The Warm Tone Granite Kitchen

Natural Stone Source continues to import it's slab stock bundles at a time from over the ocean, and currently we are carrying such a wide variety of slabs, it's almost overwhelming! Where does one begin with such an array of colors?

A good place to start is to decide the tone of your future kitchen. Today we will focus on warm toned kitchens that have a cheerful, cozy feel to them. These kitchen schemes generally feature gold tones and cozy bordeaux colors that remind us of a warm day in the sun, or snuggling around a fire.

Solarius slab from Natural Stone Source's bundled stock

This gorgeous, warm, gold toned slab of granite makes for a very happy kitchens when paired with goldish brown cabinets.

Via http://www.storyblog.us/comfortable-solarius-granite-and-dupont-edge/

Typhoon Gold

Our Typhoon Gold slabs are the perfect example of exotic granite. The movement in them is sweeping waves of gold, peach, and bordeaux. A kitchen of any of the bordeaux slabs can make a warm inviting home.

Warm Tone Kitchen in Shell Beach, California

A Natural Stone Source project, this Shell Beach home involves a bordeaux slab countertop that is paired with rich cabinetry and warm limestone stacked stone on the fireplace for a look that leans toward the Spanish style.
                             

The Cool Tone Granite Kitchen

Natural Stone Source continues to import it's slab stock bundles at a time from over the ocean, and currently we are carrying such a wide variety of slabs, it's almost overwhelming! Where does one begin with such an array of colors?

A good place to start is to decide the tone of your future kitchen. Today we will focus on cool tones that includes whites, grays, and blues.

Cool toned kitchens are very much in style, and go well with stainless steel appliances, as seen below from this Houzz project posted by Judy Cook Interiors, LLC. A hot selling granite color for cool-toned kitchen is the Alaska White granite slab.

Alaska White through Natural Stone Source

               

                     Beach Style Kitchen by East Lyme Interior Designers & Decorators Judy Cook Interiors, LLC

Another popular slab for cool toned kitchen is the classic and iridescent Blue Pearl granite slab. Blue Pearl is a bit darker, so it goes best with a lighter backsplash and light cabinets.

Blue Pearl granite slab

                   

                                            Traditional Kitchen by Durham Kitchen & Bath Designers emma delon

This stylish kitchen combines Blue Pearl with a light grey marble and an inventive argoyle backsplash behind the stove.

One of our very favorite slabs now carried in bulk by Natural Stone Source is the brazilian Lake Placid quarzite. Lake Placid is a calm jade green with very little movement. This stone is a little more rare than the others, so we do not have any projects showcasing it in our pictures, and the internet does not yet have a single kitchen of the Lake Placid quartzite. So we invite you to make this soothing stone into the next cool tone kitchen, and we will display it here on our blog, on facebook, and our main website, www.nssgranite.com!

We love Lake Placid quartzite

How to Clean Granite, and How Often

The most common questions we hear from homeowners is:

"How do I clean my granite? How often should I clean it? How often should it be resealed?"

How to Clean Granite

Granite is actually very simple to care for. The most important thing to remember is that whatever solution is used to clean your stone, it should be rather neutral. This is to keep the sealer from being removed during cleansing, which in turn prevents your granite from being open to attacks such as stains. A mild soapy water will do just the trick to lift oils and dirt off of the average granite countertop without eating away the sealer.

Photo Credit  Dustin Schmieding, Creative Commons

In addition to soapy water, some companies produce fancy cleaners for granite counters that may also appeal to the homeowner.

• Lustro Italiano makes Stone Cleanser Wipes specifically for stone countertops that can be safely used on a daily basis. 
• Ecostone Solutions makes a cleanser called Kleen Stone Plus for granite that has a particularly pleasing odor.

Granite-oriented cleaner will identify themselves as such on the label with the actual word "granite". But again, a mild soapy water solution will always be sufficient to clean granite countertop.

Photo Credit: Creative Commons,http://www.hwchomeworks.com/

How Often to Clean Granite

Cleaning granite countertops on a daily basis with a mild cleanser such as those stated above is a reasonable routine that will prevent build-up. Since the cleanser will be neutral, the sealer shouldn't wear away in less than a year. 

Warning: If harsh cleaning products such as bleach, ammonia, or other products like 409, expect your sealer to wear away quickly. When the sealer goes, your stone is open and more prone to soak up substances like coffee and wine, and therefore leave a stain.

The Prefab Kitchen

In the granite industry, a countertop that has a laminate prior to being sold is called a "pre-fab". These countertops come in handy because the work necessary to turn granite into a countertop is mostly done. Once a homeowner has chosen a prefab color, all a granite installer needs to do with a pre-fab is to make a couple key cuts to fit it into place, and a cabinet can quickly have a luxury stone countertop.

Prefab Countertop Colors

Prefabs are produced in bulk, mainly in countries like China, and shipped to the United States at very low prices. These counters are also considered to be of reasonable cost, since the labor cost of custom fabrication is not really needed. The convenience of prefabs are great for the common and simple bathroom vanity, but are they equally economical in a kitchen?

The layout of a kitchen is the determining factor of whether prefabs are economical or not. A small galley kitchen might be easily re-modeled with prefabs, if one 8 foot stretch of granite can be installed along each side. This works because the two separately manufactured prefab granite countertops are most likely not from matching slabs of granite. In a galley kitchen, the walkway separating the two tops could be enough space to fool the eye into thinking that the prefabs are the exact same color.

Some prefab veining is hard to match at the seam.

When a kitchen has seams, or places where two separate pieces of granite need to be joined together, the prefab kitchen begins to run into issues. For example: by the time prefabs arrive to a Nipomo, California distributor such as Natural Stone Source, the chances of two different prefabs born from the exact same part of the mountain is incredibly unlikely. The countertops may look very similar, but when butted up next to one another, the color and pattern will probably vary quite a bit.

Prefabs with tiny colors and predictable pattern are tough to seam in the world of prefabs, but a prefab with any sort of stripe is another story altogether. A prefab with a vein running through it can never be adequately seamed to another prefab. To successfully seam the running pattern of granite veins, at least two uncut slabs of granite are needed in order for careful layout, and accurate matching at the seam.

These angles are impossible to accomplish from prefabs
 without extensive seaming. 

Any custom kitchen will be hard to cover with prefabs as well. If there are wall outcrops, varied countertop widths, bar tops, or a peninsula, you will find that prefabricated countertops carry a high waste factor. Furthermore, while prefab peninsulas are generally available, you may find the cost per square foot of material to exceed what you would pay for raw slab material, even when you end up with a prefab that is bigger or smaller than what you needed.

This 8" bartop width would have left a lot of waste
 if fabricated from prefab countertops.

Ultimately, a kitchen will look better with custom cut and fabricated granite slabs over the prefabricated counter. In order to get what you pay for, and be happy with your project, starting from scratch is really the best plan for stone kitchen countertops.

To see our selection of both prefab countertop colors as well as granite and marble slabs, please visit our main website www.nssgranite.com

Fissures in Granite Countertops

Fissures in granite are incredibly common, especially in slabs with a large dramatic design. In the slab yard, with the slab sitting vertically, these fissures are present and yet not so easily recognized. In the excitement of choosing an exquisite slab it's easy to stand back and focus on the slab as a whole instead.

It's when your countertops are installed and the sunlight shines through the window onto your new horizontal surface that you are likely to notice a fine web of what seems to be... cracks!

Sunlight streams across your new countertops and your
 stomach drops. OH NO. Are these cracks? Is my countertop
going to fall apart? Have no fear, you are only looking
at normal harmless fissures.

These fine little lines are what are known as "fissures". Fissures are tiny edges in the composition of the minerals that your countertops are built of. Fissures are present in a good portion of the granite, marble, and travertine slabs that are available. They often help make up the artistic look of the slab you chose. They are not cracks.

This close-up of a vertically oriented slab shows how hard
it is to notice fissures when you are in a showroom,
bedazzled by hundreds of natural works of art. The white
line stretching between two spots of black feldspar
is a fissure in this perfectly sound slab if Delicatus.

The fissure here, composed of quartz, simply looks
like a line that is slightly darker than the rest of the slab.

Actual cracks will be different in composition than fissures. Cracks are not solid, so they will have an opening that debris can fall into. If you find cracks like the one shown below in your countertop, your granite company should be able to help you fill and hide them from view. This can still be done without any compromise to the strength of your counters.

A real crack. It does not follow the pattern of the
granite and consists of a gap that debris can fit into.

To see our gorgeous selection of quality granite, please go to www.nssgranite.com

Granite Vs. Tile Countertops

What is more economical; a granite slab countertop or a tile countertop?


Resale Value
The kitchen of every home is an important investment. Resale value of the home can greatly affected by the materials installed into this one crucial room. Materials possessing elegance and durability will always be worth more, and the granite slab kitchen carries both such qualities.

Quality of Materials
It's true, initially tile materials cost less than a granite slab. The value retained in tile, however tends to degrade rather quickly. Tiles are thinner than granite slab, measuring only 3/8 of an inch, making tile more susceptible to damage during everyday use. A dropped utensil, a heavy weight, or even settling of the house can result in cracks and chips in tile countertop surfaces. One or two chipped tiles can degrade the look of a kitchen quickly.

Slab countertops hold up far better. Granite slabs are either 3/4 of an inch or 1 1/8 inch thick, holding themselves together more strongly with graduating thicknesses. The edges can be laminated once or twice, presenting 1 1/2 inches or more of some of natures toughest material! Chips can be filled and made to look invisible, and a settling house has much less of a chance against a monolithic slab countertop when it comes to cracking.

Grout Maintenance
Grout between tiles is another factor that tends to degrade in a tile kitchen countertop. Since kitchens are usually filled with harsh and acidic substances like food and cleaners, the seal on grout can wear away quickly and without warning. Once it's seal is gone, grout is highly susceptible to stains and mold. The substance most often chosen to fight stains and mold is bleach, and bleach actually serves to worsen grout's breakdown. For these many reasons, homeowners tend to lament the upkeep of grout between tile in the kitchen countertop.

Granite slab countertops have no grout. They may need a couple of seams to join solid portions, but for the most part granite presents a smooth continuous surface that is highly resistant to stains, scratches, mold. No grout cleaning is necessary with slab countertops, and that is a big relief to anyone who has to keep a kitchen clean!

Beauty and Durability Combined
Solid granite surfaces also allow for the play of natural stone movement to carry across entire countertops. Nature's art can be either breathtaking or subtle, depending upon the granite slab picked, and it will always be unique from one slab to the next, and from one kitchen to the next. With each granite slab kitchen as unique as a rare gem, the value of every home bearing a granite kitchen increases and remains high in equity.

Homeowners choosing tile for kitchen countertops can save money at first, but over time tile countertops will degrade in look and need to be replaced. Granite, however, is forever. The value of a home will remain steady with granite in the kitchen.

To see a great selection of marble, travertine, and granite slabs on the central coast of California, please visit us at www.nssgranite.com. Or pay us a visit in person at 425 N. Frontage Rd. in Nipomo California, 93444.

Care and Maintenance of Natural Stone

In order to protect and maintain your stone, many granite fabricators recommend cleaning with water and a mild, PH balanced soap. Dish soap is a perfectly fine cleaner for granite, travertine, and marble.

Oro Brasil Granite 

In addition, there are several cleaners that are specifically designed for stone. These cleaners can be found in the typical hardware store. They will identify themselves as "granite", "marble", or "travertine" cleaners on the label, and it is important to look for that claim when shopping.

When caring for natural stones such as granite, marble, and travertine, do avoid abrasive cleaners, glass cleaners, and bleach. Abrasive cleaners such as Ajax can scratch the polished surface of your stone. Glass cleaners and bleach will remove your sealer, increasing your risk for stains.

After a penetrating sealer is applied to the stone, it will last anywhere between 1 and 3 years, depending on the type of cleaner you use and how often you clean it.

The re-application of sealer is an easy process. We carry stone sealers for sale at Natural Stone Source, and once the sealer is purchased, re-sealing your stone is a simple matter of spreading the product on, wiping the excess off, and allowing it to dry for up to an hour.