MANY options for colors, textures, and looks.

I have 2 young kids (16 months and 4.5) and like mgkinz, we are getting new laminate counters installed in a few weeks. I've lived with laminate my whole life so I'm familiar with it, it was affordable and the new Wilsonart HD stuff is really attractive.

Well, if you're partial towards quartz, why not? It's very durable. Most is about 93% quartz crystals (stone dust) and 7% resin, highly polished. It's stain resistant, doesn't crack, comes in slabs that can be cut and installed like stone, including with shaped, and/or compound, edges.

The color and value (light/dark) depend on so much else! If you're interested in not being able to see the spills and crud, don't get white! (Personally, I'd rather see them so they're easier to find to clean up.) Quartz also comes in fun colors if you like things like bright red.

We grew up with hard ceramic tile counters, and my mother forbade us from getting glasses from the uppers when we were young. She was terrified about the glass popping in our eyes.
We were very happy when Mom put in the laminate, and it's what I'm going with too. I'm just not a hard surface fan - for floors or for counters. Give me laminate and wood any day.
I recently lost a valuable cut crystal and sterling sugar dish to my ceramic floor. It shattered into a million tiny slivers. :( I sooooo miss my old 1920's home with the hardwood my kitchen floors with the Kentile over plywood. Nothing shattered. If it broke, you could usually glue it back together. Grrrr.

We're a family of 4 + two 45-50 pound dogs and we're not the easiest on things... We had laminate in our old kitchen and while the color hid stains (a speckled medium-gray), it did get scratched up and started looking a little ragged after only a few years. [Caveat: Our laminate was installed in 1995...I think laminates are better today than they were 14 years ago.]

When we first started planning for the remodel, we were convinced we wanted quartz b/c of the upkeep we thought all granite needed (in particular, periodic sealing). We discovered that (1) not all granites are alike nor do they all need periodic sealing or any other maintenance really and (2) when we saw quartz installed the larger surfaces were very "flat", no depth to the surface. In the end we switched to a granite/stone. Our granite is pretty much bullet-proof...or as bullet-proof as any countertop can be. No sealing, no staining, no scratching, etc. In short, no worries about what my kids, DH, or even I do!

I know you're not interested in granite, but I wanted to let you know our experience in case you also had the same misconceptions we had!

If your choice is b/w laminate and quartz and you can afford either, then I vote for quartz. I think in the long run it will hold up better than laminate.

However, if you want a countertop that is relatively inexpensive and can be switched out if you get tired of it, then laminate may be the better choice. But, don't be fooled into thinking you can get a laminate that everyone will think is stone...not many people will be fooled. (Of course, it may be that my family & I have seen so many things throughout the remodel that we've become more discerning of such things....so maybe the average person will be fooled....)

The light vs dark issue, though, is not just a matter of what color your cabinets are...it's also how all the other elements go together (backsplash, flooring, lighting, etc.), what style your kitchen is (traditional, transitional, cottage, arts & crafts, contemporary, etc.), the "feel" you want in your kitchen, and, of course, personal preference.

Have you checked out the Finished Kitchens Blog (FKB)? Browse it and see what kitchens stand out. It may help you find what you really like.

Here is a link that might be useful: Finished Kitchens Blog

I second the stainless steel idea - it's indestructible and dropped glasses etc usually wont break on it. It's stainless. It fits with all decors. And it's a breeze to work on, because you never have to worry about banging hot pans down straight off the stove. (I have copper, and it has similar qualities, but I think stainless requires less upkeep, if any at all.)

I've worked on stainless steel counters in a semi-commercial kitchen. Yes they are pretty indestructible but they have a noise factor that I'd rather avoid in my home.

It might help to know why you don't want granite. If the issue is hardness (e.g. too easy to break a glass), then you probably wouldn't want quartz either. I think it is pretty much laminate or wood or maybe stainless.

BTW, when we moved from a house with laminate to a house with tile counters, our boys were young and we didn't experience any noticeable increase in breakage. Things that broke usually did so because they fell on the wood floor or because they mysteriously self-destructed in the dishwasher.

As far as color, I think both very light colors and very dark colors are more difficult to keep looking good. White will show the tiniest little stain or damage and dark shows dust or finger marks too easily. The colors in between and something with a bit of pattern or color variation are easier.

If your concern with granites is maintenance, then I agree with buehl. It is possible to find ones that are pretty bullet proof. Ours doesn't need sealing - it is low porosity and doesn't absorb anything. Like most (but not all) stones sold as granites, kitchen acids don't etch it. We put hot pots on it all the time. Our 2 year old grandaughter sometimes does her art work with crayons, paint or markers on the island and it wiped right up when it went through the paper. But if you want to go that route, you do need to test samples of stones you might be interested in to see if they have problems.

Cloud Swift, Our stainless is wrapped around/over a wood underlayment (layers of MDF or plywood)...Would that be different than in the semi-commercial kitchen? I ask, because I don't notice any more noise on the stainless counters than on the others, and I just went and banged things on the different counters to check. ;-) (The only thing that's noticeably noisy in our kitchen is the porcelain dishes being moved around inside the Kohler cast iron sink...You'd swear they were standing back and throwing them in as hard as possible...but only shifting them around.)

thank you so much everyone for your valuable insight. the issue with granite is not maintenance really - it's more about using sustainable resources. i am not a huge greenie or anything but try to make the right choices where i can when it comes to natural resources.

i currently have laminate and like others here, i never worry about it except for hot pots, etc. i may end up with the quartz in the end- thank you again.

Since you mentioned that you are interested in something sustainable...

I have not seen these in person, but a number of manufacturers have introduced countertops made of paper. (Sounds crazy, right?) They are FSC-certified. It's recycled paper in a resin base. I have no idea how much they cost.

Some manufacturers and key words to search:
Richlite FSC
PaperStone
Squak Mountain Stone
"recycled paper countertops"

Oh! Sustainability is another story. Feldspar, the stone that granite is made out of, is the most abundant in the earth. There is the whole mining and shipping thing. But then there's laminate, which is a plastic which comes from petrochemicals which are pumped out of the ground and refined in factories, then laid over wood products with adhesives. Quartz, which comes from stone dust (quartz being the second most abundant stone but not strong enough to hold together as a slab) and petrochemical resin. Metal, which is mined, refined, and extruded, then laid over wood products. Etc.

They're not necessarily budget friendly, but there are some great recycled surfaces. Some are bits of stuff in resin, like some recycled glass terrazzo, recycled marble (looks like a heap of marble chips, but the resin binds it and keeps it from etching and staining--it's a lot prettier than this sounds), Paperstone or Richlite, which are made with wood pulp and resin, etc.

There are also things suspended in concrete (which also involves mining), including a lot of glass and marble terrazzos, and recycled concrete. Concrete does etch, and stain, however.

And there's some really great looking and feeling recycled plastic countertop material that's more like Corian. I don't know about scratches and staining on this. Probably not great.

There's also recycled glass, but the only one I think would be good for kids is BioGlass, which is strata bonded under pressure, and that's prohibitively expensive.

And, of course, there's tile, which is laid over wood products, with mortar (similar chemically to cement, I think), or polymers (petrochemicals), plus grout, which is cement. It often has some concrete or metal behind it as well. The clay tile is made of is taken from the earth, but is fairly abundant, and, I believe, doesn't take the kind of deep mining that cut stone does. Glazes are made from silicas and pigments. And quite a bit of energy is used in the firing. Glazed tile is nigh on indestructible, and even if a tile cracks, it's not that hard to replace it.

I won't say much about wood. It's theoretically the best for sustainability, especially if you live near the forest and mill, and can be sure that it's taken from sustainably managed areas. But it's also the most likely to get messed up by an active family and doesn't sound like what you wanted.

I laud your desire for sustainability. Whatever you choose will have an impact. The thing about stone or tile is that it will last as long as your kitchen, and if carefully removed, even longer. Laminate can last a really long time, but don't expect it to if it gets a lot of heavy use. Probably anything suspended in resin will last as long as your kitchen too. There is a potential for yellowing, especially of lighter colors, but usually there isn't very much resin on the surface and I've never heard of problems with it.

If you're the type of person who puts in a new kitchen every 15 years whether it needs it or not, or if you're designing for your kids, and will redesign when they're teenagers for their changing needs, and again when you're empty nesters, or if you're going to do something specific to you and sell to someone who will likely tear it out and start over, then you need to consider the disposal of the countertops too.

If you're doing it once, well, for all that one choice has a bigger initial impact, the next choice has more manufacturing, and the third a bigger shipping impact. If you can find something local and recycled, or even better, reused, you're doing the best.

If not, locally made concrete or tile is probably the most sustainable choice, after wood.

Once you start adding shipping to the equation, you might as well get whatever you most want. There are trade-offs. Some things are better for the environment than others, but there are no easy answers.

OT: Rhome, I had the same reaction to the loudness aspect of metal countertops -- my copper tops are mounted on mdf and are as quiet as any laminate I've had, and considerably less noisy than granite. They are nothing like the clattery counters of a commercial kitchen, which likely has hollow tops on metal legs. Just fyi if anyone is considering metals.

als6w, good luck with your choice! The sustainability issue is always a real head-scratcher -- I tell myself that my copper is very recyclable, in fact it might become my nest egg for old age. :-)

Even though OP said no to granite, I would still recommend granite for countertops. Almost indestructible. Get something like blue pearl or ubatuba.

low maintenance, will outlast your home (and therefore sustainable, can be recycled into other applications after the house is gone). Looks fantastic.

I've also never found stainless to be noisy. Must be the backing.

But really, kids aren't that hard on counters. Get what you want and don't worry about the kids! Make it something you love, but not so much that every smudGe will bug you!

I don't know how "green" Corian is, but we have two small boys and it's what we picked, along with two of my friends who just did remodels and also have small boys. The one we got looks exactly like Carrara marble -- really. It's called Rain Cloud, you can do a Google image search for it to see how realistic it is. I'm not expecting to "fool people," but I wanted the look of marble without the upkeep and risk of damage. It's actually more expensive than real marble but will hold up better to daily abuse. The more expensive lines of Corian are very beautiful and Corian is certainly practical for families. It gets hated on a lot around here for being "plastic" but I'm happy with our choice.

I think a light Corian is great for kids, but what do You want?

Since you said no granite, marble or soapstone.
What do you like? Do you like Quartz, I agree it is a lot
like granite.

Since you are probably cooking more than the kids, choose
a counter that makes you smile. My close friend put in a
Quartz that never shows dirt. She had cookie crumbs all
over it and I never saw it until she wiped it down.
Amazing stuff that makes dirt look clean. : )

I currently have old 80s pink speckled Corian and it wears like soft iron. It really is good stuff. I take back all the bad things I've said about it (except it looking like plastic--but even so, not all of it looks like plastic in a bad way)(mine looks like plastic in a bad way).

Fori, I agree, some of it is really hideous. But the newer, higher level colors are fantastic, especially the Private Collection line. They even have a couple that mimic the look of soapstone pretty well, but I have heard that darker colors show scratches more than lighter ones. Anyway, food for thought.

Hey y'all! Just been browsing here for the past few days as we're contemplating a remodel (in the beginning planning stages)and this thread caught my eye.

I have talked to the guy at the local green remodeling store and they do not carry granite as he says it is much less sustainable than the quartz, paperstone/richlite, tile, or butcher block options. We were considering the paperstone/richlite, but I'm leaning toward quartz or the recycled option of Eco by Consentino. I saw it at Lowe's and the KD there told me it started at $77/sqft and ran up to $95. The paperstone/richlite at our local green store starts at $75 for 1/2 inch with a built up 1 inch edge. I think bamboo or lyptus butcher block would be the one of the most economical and sustatinable. Interestingly, at the local green store they also carry laminate which they can install using formaldehyde-free OSB/MDF/plywood or something. They don't do granite, though?

Ecohaus (http://www.ecohaus.com/) has some countertops on their site. I have ordered from them before when they were the Environmental Home Center and had good service, but I have no other affiliation with them.

If you're interested in checking out the paperstone/richlite stuff you can buy a cutting board made out of the stuff. I got one at Bed Bath and Beyond, but I'm sure you could pick one up elsewhere. The brand is Epicurean (http://www.epicureancs.com/). It does scratch, but it's supposed to be a patina effect like a butcher block.

hth

Here is a link that might be useful: eco by consentino

Panchodog, Thanks for contributing to the discussion. Especially, that your green store carries quartz (ours doesn't). Can you perhaps post a contact so that Als6w can check out the potential if desired, since this was OP's partiality?

Granite comes from open cut mining and is crated and shipped from points far. It takes a lot of energy to cut, polish, ship and fabricate. But it's also a lot longer lasting than other surfaces, so if it's installed with quality cabinetry in a well designed kitchen and house, which will allow it to stay in place for a very long time, that durability comes into play in determining its "greenness". You have to take the toploaded energy use, etc., over the life of the item. Where cheap, precut granites are a low cost choice at a big box store, and presumably they're going with cheap, prefab cabinets, one can assume that they're not meant to last and are likely to be discarded rather than reused. That's where the real environmental issues come in.

panchodog, that's great info re. the Paperstone/Richlite material & cutting boards. I happen to have one of those Epicurean boards and had no idea it was the same stuff. It does get cut marks, but the color appears to go all the way through, so the scratches aren't too awful looking.

Our local green store doesn't ship, but I can post the website for informational purposes. It's www.commongroundgreen.com .

The quartz they carry is Cambria which the local green said was the only quartz manufacturer in the US. (I think the Consentino that I linked to earlier is an Italian firm?) He guy said that because Cambria is a US firm/product all those shipping costs are much less. They're supposed to be really good about reusing w/in their manufacturing process, too according to this guy. I haven't researched it myself.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cambria Quartz

I think of this differently... the kids, other than helping out here and there, aren't doing the majority of the cooking - I am - and in my opinion, cooking is far more destructive to a kitchen than children - what with taking hot things out of the oven and needing to set them somewhere, sloshing things out of pots (think spaghetti sauce) while transferring to platters, water dripping around the edge of the sink (while kids are washing their hands, or while cleaning), etc. etc.

I have two little kids - we have a butcherblock on our island (finished with food grade mineral oil so if it gets really messed up we have the option to sand it), and granite on our counters.

I personally wouldn't consider laminate. The overmount sink is the biggest issue... I imagine a lot of gunk gets trapped there. The other big issue would be not being able to take things out of the oven and set directly on to the counter. Granite is virtually indestructable... certainly for the cook and definitely for the kids.

just my two cents.

also, remember the kids will grow up, so try not to make too many decisions based on their age.

Quartz, which comes from stone dust (quartz being the second most abundant stone but not strong enough to hold together as a slab)

The last part of that isn't accurate. Our "granite" is actually quartzite - a stone that is made almost entirely of quartz except for the impurities that give it its color. It is very hard and strong. It holds together so well that our fabricator was able to cut sticks of it about 1/2" by 3/4" by 2 feet to trim out the sides of our rangetop. We also sent the sink cut-outs to Columbia Gorge Stoneworks who machined amazingly thin wall plates from them for the switches and outlets in our backsplash.

I did worry about the environmental impact but decided that we would offset that by keeping these counters for a really long time. And we used 2 cm so about 2/3 the stone quarried and shipped compared to 3 cm.

Some soap stone is quarried in the US.
Perhaps one could get tile that is made in the US from local clay. Gladding McBean about an hour from us makes floor tile from local clay, but they don't do glazed tiles for counters. The problem I have with tile is the grout. With our old tile counters, I never felt I could get the grout clean. But I've never had tile with the epoxy grout.

There is granite tile which is made from a thinner material than the granite slabs so you can cover the same area with less. But then you have the mud and grout. It sometimes comes in 24" squares so the grout lines are less of a maintenance issue.

We have 10 kids, and will have soapstone, butcherblock and stainless steel countertops in our not-quite-finished kitchen. I choose them because I like how they look, and I am hoping any "patina" the kids give them will just add to the looks. ;-)
Countertops are NOT what have gotten the most wear and tear in any of our kitchens, though; in our last two kitchens kids have wrecked hinges (from swinging on the doors) and drawers slides. We made sure to use heavy-duty slides and hinges in our new kitchen. We used a low VOC finish on the cabinets, and I am curious to see how that holds up long term with kids.

What about bamboo countertops?

Panchodog, Thanks for the link! Good information is essential. Here we have epOxyGreen but they're moving or something, and not currently all there :) I think they do business all over, but probably on a drop ship basis. Truly local is often very hard to come by, however much we want it.

Bamboo is pretty soft. I wouldn't use it for a kitchen counter. I'm using it for my cabinet doors, however. :D

Cloud Swift is right. Quartzite is a quartz stone that is strong and impervious like granite. It's also pretty rare, and expensive. :) The more common quartzes are what they make the manufactured quartz counters out of. The crystals themselves are strong, but they don't hold together. And there are some granites that crumble too, or that have a lot of crumbly quartz inclusions. They use resin on the surface of those, and netting on the back, to keep them together.

We have maple butcherblock on the island and part of the counters and will probably have some kind of wood/butcherblock (oil finish) on the new island. After 30 years in an actively used kitchen -- they were put in in 1978! the butcherblock still looks good. We have lightly sanded several times. A couple of things that I like about the wood -- it is "quieter," it is not as cold as tile or granite. Personal opinion -- I think they look really nice, especially with painted cabinets.

thanks all. I am still debating ;-) I thought I was ready to go with light maple cabs but i can't stop thinking about painted creamy white cabs. sooo...now that i think i am set on painted white this at least makes my color decision easier. i like contrast so i will be doing a dark counter - probably dark grey or black. I'll have to see what the quartz prices out to...if it breaks the budget we may have to hold off and get laminate (i love the wilsonart oiled soapstone.)

re: the undermount sink: yes, ideally i want one but have been eyeballing the microedge sink by blanco and is likely what i would get if we go with laminate.

thanks again everyone! happy 4th!

Wilsonart has an undermount sink, just in case you weren't aware.

and i am STILL debating. It has come down to Absolute Black granite or a black quartz product. I really like the look of the Zodiaq Mystuc Black but my GC is telling me it will MORE exoensive than the granite and is pushing me towards Cambria if I go with quartz. I echo whoever posted the "why is picking a countertop so heard" thread. It's ridiculous.

Cambria, though an American owned company is produced in Europe so its "green" ratings should be considered suspect.

I got Caesarstone with recycled bits in it. I also have a young child and I just love the stuff. The recycled parts add depth, and the stuff is indestructible and requires no maintenance. It's also very beautiful (to me). The color I got is "quartz reflections" but all of the companies have similar ones. It has little mirror-like bits in it.

I am the OP for the "why is it so hard to pick a countertop" thread. In the end, my kitchen needed light countertops, which made it easier for me to pick quartz. If I were doing a dark countertop I think I'd still do quartz, but might also look at honed dark granite if I could justify the environmental cost. I know it seems irrational, but the though of digging something out of the ground for my kitchen bothered me (and, yes, I know a lot of destruction got done for my kitchen anyway!). The amount of recycled content in my counter is not going to save the world, but I am pretending it might :) I really considered soapstone from Virginia, but with a very destructive child I think soapstone might be a mistake.

I know CS comes from Israel, but in my research I found out that pretty much everything ships from all over the place, and that they ship the slabs with lots of other stuff, so in the end I let that part slide even though of course transportation does help determine if something is "green." I know that the CS company is super-green in their practices, and that you get some LEEDS points for using the product (not many-- not as many as using the paper stuff, or Ice Glass). Also, from a human rights perspective they are good, which some (not all) mining companies are not.

Actually, I think the dark laminates are really pretty, and they certainly are cost-effective. A dark concrete can be really inexpensive, too. Neither is all that bullet-proof, but that is offest by their cost.

well, I got polished absolute black granite. environment be damned! (i kid)

But seriously, it came down to price and looks in the end. i love the way it looks and it was more affordable than the quartz.

thanks for all your help and opinions.