The Crowdsourced Kitchen #2: Counters

  |  July 31, 2013

A few weeks ago, we wrote about trying to find a decent floor for a tiny cabin that we’re now tasked with bringing back to life. Problem is, we need to do it on the cheap, to get it from ramshackle to sell-able, but nothing better. The kitchen is a mess: sagging counters, crinkled linoleum sheeting, cabinets hanging at odd angles. The contractor tells us the cabinets are salvageable, but the counter: gotta go.

Ikea Butcher Block

Ikea Butcher Block

Immediately we thought of butcher block, so cheap from IKEA and so pretty and useful. We’ve heard that it can be a lot of work to keep it up, and that’s troubling — if the place doesn’t sell, we’ll have to rent it, and the place is in its current condition thanks to four years of mistreatment by renters (who, by the way, also didn’t pay the rent; worthy of a post in itself). 

In the end, it wasn’t possible because the contractor is way over yonder in the far away hills, and couldn’t get to an IKEA to get it. Butcher block from a local counter place was prohibitively expensive so… nixed.

 

Ice Stone in Sky Pearl

Ice Stone in Sky Pearl

Next, a dreamy product we’ve always liked called Ice Stone, made from recycled glass and manufactured in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. We knew we couldn’t afford it, but we ran our hands over it anyway, and imagined a different financial reality in which we’d buy it. We love the way it sparkles. Next time.

 

Photo by Sparr0 from Flickr

Photo by Sparr0 from Flickr

Polished concrete? Cool. Not that cheap or easy. Not right for a country kitchen. But cool.

 

Formica swatches

Formica swatches

The one thing we didn’t want was laminate. All that goobly (we made this word up) crap that seeps formaldehyde beneath it, those faux-wood patterns…blech.

And yet, well. It’s the cheapest. It’s fast. We could get plain white, which is ever inoffensive and matches the appliances. Is that really our only hope: Formica? Help…

 

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