Choosing Kitchen Countertops: Expert Tips for the Perfect Surface

In what should be a surprise to nobody at this point, I spent a long time toiling over the samples when choosing kitchen countertops for our recent kitchen renovation.

We had kind of a lot going on: a brick-look herringbone floor tile, a marble backsplash, beadboard ceilings, i.e. a lot of different patterns and shapes and textures and I wanted to make sure they all complemented each other without clashing.

A compounding factor in my overthinking is that it’s also ridiculously difficult to picture what an entire kitchen’s countertop would look like when you’re given a 3×3 square sample at the store that has, like, one grey stripe in the middle. I actually still use the countertop samples as coasters at my desk, in case you’re wondering how useful those little squares are in choosing kitchen countertops.

In the end, I went with MSI Calacatta Arno quartz and I’m so happy with the decision. The veining has some drama without being overpowering, there’s both grey and beige accents in it to complement tile choices, and we get compliments on it all the time.

So, let’s dive into the things to consider when choosing kitchen countertops for your renovation.

Choosing kitchen countertops

Durability & maintenance

Sure, marble is beautiful and makes you seem fancy as hell, but how fancy do you feel when the porous natural stone soaks in a stain from your toddler wanting to “help”? Any natural stone like this – granite, soapstone, quartz – will have similar pros and cons, and require regular maintenance like sealing, but there’s beauty in knowing it’s completely unique (plus it’s fun to pick out your slab at the stone yard!)

On the other end of the scale there’s butcher block, which looks cozy and adds warmth to a kitchen while maintaining incredible durability day-to-day, but it also requires a fair bit of upkeep like regular oiling to keep it from looking dingy.

Then we’ve got our builder grade friend laminate: it’s affordable and a material that has recently come a long way in looking realistic and more high-end, but in my experience, anyway, is susceptible to scratches and bubbling if anything hot is accidentally placed on it.

For us, engineered quartz was really the middle ground in the durability scale. It’s easy to wipe up stains because it’s non-porous, still has the marbled veining look we were going for, and is easily cleaned with dish soap and water. Being engineered, anyone else with this exact stone is going to have a really similar pattern, but there were also so many options to choose from and the other pros on the list really won out in the end.

Cost

This one is a big one, obviously, and a factor that can vary wildly between surfaces when you’re choosing kitchen countertops. Natural stone is almost always going to be the most expensive and butcher block is probably the most affordable, with laminate close by.

Most countertops are sold with a price per square foot, which is something you can likely roughly calculate yourself beforehand with some measurements. (To do this, measure across the span of your existing countertop or the plans for your new kitchen, and double it to account for the standard two-foot depth of a kitchen counter to get your square footage.)

In our most recent renovation, we used Home Depot and were able to design it all on their site to get a rough estimate right there, then they contracted with a local stone place to measure and install it. In our first house, though, we had a contractor doing the kitchen remodel so he had worked the quartz price into the budget and we went to stone yards and picked the slab we liked.

In the stone yard scenario, there are usually tiers of stone that are similarly priced, like an A group, B group, etc. so you can get a rough idea of cost as you’re walking around.

Also a note: those costs shown are usually the price per square foot including installation, but it’s worth double checking.

For reference, our MSI Calacatta Arno quartz ended up being about $4,000 installed which was obviously a huge line item in the kitchen renovation budget, but was a really important one to us so we made the finances work elsewhere to make sure we got the countertop style we really wanted.

Look

Now a lot of this one obviously comes down to personal preference, but if you have bright white cabinets in your new kitchen and choose a snow white countertop with flecks of silver in it, you might end up with a sterile laboratory-looking kitchen. Same goes for pattern: sometimes they can complement each other, but a dramatic soapstone with strong veining may clash with a colorful patterned backsplash tile, for example.

Once you’ve picked your countertop material, there are usually a few other style choices in there like thickness (which will impact cost if you choose an extra thick countertop), and bullnose style of which there are a surprisingly high number.

We just went with a standard rounded edge on our quartz because at this point I couldn’t give myself another option to fall into a Pinterest rabbit hole with.

Lifestyle

Do you cook a lot? Live with little kids? Eat at the kitchen island? Tend to throw all your crap on the kitchen counter when you get home? Do you like doing home upkeep projects?

You should think about all these things when deciding on kitchen countertops, too, because as much as it’s important to love the look of the space, I’m a huge advocate that function should be number one. It makes no sense to have a pretty marble if you forget to seal it every six months, or solid surface if you know you’ve got a bad habit of scratching your car keys on the countertops when you walk in the door.

In the end, there are a lot of variables in choosing kitchen countertops and it’s hard for a stranger on the internet to tell you exactly what to do when you’ve got to consider your budget, how you’ll use the space, and the overall vibes.

It’s a big decision that makes a big impact on the look of your finished kitchen renovation, but is also a really fun and exciting milestone when they’re installed and the vision starts coming to life (especially for us because we had lived with a piece of drywall as our island countertop for a month while we waited for our stone to be ready).

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