Wow, we are now in September and this summer has been a whirlwind of kitchen making decisions. It all started when we were shopping for new kitchen cabinet knobs. Then said, well why don’t we get a quote for new cabinets. (before we spent the $50 on hardware) 😂

We decided to get a brand new kitchen, except for the appliances. And we kept everything in the same place. So saved some money there. (See we saved money, right husband??) I wanted white shaker cabinets and white or light colored granite countertops. Little did I know that white granite doesn’t exist (with the marbled look I wanted). Granite is a natural stone but has more of a speckled look to it. To get the marbled look, you have several options.

The first option is to buy marble. Marble is in the same price range as granite and we were seeing that it was cheaper. You will also hear marble called quartzite. I even was sold on some so called ‘quartzite’ until I took the sample home and poured wine on it and took a knife to it. You can see in the picture below, although that sample wasn’t sealed. But true quartzite is a harder material than marble. As much as I love the look of marble and the fact that it’s a natural stone, it stains, chips easily, and with two kids it would stress us out. I also know that there are going to be days where I can’t get to the mess right away and don’t want staining from food sitting there overnight.

Quartzite is a natural stone that is harder than granite, but true quartzite is so expensive. Not even worth discussing in this blog, haha! I searched high and low for a natural stone that is stain resistant, affordable, and beautiful.

And then there is quartz. The name just sounds expensive, but once we did the research, it sounded like the best option for us. Quartz is 93% natural quartz stone and 7% manmade resin and other materials. It comes in a variety of colors, durable and achieves the marbled look we wanted.

Once deciding on the material we wanted, we started shopping around for the best price and quality. We shopped several local shops and decided on Prestige Granite in Nicholasville, Kentucky. We learned that Hanstone Quartz was on the less expensive end of quartz countertops and everything I was reading and seeing was positive about Hanstone Quartz. They have a new boutique collection and we took several samples home. We went with Montauk from Hanstone Quartz and couldn’t be happier with our countertops. Montauk was even featured on some of the HGTV shows (so it must be good right?)

I know way too much about countertops but so happy we spent the time researching what we wanted. And this decision was made after signing our contract for the cabinets so that gave us about six weeks to decide. This has been such a learning process. I thought we were going to settle on granite at the first shop we went to. But with making such a big decision and spending so much money, it is worth the patience finding what fits your style and budget.

It has been about two months now with our countertops and having white really brightens up the room and makes it so easy to see the mess and clean it up. We use Mrs. Meyers all purpose cleaner to wipe them down. Coffee stains have sat on the counter several days (yikes!), with no problem cleaning them and same with other acidic foods that would typically stain other materials.

Stay tuned and I can give you a full review of our quartz countertops after more time passes. But for now, we are still doing a bunch of last minute kitchen touchups. And believe it or not, our cabinets are still not complete. More on that later! I can’t wait to show you how our entire kitchen remodel turned out. I even managed to get some herringbone marble in there for our backsplash! Need a kitchen remodel, just ask your husband for new cabinet knobs. At least that is how I remember it! 🤣🤣🤣

Thanks for stopping by,
Kim