Anonymous wrote:We have manufactured quartz counter tops (black with flecks), and a couple people have commented that they thought it was granite. I think that if you don't have a crazy color/grain of stone then it doesn't really matter. It's the big swirly stuff that can look dated.

Yes, this is my impression as well. Some granite looks timeless, especially black or green ones with discrete flecks or marbling. They tend to look a lot like marble.

I thought granite was dated when I redid my kitchen in 2006, but in the end, i put in honed black granite, the cheapest granite (can't remember the name of it). it looks like soapstone, but without the maintenance. i smear it with mineral oil every once in a while to get rid of that "dry" look, but that's all for maintenance. when we move i'm going to try for wood countertops from ikea. they are cheap and good looking. i think granite is wasteful, and i would not put it in again. but six years ago, i was young and impressionable!!

I like that my granite is not plastic with a patent (Corian), or resin mixed with marble chips and a patent (silestone).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am in the process of buying a house with silestone counters... and I did not even KNOW what they were. They looked cheaper than granite to me, and my realtor kept insisting "No, no, these are a step up from granite!" and she's ESL so I had no idea what that meant. So I think most buyers are still looking for granite.

Silestone is fake granite.
The agent was trying to make the sale.

It is more expensive than granite because it is ground up stone mixed with resin and doesn't need sealing. I wanted to get Sillestone, but didn't want to pay $700 more for something that didn't look as nice as granite. I like the fact it doesn't need sealing.

Isn't resin another word for plastic? So ground up stone mixed with plastic is better than a natural material?

Er, yes. It's far better to manufacture a material, preferably using recycled components, than to dig massive holes in the earth, excavate the granite, and ship it in giant fuel-guzzling barges around the world. Is this really rocket science? Granite is very environmentally unfriendly. The areas will they mine it will take decades or more to recover, as bad as the mountain top coal mining sites. And this for kitchen counters.

The uniquness and work to get the granite makes it appealing. I love the fact that my counter tops are unique and took a lot of work to be put in my kitchen from across the globe. It has it's own story. If you want to be eco friendly pitch a dirt tent out in a field blah to you.

Anonymous wrote:09:58 that's the one I have which I don't like, but I feel it's too wasteful to rip it out. I think mine has a bigger grain pattern. I have minimized it in the kitchen by painting the cabinets white, putting in a white tile backsplash, and then painting all the walls a chocolate brown so that the pattern blends in more than pops out. The previous owner had picked the salmon color out of the pattern and painted the whole kitchen salmon pink. It was hideous. Kitchen looks much better now.

I tried all that. Then one day, it all had to go. The whole kitchen had to go. It was one of those put in granite to sell the house things. Now its put in a new kitchen to sell the house

09:58 that's the one I have which I don't like, but I feel it's too wasteful to rip it out. I think mine has a bigger grain pattern. I have minimized it in the kitchen by painting the cabinets white, putting in a white tile backsplash, and then painting all the walls a chocolate brown so that the pattern blends in more than pops out. The previous owner had picked the salmon color out of the pattern and painted the whole kitchen salmon pink. It was hideous. Kitchen looks much better now.

Anonymous wrote:

What's that stuff called? Decoupage? You could put old family photos, dried flowers, interstesting coins under a layer of resin.

Nice. I'm going with this. I'm including all the seashells DC brought home from the beach, and all our foreign currency from world travels.

BTW it's not decoupage. Decoupage would be if I scattered and layered all my old concert ticket stubs and posters, then coated them with glue. And if I wanted to go multimedia, maybe I could include the scraps of my old Stones and Dead t-shirts.

Love it!