I’m picturing a honed medium gray soapstone type counter.

What about a wood countertop?

Sounds like an interesting project. Questions: Do .you want the waterfall counters to contrast the cabinets or blend in with them? Counters in this case are also a large vertical surface that will take up a good amount of visual space in this room. Would you like a pop with black counters? Would you like to try to match the cabinet color as closely as possible so they blend in? Would you like a happy medium with a grey counter?

Have you started looking at actual Corian samples? I went to a Corian fabricator in my area (not many of them around anymore) and he had samples galore in every color and shade, some Corian brand others from different companies.

Corian is a great, forgiving surface. Just this week the hot pink "Thank you for your business" logo from a wet plastic bag transfered to my vanilla Corian counters. It was dry by the time we discovered it. I easily wiped it off with a bit of Bon Ami.

For those of you who cannot imagine an island in a mudroom type space, here are some pics. I often advised on house that OPs turn dining rooms into spaces that meet their needs and LL, it sounds like you have really done so!

Large Mudroom Island with Walnut Countertop · More Info

Mudroom with homework/craft island and lockers · More Info

I also don't get it ... is the "old" dining area/new mud room open to the kitchen? So that the island will be part of both the kitchen and the mud room? Just not understanding why you would want shoe storage in an island where people will sit and eat.

We need a diagram of the space.

I take it to mean the dining room is separate from the kitchen. This is more of a storage all purpose room that has an island in it, but it is not the kitchen island.

@Sammie J

Sorry, I didn’t clarify well. I can upload a diagram later when I get home. For now I’ve uploaded our general floor plan. The room I’m referring to is labeled “dining room”. It will not be part of the kitchen. What I meant by saying people may eat at the island was that it could potentially be used for overflow space if we host a holiday, for example. Not everyday usage for eating. I said that because the countertop material doesn’t have to be kitchen counter quality as far as durability, heat resistance, etc.

@kendrah Thank you for understanding the purpose of the project. As far as the counter goes, I really don't know if I want it to contrast or blend in with the cabinets. The floors are Brazilian cherry hardwood, and there's not a ton of natural light because we tend to keep the blinds shut for privacy most of the time as the windows are at the front of the house facing the sidewalk and lots of people walk by. When the blinds are open there is a ton of natural light.

This is a new construction house we built in 2012. Everything we chose is dark, dark, dark because that was the trend at the time (or so we were told). I'm slowly trying to lighten spaces up, and eventually I'll get to the kitchen because we have espresso cabinets (a ton of them) and darker granite, so the whole space feels very heavy and dark. Anyway, I've leaned against the idea of a dark countertop for the new island because of that, but I'm not great at tying a look together so maybe that will look best? I really don't know. Since the island itself will also be the Painted Linen color, I'm nervous about picking a white countertop color that looks good online, but will end up looking beige once installed onto the island cabinets.

I am trying to find somewhere local to look at Corian samples, but it's very difficult for me to determine what will look good in the space off of a 2" x 2" sample. I've been looking online a lot, but many times those colors are distorted by the computer screen and I don't want to make a choice solely off of what something looks like on the computer. I chose the wall color and cabinet color because many of the pictures I was drawn to online had a bluish/grayish paint color, white cabinets and brushed gold hardware. Beyond that, I'm stumped!

“Corian is a great, forgiving surface.”

Agree! We had it for years in a previous home amd it still looked new when we left. There are lots of great color choices. In our case, our counters were Corian’s Glacier White…so nice! I cleaned it regularly with SoftScrub.

I have seen this type of space called a ”homekeeping room” by Martha Stewart (yes, I think it had an island) and a ”utility room” by my family. They can be great spaces and I think you will appreciate it. We have a room that I have been trying to do that with, but other life projects keep getting in the way. Of course, if we had done it soon after we moved in, other projects might have been easier.

Anyway, another yes to Corian. I wish I could help with colors.

From what you are saying, I'd go for white counters. You were attracted to it in your inspiration pic and you are wanting to eventually get your home looking brighter.

But, as you know, there are many whites and you need to get one that will look right with your cabinets and walls. You should have a sample door of the cabinets you will use. Do you? Then get large samples of Corian and look at them together in your space with your lighting, floors, and paint. It is really, really hard to obtain large samples from manufacturers. I ended up finding a fabricator who had gave me really large remnant pieces to bring home. (I tested ballpoint pen, egg, tea, wine, lemon, ketchup all overnight and all came off easily.)

If this is of any help - I have vanilla Corian and it is a perfect match to Benjamin Moore Linen White, which is the color of my cabinets and walls. It is more creamy than glacier and arctic Corian.

I'm curious why you are creating this room in your dining room and not your living room. They look to be the same size and the living room is connected to the kitchen - does that make more sense to have your home keeping room separate from the kitchen and your living room closer by?

The minute you started reading your initial question I thought of Martha Stewart!

@Kendrah The dining room is connected to the kitchen, not the "living room" (as it's labeled on the floorplan). The "living room" has already been turned into my office after we no longer needed it as a playroom space. I do have a sample of the cabinet color, so I will need to find a local place that has Corian samples onhand. The number of choices is very overwhelming to me, so I'm trying to narrow it down. I like the idea of something light colored, but with a little bit of visual interest.

I am also trying to change out the builder grade chandelier, and I was looking at this. Do you think it would work well?

so something like this?

This gray might be pretty.

This one is a leathered granite

or, have you considered doing a diff color island, no waterfall and a walnut top?

This would be much cheaper than the other option.

they do have edge grain waterfall in the walnut as well

or, something like these

you could wrap the island in the fluted walnut, top w/the white and waterfall one side

don't know that I've seen Corian in a waterfall

I would go with a solid color Corian for sure. I think Corian with pattern and veining are super cheap looking. Are veining or patterns what you mean by visual interest? If so, I find another counter material and not use Corian. It can look very cheesy and fake.

Do you have drawings of the space, picks of the hardware, pics of the room to post? Hard to say if the chandelier will look right without having more context. I don't love the chandelier though. I looked at pics of it staged in rooms and in the reviews pics and I think it gets lost in space and looks a little cheap. I think you can do better.

@Beth H. : I like the first pic, and surprisingly I like #8 as well. My one concern would be that our floors are Brazilian cherry, so that is a lot of dark wood on dark wood. What do you think?

that's true. but if everything else is white , it shouldn't make it too dark.

You could get a plain white quartz. they even make 3x5 pre-fab quartz for less than $600. the fabricator would cut it on site to install.

Just another option.

Beth's #8 picture is really handsome and might make the island look more like a piece of furniture rather than having it feel like a kitchen counter - a plus considering the function of this room.

I would try to get a counter with a wood stain very close to your floor. I'd need to see a pic of your floors, but I don't imagine it looking too dark because it will be sitting on white cabinets, and you will have a wall of white cabinets in the room. You mentioned keeping the blinds closed because of foot traffic in front of your house. What if you installed top down bottom up blinds to let more natural light in?

@Kendrah Here are some pics of my floors. One has the overhead light on and the other has it off. It's hard to get a good pic without glare.

I think you need to slow this whole thing down. The kitchen layout, the dark and heavy........arches, openings, no closets. Not to mention I don't see waterfall anything here: )

I have wood floors that also lean “red” so I’ve avoided white-white in this house. (I also have a lot of custom medium-tone wood trim everywhere). Stick to ivory to bring in some warmth. I would do an ivory on the cabinets as well.

Thanks for posting floor pictures. I think it makes me change my mind about a wood counter. The floors really pop in that color and I think it will feel like too much wood, and possibly clashing wood if you do the counters in wood too.

Can you say more about your desire for waterfall and what is motivating that as a choice? Also, how would you describe your overall style and the vibe of the look you are going for.

@Kendrah I think like the idea for a waterfall cabinet because, to me, it looks less like a kitchen and more like a piece of furniture. I'm not opposed to it *not* being a waterfall, as long as the look comes together without it.

I don't know how exactly to describe my overall style, but I love blue and white combo and I did a Google search and here's a photo dump of pics that caught my eye.

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I'm noticing from the pics I chose that I like the look of the white walls/cabinets and then a blue island. I'm wondering if I should change my paint choice (the room is being painted next week) and go with white walls and have the island painted the Blue Heather color as more of an accent to the room. What do you think?

There are a lot of beautiful pale blues that will work with those floors. I love your idea of white cabinets and blue island. The big challenge is always WHICH white and WHICH blue. Maybe some of the pros can make specific color suggestions to go with your floors.

I like this look. no waterfall, just simple trim molding on the sides.

Love the last combination @Beth H:.

@Beth H. :I like that look as well and think this is the best way to go. Do you think it's ok to color match the paint for the walls to the Painted Linen cabinets? Otherwise, I'm not sure how I'll find a white paint that works.

LL,
Corian Glacier White or Antarctica would look great combined with your cherry floors and blue wall paint. I ordered 10x10” samples of Glacier White, Antarctica, and Sparking White off the DuPont Corian website for a kitchen remodel. I’m leaning toward the Antarctica but really any of the 3 would work in my space. Added bonus? Glacier White is level A- least expensive.
I hope this helps.

Maureen

Update:

I spoke with the builder, and he doesn’t recommend painting the island cabinets. It’s too late to change the island cabinet order to a different color.

Now I’m back to square one with the countertop.

HI LL,

This is a remodel, so it is not "too late" to change the island cabinet order if that's what you want to do. It would delay your project, though. If there is some reason that this project MUST be completed on a certain timeline, then I guess that would mean that a delay is unacceptable.

I'm not sure the waterfall is the right look. Think of your island not as reminding you of a kitchen, but rather a large island in a "closet room". One of the pictures at the top of this post showed something similar. I've seen them in a lot of ads and pictures for huge rooms that are actually closets. The island is meant for storage and "put place", just as you are thinking.