Everyone knows people are only defined by their selection of counter top material and hue. Hence, the ColdForged household can now be succinctly referred to as Tea Leaf. This has not been a short process as Cat and I have lusted after better counters for almost as long as we’ve known each other. Even before we bought the new house we would go to the Parade Of Homes annually just to look at the nice houses and get ideas for things to do to our own and we always admired the counters, regardless of material.
Once we moved we were determined to upgrade our counters, and do it soon. Our new kitchen had the typical white laminate counter tops made so popular by Arlo Mufgibbet in the seminal publication Kitchens: A Haven of Boredom and Mediocrity and the very whiteness of it threatened our sensibilities daily. We did our homework, wandering the aisles of countless home improvement centers and rubbing our hands along varied competing surfaces (the one part of the process that Julia got in on and relished, leaning out from the seat of the shopping cart to stroke the surfaces like Maman and Papa), reading the brochures and digesting the bullshit claims made therein.
We finally went with Silestone for various reasons, among which the silly “I am dusty pomegranate” advertising message factored precisely zero. Frankly none of the manufactured surfaces like Corian really appealed to us, aside from the beauty of the sink mounts. There’s something delicious about those Corian joins on the sink that was sorely tempting but ultimately not enough to sway us. We liked granite because of the feel and appearance — none of the other materials can match granite in the variety and size of the pieces of color — but didn’t want the hassle of maintaining it. Most of the other materials, Corian among them, came with detriments like being easily damaged and scratched as well as having color patterns that were too small and regular resembling more a solid surface with a spill of pepper on them.
Silestone — a manufactured natural quartz product — came closest to the beauty of a granite surface, but with less maintenance and surprisingly more resilience to damage of all kinds. As mentioned above, we went with the “Tea Leaf” color which you can see in the link above and in the picture from our kitchen. Once we ordered — from Home Depot who performed the important task of taking their cut of the cash — Silestone sent out their measuring guy and we waited for it to be manufactured. If there’s one part of the process that sucked that was it. We ordered March 28th and it didn’t get installed until last week. Once it was in though that minor quibble was forgotten as the counters themselves are simply awesome. The measurements were right on and the finish is exquisite. We spent a bundle to get the upgraded roman ogee edge and I — after being initially dubious — have to admit that it was worth it. The edge really sets it off.
Now my only problem is resisting the temptation to really test the resiliency of this material to all manner of horror. If you see me carting home a blow torch, kindly restrain me until the fit has passed.
One Response to “I am tea leaf”
Tea Leaf,
Glad to hear you are enjoying your Silestone. I bought Silestone after the Super Bowl advertisement and we really enjoyed it until bits started coming off. I tried to have it repaired but it never quite looked the same. The repair person said I must have abused it some way. I didn’t know that I could abuse it and harm the counter. I’ve since installed a solid surface top and really like it and there are no ugly seams in solid surface counters. Good Luck with your Silestone. It looks great unless it has been repaired.