Beth - Can you use prefab with that corner sink?

suzyq,,,I was looking at that and the peninsula. As long as they could cut it and use the existing depth of the countertop (I believe it's 22-24") it should be doable. Another option is getting the island size pre-fabs. they come in a 6X4 (or maybe 5x3...can't remember exactly) size and are finished on all sides. In a pinch these could be used for odd angles or deeper than average angles.

Beth - I've done prefab for my rentals and I could get the two sided for the peninsula, and for this kitchen you would have to cut it at an angle to the corner, but I don't get how you could do the corner sink without a lot of cuts. I have another rental with a corner sink and I had pretty much ruled out prefab. I might have to tile that one; its too tiny to buy a slab of anything.

suzy, since it's so small, have you thought about doing a larger remnant piece? sometimes they have a decent leftover on craigslist. maybe something 60x40 or so? I have this stone place near me that has this 4x6 island pre fabs for about 500 or so. and they have an in house fabricator that will cut them for you. We did it for our rental. had the perimeter counters and the island prefab. I think total cost for everything was about 1800 or so.

are you in SoCal?

Yes Encinitas, north county coastal San Diego. We have those Chinese outlets.

oh ok. I'm in North OC. my sis is in Carlsbad. yeah those import places are great for those countertops. And you can barter w/them with cash! lol.

Hmmm...not bad, but I still think I like Morning Glory the best.

Still too busy for your small space and backsplash IMO.

Either the first one in the orginal post, the one in the picture directly above but I LOVE THE MORNING GLORY!!!!

Can you post pics with the stone samples up against the splash please? Its hard to gauge the size of the patterns and how that will look with the splash.

IMO if you keep doing this project piecemeal it will not look good. You added a backsplash on top of a 4" backsplash that was already there, looks awkward. Backsplash isn't great with cabinet color (at least on my monitor). Cabinet knobs are in a crazy place. If it were my space I would embrace the black and white scheme by painting the walls and replacing the brown/beige/blue rug. I would not spend money replacing the countertop.

suzyq53, the backsplash is white. I don't see how that counter would conflict with white.

And wow I just noticed the knob placement. That's really odd, and very inconvenient. Why would you do that?

Chess - she's going to use a 4" piece of the stone as a little splash and is keeping the tile above. Although her tile is white, it is another pattern. Right now with the dark plain stone, it doesn't complete with the tile but with some of the more patterned stone choices it will. Seeing the pattern size in the stone against the tile will give some perspective looking at it upright.

Got it. I was just referring to the material for the counter, actually, as I don't think it would compete at all with the tile back splash. But I would remove the 4" piece and replace with the same tile. I agree that the two materials on the same wall, would look off.

Yep me too, but that's not what's happening here.

Lori No, just so you'll know, you can move the cabinet knobs, easily. Really would not cost a dime other than covering the old holes with caulk and paint.

Good luck!

Lori, how much are they charging you for those countertops? I'm asking because if you want to replace the cabinets in a year or so, they can't just remove the countertop without breaking it to get to the lower cabinets.

Have you thought about going with a nice laminate countertop (they have some really nice ones) and putting this money aside into savings until you can afford the cabinets ? or even a butcher block countertop would be a cheaper option.

ok,,,all of your choices are fine. I do like #3, but I like the marble look too. which one are you leaning towards?

Morning Glory-for sure. It has some character but not too busy like some of the others. With a small area you don't want it to get too busy. Change the hardware.

If that's the #2 choice, I do like that one.

Pamela, do you have marble? I do. And I cook at least 6-7 nights a week along with baking and lunches and trust me when I tell you that properly sealed marble doesn't stain unless you are completely careless...and even when we've been careless and left coffee or tomato sauce (I neutralize mine so it doesn't cause reflux, so it didn't etch) sitting overnight by accident...I have no stains. Etches, yes (I have exactly 2 etches so far in 7+ months of use because we carelessly left pineapple juiced aitring directly on it for hours) but no stains. Sorry to rain on the marble-hating parade! In any case, the OP seems to be considering marble-looking quartz, not actual marble. Our contractor did tell us though that they have a customer whose Quartz is permanently stained...from pencil.

I don't think its real marble. Probably marble look quartz.

Pamela, I think a LOT of designers say that. The designer I worked with for my island cabinets tried to throw me off of marble (we did everything else through our contractor, so he had no skin in the game), but later admitted that as the person who has to field the phone calls from people who ruin their marble, he tells people not to get it just so that he doesn't get the calls. My office mate said that her stone person said the same thing. There are definitely precautions that you have to take and a lot of folks just choose it because it looks nice and have no idea of what they're getting into. Those people will be the ones calling in hysterics! I did boat loads of online research and read just about everything I could find about people's experiences and we decided that we just loved it too much not to take the chance. I think for those of us who have it and love it and DO cook, it just gets very frustrating to constantly hear people who DON'T have it bashing it with inaccurate/biased advice that was given to them by a salesperson who doesn't want to be on the receiving end of an angry phone call. It's obviously not for everyone because you do have to be willing to live with certain things, but I wish it would be "sold" more accurately than just "oh you actually COOK? nope, marble's not for you!" LOL I'm sure I don't use as much BBQ sauce as you, but I do use it often, along with tomato sauce, pineapple juice, lemon/lime juice, turmeric/curry, coffee....wine too! The way I look/ed at it is: I used to have laminate and if I spilled something, I wiped it up. Not so different. I actually took photos and a video of cherries that I had just pitted sitting on my counter, oozing juice. I let them sit there and took photos and the video to "prove" that it's not this ridiculously finicky material that stains and etches if you look at it funny. I am on a computer now and that's on my phone so I'll see if I can find it and post it in a different comment! :)

Pamela Presley, she is not looking at marble. She's looking at QUARTZ. The Reliance brand logo is even on the samples. Completely different material and properties.

I like the Morning Glory. Is it a marble or a quartz. I would definitely not use any marble in the kitchen...it stains very badly. There are many new quartz colors that look like Carrera and are soft whites with gray veins.