Design Confidently, Live Comfortably
  With the number of countertop choices growing, you can mix and match materials to create a unique combination of colors, textures, and functions |
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| by Max Alexander If you're building or renovating a kitchen, you have more countertop choices than ever. Some high-end materials, like stone, have gotten cheaper, and budget counters are looking more like stone. The natural look is big, but so are the bright, bold colors possible with innovative materials like engineered stone and concrete. All those options might explain another recent countertop trend: combining styles. "We're seeing a lot of mixing," says designer Carrie Anne Deane of Kitchens by Deane, in Stamford, Conn. "It's about breaking up those hard surfaces, but it's also about functionality." Homeowner Karen Legan wanted limestone counters but worried that her large kitchen, with its stainless steel appliances and sinks, was getting too high-tech looking. "I thought it would look sterile if I did all stone," she says. So she opted for a two-tiered island with a stone counter surrounding the sink and a raised eating counter of medium-toned butternut, a tough, resilient wood. "The wood picks up the tones in the oak floor," she says. Deane adds that homeowners are just plain having more fun with their counters these days. "Some of these new options let you be fantastically creative." NEXT: Wood |
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