Blue Counertops

As I posted earlier, our "new" house is only 10 years old. The house that we came from was around 10 years old as well. Our other house did NOT have Blue countertops... they were a nice neutral color... WHY did the owners of this house (the one we are in) pick BLUE? I'm a fan of blue, dont get me wrong... I love the Maize 'n Blue, I love sky blue and of course the blue and brown that is hot right now. But I would NEVER pick blue for a countertop. ANYWAY... lets get rid of those countertops and replace it with some... I dont know... quartz... granite... recycled glass... Now, for those that know me, I tend to be very BUDGET FRIENDLY. I tend to wait for sales, shop the clearance racks, use coupons and scour a thrift store like nobodys business. So I started with looking at qoutes for new counters. Recycled glass - wow - beautiful and expensive. Quartz - again, wow - beautiful and expensive. Granite - wow - beautiful and expensive BUT LESS than the other two. I only need to replace 30 sq feet of countertop, what do you mean It will be around 3500.00 ??? At this point, my only real affordable option is laminate. OK, I can do laminate and maybe do granite on the island.... that would work. BUT I really want a solid surface/granite counter for the entire kitchen! So off to the internet I go.
For most inspirations I head to HGTV's Rate my Space page. I love looking at other peoples DIY projects and get inspired. While there I found Kristin's kitchen and O M G ... I fell in love with it. I posted her blog on the right, take a look.

Her kitchen transformation was amazing! In my mind, I would love to paint my kitchen cabinets white like hers... but lets be real - I DO NOT have the patience for all of that work. But I like her layout and I like her Island and I think I can "sorta" copy it. But first, I needed to decide on countertops.... again after looking at Kristin's kitchen and noticing her Granite tile countertops, I thought, I can do that too. So again, back to the internet to find out more info on DIY granite tile squares. That's where I found the CabinetBarn2 in Shelbyville, In. Give this guy your cabinet dimensions/layout etc and he will quote you granite pieces to fit your kitchen, give you a DVD for installation, give you the epoxy to seal your seams and the silcone to set your pieces. He was only 2 hours away and I saved BIG! Now granted, not as big if I were to stick with laminate, but compared to the other products I was looking at, I saved at least half!
Do you like the granite???

Now for some kitchen re-arranging....

We started with removing the peninsula and moved a few cabinets around.
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Added a kichen island in the middle of our space, finished installing the granite countertops and next on the list was a new backsplash.

I chose tumbled marble in a classic subway pattern. I like the softness of the colors and the way it will brighten up the space under the cabinets.
While I wish I could tell you that I had a coupon or bought the tiles on sale... I did not. However, we did do all of the installation ourselves, so I guess that counts a savings right there.... right?? :)
Anyway, we finally finished up with the backsplash and the countertops are down. The only thing left for me to do is paint the island and add a towel bar. I just can't decide on a paint color for the island. I have a dark chocolate brown paint that I purchased from lowes ( in the mistint section.. paid 1.00) or should I go out and get a quart of black to match the appliances???? Decisions, decisions....



I do not have a big kitchen by any standard. My old kitchen was much larger and had more drawers/cabinets. However, I love the upgrades we have done to this kitchen. While I wish it were a little larger, I love it!