New Granite Kitchen Island

Before I tell you about our new granite kitchen island I have to mention this amazing post that Diane at In My Own Style did about branded and DIY chalk paint versus chalk board paint. It’s filled with details and you will love it. The post was actually prompted by a question from yours truly. Read Diane’s scientific experiment here.

Today I have some kitchen goodness for you. Granite goodness to be exact. When we bought out home two years ago the kitchen was huge selling point for us. It had been newly remodeled with Thomasville cabinets and granite counter tops.

Well except for one part, the island. The previous homeowner installed all new counters in granite except the island was done in laminate. Who knows why previous homeowners do what they do. This is the old island.

And you can see the rest of the counter tops in the space are a dark black and tan-ish granite, actually called Sapphire Blue. Although there is no blue in it and I think they recently renamed that specific color.

It was my hope that someday we could replace that stinky island mismatched piece for one that was the same as the others.

After about 8 months of calling a local granite shop to see if they had a remnant, I hit the jackpot. Someone recently ordered that color and they had just the size I needed for my island top. I went to the shop to take a look at the piece. When you buy a remnant of granite, you have to sign off on it saying you understand it is not a newly cut piece and there can be divots and other minor flaws with the piece.

Granite shopping is fun. There is a great shop nearby where you can order granite, Corian or quartz, and look for remnants for other projects you may have. There are rows and rows of stone, it’s really neat.

And here was my remnant. Now I was hoping to score a leftover piece since the price is less than buying new of course. This particular granite runs near $60 a square foot new. That is no small change, even for something as minor as an island. I paid about $600 for the island top cast off, in case you are wondering. I think it measures 33 x 52 or something.

Sorry this is blurry, I was snapping quick when the salespeople were not there so they wouldn’t think I was crazy.

As soon as we had an installation date, out went the old laminate island top.

And in came the new.

I swear this was the fastest home renovation project ever. These two giant {read muscular} dudes carried the piece in with these suction cup-like holders and lifted it on to the empty island.

And I kid you not, they swiped on a pass of silicone, I signed the form and they were out of there. The whole thing was about 90 seconds long, really.

Just like that we had a new island and I instantly fell in love. Who loves new kitchen parts, apparently me.

Now we are matchy matchy. Our kitchen almost has 2 personalities. It’s dark and woodsy on the left and bright and bead board on the right.

I absolutely love the contrast with the white bead board island.

That’s our microwave and recycling in the back part of the island, in case you were wondering what’s in there.

And if you noticed in the pic above in the shop, you can see a dark colored concentration, which ended up being near the center of our piece. But I’m fine with it, it’s all part of the unique quality of the material.

Although I debated about getting this piece for a long time, I’m really happy I did it. With so many surfaces and textures in the kitchen, I think it brings some nice sophistication to the space.

Here is the before laminate, which now has a new home as the workbench in the basement.

And the after of our new remnant granite piece. You’ll notice the dining room on the left is it’s own makeover too.  That reveal is coming soon. See the earlier kitchen tour here. And the kitchen a year after we moved in.

Do you think you’ll ever shop for a remnant piece? Any items you are debating replacing in your home?