Tag Archives: counters

Meanwhile…

We are still working on finishing the backsplash
in our kitchen. Well, I should say Michael Luke is still
working. He is doing an amazing job but it’s hard for him to
find the free time to finish it up so it may be another week or two
before I post finished pictures. Meanwhile… Remember back at the
beginning of the year? When we replaced our kitchen
counters with Formica 180 FX in Dolce Vita. Well,
our kitchen counters weren’t the only thing we replaced.
We figured while we were at it why not replace the counters in the master bath as well.
Replacing the counters was already on our To-Do list. So
since we were already paying for labor and the additional cost for
the actual material wasn’t that much extra we decided now was as
good a time as any. Our white porcelain sinks looked so beautiful with the Dolce Vita counters that I had to add more white accents. Like the family picture of us in the
white frame.
You may have noticed in the picture above that there is a small strip of wood exposed underneath the counter. This is because our new counters sit 3/4″ higher than our previous ones. This small change in height
might have frustrated some people but for me it was the go ahead to
paint our existing cabinets a beautiful white. In case you
are wondering I haven’t been secretly working on painting them yet.
Priority numero uno is to finish the kitchen first and then
maybe work on sprucing up the master bath some more. I was loving the white accents so much that I swapped out the pottery
that Noah’s supplies used to sit on for this beautiful Vera Bradley
tray. I also relocated this keepsake frame with our room key from the first night of our honeymoon at The Peabody. The white just looks so amazing on the
counters that I can’t get enough of it right now!
Future plans for the bathroom include painting the cabinets and walls as well as installing new floor tile throughout the entire bathroom. To be honest
though, I don’t see any of that happing too soon. We need to
finish the kitchen first and then we will have a better idea of a
timeline. Meanwhile… Do you have any projects that require more
of your free time to finish them? Are you getting any of the snow
from the storm that is pummeling through the north east. I
don’t know what we would do if we ever got that much snow at one
time. Just a half an inch of snow shuts down the entire city
here in Birmingham!

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The “Sweet” Reveal

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I once had a teacher that said, ” Excuses are for losers”. And while it has some truth to it I can’t help but share my excuse for taking so long to get this post up. Life. Yeah, it just happens like that. Things get super busy and end up going not as you originally planned and some things just have to take a back seat. Things like… editing the pictures for this post and then actually writing the post.

One of the things that has been keeping us super busy is our adoption process. I don’t want to go into detail yet since that would be a totally different tangent than how the post originally started out and I would probably yet again let another day pass without sharing our kitchen counter reveal. So here it is… with as few words as possible because let’s face it we all would much rather see the pictures than here me ramble. 🙂
Ok, let’s pause for just a second. In case you are new to the blog or might have forgotten the counters are actually laminate. Gasp! That’s right laminate. We chose Formica 180fx in pattern Dolce Vita for kitchen renovation.

We love it! One of the reasons we chose this pattern was because of all the striations in it. It really helps to lengthen and elongate our somewhat small kitchen. Another reason we chose Formica 180fx is because of it’s price point. It comes in under both granite and solid surface counters but still has that high end look. Which is what we were after… with out the big price tag. Because sometimes spending the big buck just doesn’t make ~~sense~~ cents.
We chose to extend our new counters all the way to the wall versus having a back splash like our previous counters. It gives me a little extra counter space but most importantly will look sharp with a white subway tile backsplash extending all the way down to the counters.

Noah photo bomb. She was practically in the kitchen the whole time I was shooting. I just tried to work around her for the most part.

Our white sink really pops against the darker counters. Which totally build my excitement for the addition of the white back splash! formica dolce vita The Dolce Vita laminate has an etchings finish to it. Which gives it more of realistic stone feel but doesn’t have a bad hand to it.

Now for a look back at where we started and what we have left in the project we call Operation Bring Sunshine to the Kitchen.

Before:
Kitchen In Progress:

What’s Left to Do:

Operation Bring Sunshine to the Kitchen

~~new countertops~~
paint upper and lower cabinets
under cabinet lighting
~~new refrigerator~~
~~new above range microwave oven~~
paint walls
tile backsplash
add cut out to pantry door
clean grout in tile floor
new hardware for cabinet doors and drawers
replace ceiling fan and light

What do you think of the Formica 180fx? Can you see considering this as one of your options for new counters? To be honest if I spent the big bucks I would splurge on a solid surface counter instead of granite. My heart swoons for Corian’s Witch Hazel. Let’s just say there is a hospital out there covered in it right now because I love it so much!

Are you a dark or light counter person? If you could splurge or already have which would you prefer… solid surface or granite? Do you know that some solid surface actually prices out higher than granite?

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Our “Sweet” Counters

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It all started a couple of months ago when I put together this idea board for our kitchen makeover.

Back then I was swooning over some calcutta marble. Even at that point I knew actual marble wouldn’t make ~~cents~~ sense for our little townhouse but I had my eye on Formica’s 180FX Calacatta Marble laminate counters.

The other week I brought you up to speed with pricing and product info and shared that we were leaning towards Formica’s 180 FX in Dolce Vita meaning “sweet life” in Italian. That’s definitely the kind of life I want to be living in my kitchen. Did someone say chocolate?

So how did I go from 180FX Calacatta Marble to 180 FX Dolce Vita?

I love the look of white marble countertops and really wanted to implement this into the redesign of our kitchen. But the key to a great renovation is to integrate the new flawlessly with the old. The old in our case being our floor tile.

Dirty/ Off White tends to describe it best. So when I put our pretty 180FX Calacatta Marble sample down on the floor this is what I got.

Ewww! They definitely don’t work together. I knew then that we would have to go darker. Oh, and for a little memory update we plan on painting the cabinets gray.

After our first failed attempt, I ordered samples, more samples, and finally more samples.

Next, we really liked the Soapstone Sequoia.

It worked perfectly with the existing tile and had a nice long linear look in the veining. After leaving the laminate out on our counter for a few days though we decided this wasn’t the one for us. Each laminate is made to resemble it’s stone counterpart in sheen and texture. For soapstone this means a dull appearance and non-smooth surface. We were afraid that it the counters would come across as unclean. I do a bad enough job keeping the counters clean myself!

So we continued to test out samples and finally found one that we both liked, Dolce Vita.

(The guy on top.)

It has a smooth finish as well as the linear look that ML and I both liked in the soapstone. By using a laminate/stone with linear lines it will elongate the look of our kitchen. Which it needs.

Dolce Vita works with well our tile floors and black appliances. I can’t wait to see what it will look installed. Unfortunately, we are going to have to wait a few weeks on that part. The guys came out to measure the existing counters last week but because 180FX is special order it will be a few weeks until the counters come in. We should be enjoying them by Christmas though! I bet red party platters with all kind of Christmas goodies will look great on them!

What about you? Do you have a project that is stretching out for weeks on end? Do you find yourself going through several finish selection before finding “the one”? What do you hope to have accomplished by Christmas?

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