How much of a ledge is there? It's hard to tell from the photos. I think if it's a wide enough ledge that you plan on setting things down on it, then granite would be helpful. I have a very deep ledge, more of a greenhouse style window and it's tiled. But I think for your more traditional windowsill the painted white wood trim would look great and would blend in nicely with your white subway tile.

We just installed soapstone on a deep window sill in our new kitchen. I would go for the granite. I think it is a polished look.

You can kind of see here - in my messy photo - it was wide enough for a plant - maybe 3".

For me it would depend on whether or not you are doing subway underneath or granite. If you're doing casing around the window as before I would do a wood, same colour as the casing ,for the sill. It isn't a very big window area and I just think if you added the granite as the window sill there would be a lot going on around the window. You would have sink, granite behind, subway tile, then sill and casing. I'd keep it as clean as possible.

Also if your casing trim is white to match the rest of the trim in the area , then the granite because it isn't a clean white, may appear dingy. What colour is your subway?

We did white wood to match trim. In hindsight, I wish I would have used the same countertop material (quartzite).

Thank you for the advice everyone! It does seem I could go either way. We are planning on a white subway tile but are going to wait to finalize on that once the cabinets and countertops are completed to feel out how white on white on white everything will look. I think I am leaning towards wood only because it is the less risky choice, but when I was presented with the granite option it definitely intrigued me. The rest of the sills in the house are white wood as well.

I'd like wood there unless, as mentioned above, you'll be sticking little plants up there.

(Also, I like where this kitchen is headed!)

Most of the original sills in my 1941 house are granite (that don't particularly match anything); but some had cracked due to damage to the walls underneath from water leakage or condensation. When I replace the windows they put wood sills instead. They look fine, but I miss having a granite sill in the kitchen to put pots and vases. I have to be sure that anything set on the sill is dry or it sticks to the paint. Plus I think that granite that matched the counter would look good.

My window don't have casings but even if they did I think that granite would look fine.

If you are doing casing around the window my choice would be wood. If not, I would wrap the subway tiles on to the window sill.

we did granite and its been great. we butted our BS to bottom of sill and trimmed sides with wood trim. i love it and no worries with water/splashing. you won't have to re-painted in a few years, which is a plus!!
we asked the granite fabricator to "throw in" the sill after he gave us the price and they did, so maybe u can do the same. they also "threw in" a finished piece of granite that we made into a turntable. always ask for freebies, you never know until u ask, the worse they can do is say "no."

and yes, i think it goes with the kitchen you are planning.....

In our previous home and our new build home we had a stone sill. We also ran the stone from the countertop to underneath the sill. Love it!

This is our previous home. The sill was 5-6" deep.

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Our new house has bumped out window which is much higher.

nhbaskets kitchen reveal · More Info

nhbaskets, what is the make and model of that faucet? Thank you!

btw ~ we are planning on having granite in our garden window. I always put small pots of herbs on the window ledge and made a mess of our paint in the old kitchen.

I consider my kitchen to be traditional and I chose granite sills with granite backsplash behind the faucet. I love both the look & ease of care.

I made a note of this feature when nhbaskets' cherry kitchen was featured in a regional lifestyle/decor magazine several years ago. I thought it looked beautiful and functional.

Santa, my faucet is a Moen Woodmere in Chrome.

Here's my 2 cents: I did wood as my counters are not white and I with the window casing being white I thought it would look funny to put the counter top material up there. I'm not so sure I was right about that. it may have looked fine. One problem I'm finding with the wood is not that it get's wet or anything like that, but I want to have little "things" on the sill and it's taking forever for the paint to "cure". I've jumped the gun and put things on it and then when I move them I've had indentations and even little paint chips come off. I guess it's best to wait even a month or two before putting things on it. I'll have to touch it up. I have a feeling I'm never going to put a heavy plant on it without there being repercussions. So I guess my opinion is that if you don't want to have to baby it a little you may want to go with granite.

Here's what mine looks like. But I have to say, if using a light counter top I really like the look of nhbaskets and amck2. It's a nice design feature, looks super classic and very functional.

A solid surface sill will outperform any wood or stone and is available in a variety of colors.