Products - Counter Surfaces

Though we'll never stop preaching the importance of selecting your cabinetry first, there's no denying it: that perfect countertop is at the forefront of most homeowners' wish lists. Whether you're craving granite or have fallen for the unique look of quartz surfacing, there is certainly no shortage of options to choose from. 

With so many fish in the sea, it's important to approach the selection process wisely. You know what these countertops look like; now it's time to get a handle on their individual characteristics. Read on to learn about specific costs and pros and cons before you make a countertop commitment.

The brief overview:

Practically speaking, solid surface, natural stone and quartz tend to hold up best. If you spill something, hope it lands on solid surface, quartz or stainless steel. You want to roll dough on marble and cut on stone or wood. Laminate and solid surface come in the widest variety of colors. The flexibility of solid surfacing and stainless steel makes them ideal for fashioning decorative shapes or integral sinks. Once sealed, concrete functions as an excellent surface that's quickly gaining in popularity.

Tile, wood and stainless steel offer special looks but have their tradeoffs: tile doesn’t offer a smooth surface for food preparation and its grout can discolor; wood requires sealants and maintenance; and steel scratches and shows fingerprints. Specialty surfaces like hemp-based countertops and those fashioned from lavastone provide alternative choices outside of the countertop norm.

You can achieve the best of all worlds by carving out space for a mix of surface materials—a granite island for serving, a maple butcher-block square for cutting, solid-surface tops for heavy food-preparation tasks and tile for a backsplash accent.

Following are descriptions of the various types.

Stone

It's hard to beat the beauty of natural stone, and it shows. Granite countertops consistently top the "most wanted" list, due in part to their durability and rich composition. But it's certainly not the only stone on the block. The most common natural stones used to make kitchen counters are:

• Granite
• Marble
• Limestone
• Slate
• Soapstone
• Natural quartz

Solid Surfaces

Corian® is the brand name for a solid surfacing material. It is a proven material that brings design versatility, long-term performance and value to any environment. More than just countertops, Corian® lends itself to imaginative uses, innovative interpretations, and enduring applications. It can be cut, routed, drilled, sculpted, bent, or worked like a fine wood. The ever-evolving color palette now extends to more than 100 colors. If you can envision it, chances are you can create it with Corian®.

Laminate

The most common kitchen countertop, laminate is a synthetic material made up of several layers: multiple sheets of kraft paper (like that used in grocery bags), a decorative paper and a melamine plastic coating. A slightly more expensive alternative with no dark edges is solid-color laminate, which is made of a colored plastic throughout.