I went back to a store today that has Caesarstone Misty Carrera installed on a large kitchen island - to see a large expanse of it - and all I can say is, eh. It's kind of dull, in every sense - greyish and matte and boring. And it would look dingy next to a bright white farmhouse sink. The Caesarstone Rosemary (which they had a large sample of, but no installation) wasn't grabbing me either.
Maybe it's time to look again at natural stone. I wandered into their back lot and - aha! - a green serpentine hissed at me from a nearby tree - "here, take this apple" - no, wait, wrong story; but it was that seductive.
I don't think I want that piece of serpentine - for one thing it's foreign-sourced (if I use stone, I want it to be mined in Vermont, not Taiwan), for another because they wanted to charge me an awful lot of money for it (I think they added an extra $500 as soon as I mentioned Manhattan).
But why not serpentine? Sure it's kind of loud and outré - but I only have 17 sq. ft. total counterspace, and it'll be horizontal (I don't want a stone backsplash). And I swoon over the green-on-green. (The only other granites I've liked at all have been green - though more in the smushed-peas range.)
Serpentine is technically a marble, not a granite - but its chemical composition means that it doesn't react to acid the way marble does. It's pretty much impervious, I believe it doesn't get sealed, and it stays shiny even on the outside of buildings. It has a rich, mysterious, Versailles or Hermitage look to me.
Of course my tiling plan is all boulversé now - after much experimentation in the store, I discovered that you can't really use any field tile next to it except a light zen-tea green (not that I mind tea green, in fact it's one of my favorite decorating colors) ... which means what, exactly, for the deco tiles? Hmmm.
Here are some pictures of Vermont-sourced serpentine. It seems less wildly veiny than the Taiwan stuff I saw, which is probably a good thing:
What do you think?
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Blog Archive
-
▼
2010
(34)
-
▼
March
(20)
- Bathroom sink
- Appliances
- Countertop collywobbles ...
- Tweaking the cabinets ...
- Playing with colors ...
- Colors for the kitchen
- Details, details ...
- Solving the kitchen again ...
- The world is my oyster ....
- Quick new kitchen idea -
- Home, home on the range ...
- The funny thing about dishwashers ...
- Rub-a-dub-dub ...
- Radiator covers
- Oh. My. God.
- Kitchen design revisited
- Bath bubbles
- Tile, glorious tile!
- Tiles du jour: glass for the bathroom
- The refrigerator question
-
▼
March
(20)
About Me
- Suzanne
- I just bought my first home - an estate-sale 1BR prewar co-op on the UWS in Manhattan. It needs a new kitchen, a new bathroom, new windows, and the parquet floors restored. (Other than that, it's perfect!) This blog is for sharing my renovation ideas and adventures with friends, family, and fellow renovators.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I'm moderating comments because I got a lot of spam recently. But don't let that deter you if you're a real person with something relevant to say!