Young House Love

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Our White Corian Counter Review

Merry Countermas to us!

They’re here. And they’re spectacular.

Counters View To Stove

Counters View To Hall

Just as a reminder, the cave room looked like this back when we moved in last December:

NewEmpty Kitchen

NewEmpty Kitchen Eat In

But back to our brand-spanking-new Corian counters. I didn’t expect them to feel as chunky, heavy, and stone-like as they do. They’re like marble without the veins. Seriously. Nothing plastic-y about them. And they’re sleek but sort of matte too if that makes sense, which looks/feels really chic and sort of honed-marble-ish (according to our installer the white matte ones are the only ones that don’t show scratches, which will definitely come in handy). So yeah, it’s safe to say that we’re completely smitten.

Of course things were looking a bit rough when they went in, but we’re used to the room looking like crazytown by now:

Counters In Pieces

One of the coolest things to watch was how they made them completely seamless by filling the cracks where the slabs met with some sort of glue-caulk and getting it suuuuuper hot with these defibrillator-looking pieces:

Counters Defibs Far

Counters Defibs Close Up

Then they were flash cooled and the installer polished them until the seams were completely gone. Seriously, I’ll give anyone who can tell where they were a hundred bucks because it’s impossible. Oh but for this step of the project Burger, Clara, and I went for a nice long walk and John shut himself up in our bedroom because it was a little fumey while the glue-caulk was heated up and cooled and smoothed down (but it thankfully wasn’t a dusty or messy process, which was nice). So I didn’t come back to chaos, just beautiful white amazingness with the fan going and the windows open.

Here’s where one of the seams ran (right up this corner) before he worked his installer magic. No evidence of it at all, right? Three cheers for shape-shifting counters. And yes, that is a baguette. We’re fancy like that.

Counters Corner With Stuff

The guy was awesome about talking us through maintenance stuff. Here are a few of the fun things that I stood there and actually took notes about because I’m ridiculous (in my defense, the guy seemed to be entertained by my furious scribbling):

  • Corian is nonporous, which means stains can’t penetrate it (and most of them can simply be scrubbed off, even if you don’t catch them right away)
  • If stubborn stains (like red wine that somehow sits for a few days) do discolor the top layer of the Corian, a spray bottle full of 10 ounces of water and 1 ounce of bleach should strip the stain right out.
  • The white color runs all the way through the counter, so if some insane spot refuses to come out, it can be lightly sanded in a circular motion with extremely high grit sandpaper (400 grit) and then followed with a very fine buffing pad (which was provided to us by the installer along with the sandpaper). It’s like they knew we were DIYers. So we don’t have to call anyone in to “resurface” things in a decade or two if we feel like polishing them up because they essentially taught us how to do it ourselves.
  • Our counters are warranteed for 10 years, so if anything ever cracks or otherwise has issues they can come fix it for free (holla!) using the same method they used to fill the seams, which makes any prior damage completely undetectable.

So that combined with the fact that John’s sister has had the same exact counters for five years with three kids and a big dog (and zero repairs/stains) makes us deliriously excited. And I’m happy to report that we’re not being nearly as anal as we were with our first kitchen’s granite counters (the light color of them really freaked us out in the beginning). We’ve jumped right into using our kitchen even more – so things like spaghetti sauce have already made an appearance without any disastrous results.

Oh but there is one problem. Our sleek new counters make our old cabinets look like crapola by comparison…

Counters Close Up

… but once we sand, prime, and paint them (along with fiiiinally replacing the eyeball hardware) they should be worthy of such pretty countertop company. Can’t wait to rebuild/cut down some matching doors and get to the whole priming & painting step.

You can read all about why we chose white Corian and how much it costs here, and how the templating process went here. This post is just really about photos. Glorious, glorious photos of the counter that we waited 20 sinkless days for (read more about removing the old counters and sink here).

Counters View From Office

Counters Peninsula Alt

See that hulking 3 foot by 5 foot peninsula? Pictures don’t capture how big it really is (it’s larger than the wood dining table that we used to have in here). That baby is pure joy. So much space to spread out and bake/craft/eat/serve up appetizers, etc. The kitchen is pretty much 100% more functional and there aren’t even stools there yet (or any wood trim pieces on the back and side of the peninsula to hide those ugly brackets)…

Counters Peninsula

Oh yeah and see those counter edges on the peninsula above? They’re gently curved, so there’s no pokey part to stab Clara in the eye or John in the hip or me in the belly (yes, we’re all dramatically different heights around here).

And for those wondering how we’ve been dealing with an in-progress kitchen and asking if we’ve been eating out every night, we’ve actually been really lucky to have a fully functional fridge, stove, and dishwasher this time around (which was not the case during our first kitchen gut job). So we’ve still been eating/cooking at home without counters and a sink (we just used a piece of plywood leaned on top of the cabinets as prep space with a cutting board and other platters and plates to keep us from actually prepping food on the plywood). But the whole washing-pots-and-pans-in-the-tub thing was getting old. So happy to have this guy back in action:

Counters Sink Cutting Board

Our counter fabricators even left us a handy little cutting board that they made out of the sink hole for us, which can also be used as a trivet (super hot things shouldn’t be placed directly on Corian counters, but we never put hot stuff on our old granite counters without a cutting board or trivet, so we should be cool). Oh and for anyone local wondering who we used for installation, we were beyond thrilled with Five Star (our installers) who were hired through Home Depot (where we ordered our Corian). More on that here.

Oh but wait, before the counters went in we hid a little time capsule behind one of the cabinets (which will only be found when our counters are someday removed).

Counters Time Capsule Note

John sweetly wrote it. It reads:

Today our new countertops are being installed. We are a family of three (well, four if you count our chihuahua Hamburger). I’m John Petersik (age 30), my wife Sherry (age 29) and I moved here 11 months ago in December of 2010 with our daughter Clara (age 1.5). We write a blog about our home improvement adventures called Young House Love (www.younghouselove.com). If you’re reading this it means you’re probably getting new counters too. Hope you enjoy them!

Here’s how we hid it behind the corner cabinet by the window (stapled to the back of the cabinet in a ziplock bag).

Counters Time Capsula Taped

Ah memories. We can hardly picture the top of the cabinets anymore. Isn’t it weird how your eyes adjust so fast? So next up we have to cut down and hang a cabinet for the built-in microwave next to the pantry, start trying to retrofit/build matching doors for the secondhand cabinets that we added to the room, prime and paint the cabinets, tackle the backsplash, hang our built-in range hood and floating shelves, redo all the lighting, lay the cork floors, install our new stainless dishwasher, add crown molding, etc. Whew. Might not be done until late January (we originally were aiming for early Jan) but we’re inching slowly towards the finish line. Just taking things one day at a time seems to be the secret to sanity. That and washing things in the sink again. Oh man, it’s good to have that guy back.

UPDATE: We’re officially in love with our new counters. Check out the update post about them here.

Comments

  1. Emily says

    I hope you don’t mind that I’m going to “pin” this, so I don’t forget Corian as a choice when we are finally able to redo our kitchen! Love it! :)

    Reply

  2. Mikalah says

    Wow- they really are beautiful! For the longest time, I have disliked white countertops (because our old crappy white laminate used to show EVERY single speck of dirt), but seeing yours is making me rethink that entirely… And how cool that the seams have literally disappeared! Kudos to you for taking the time to research and really find exactly what you want. Looks beautiful!

    Reply

  3. Scott says

    They look incredible, congratulations! I’m thinking of getting new countertops soon and I was wondering how much the project cost –– cost per square foot + labor? Congrats, once again on your sparkling kitchen.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Labor was free and it was $38 a square foot through Home Depot (they also honored a Lowe’s coupon for 10% off and gave us 5% off on top of that for using our Home Depot credit card). Hope it helps!

      xo,
      s

  4. Stephanie says

    My folks installed Corian in their home in 1993 and when they sold it in 2005, the countertops still looked AMAZING!! They never scratched or chipped, and they aged well. Makes me wonder why everything is granite, granite, granite these days (HGTV, maybe??). There are many good options out there. You picked a great one!

    Reply

  6. Malia S says

    Looking forward to hearing about how you are painting your cabinets. My husband and I plan to paint our cabinets in the next couple of months and do not know where to begin. Any suggestions?

    Reply

  7. Miranda @boucksy says

    Regarding that beautiful peninsula, the only thing that comes to my mind is from Stepbrothers — “SO MUCH ROOM FOR ACTIVITIES!”

    The countertops look WONDERFUL! We’ve actually marked them down for our future kitchen reno because we love the sample that came home with us. Hooray!

    Reply

  10. Sarah says

    Oh wow!… The sink looks so beautiful with those new countertops. I’m curious about the door knobs though – will you be going for white ones (without the creepy googly eyes!), or darker ones, as the kitchen will be nice and white? Sarah x

    Reply

  11. Michele says

    woooooow! okay, i had been considering Corian for a counter project and was on the fence… I think your words and the amazing pictures of them installed might just have sold me.

    GORGEOUS!

    Reply

  12. Gabbi says

    They look absolutely uhhhhhh-amazing! And I kinda love that we are countertop twins {yes, I made that up}. I should be posting more pictures of them today at some point. We are head over heels in love, and have pretty much the exact same maintenance as you guys. Gotta love non-pourous surfaces for the kitchen!

    http://retroranchrenovation.blogspot.com/2011/12/countertop-preview.html

    I can’t wait to see your kitchen taking shape with a new backsplash and some spruced up cabinets! :) Our cabinets are in painting limbo right now. Hopefully we’ll have them finished by the end of the weekend!

    You guys rock! Xo!

    Reply

    • Gabbi says

      Well the only reason they’ll *possibly* be done by then is because of the awesome help of my parents coming up here to help us. They are really helping to crank out stuff me and the hubby don’t have time to do with our full-time jobs. Plus, we definitely want to get them done before our wood flooring gets refinished on the 15th. Fingers crossed! :)

  13. Nancy Lynne says

    One criticism due to a two year old being in my house- you should have had the corners on the overhang rounded more. It would help avoid shiners and head bumps, not to mention bruises on your sides (adults) when you cut the corner too closely. Aesthetically it is just beautiful! It makes such a difference!Enjoy!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We actually did have those corners gently rounded so there’s no poky part, just a dulled rounded edge (about the same shape as the curve of a penny). So glad!

      xo,
      s

    • YoungHouseLove says

      In our first house the counters scraped and bumped the painted cabinets (which made me sad- lots of touch ups were in order and some things never looked perfect). So we were set on waiting to paint these until after the counters were delivered so my paint job wouldn’t get ruined!

      xo,
      s

  19. mp says

    AAAAAHHH! This makes me want to run out and do something illegal to get the cash to redo my hot 70s mess of a kitchen.

    Looks great!!!

    (and when I read the letter, I thought John had listed Clara’s age as 15 years! Glad you typed it below so I could get the real scoop)

    Reply

  20. Jen @ our delicious life says

    My in-laws have corian and we spent about an hour last time we were there trying to figure out how the heck they got that huge countertop in their house since we couldn’t find a seam ANYWHERE…thanks for solving the mystery!!

    Reply

  21. Monika says

    I noticed that you don’t have the lip or ledge on the wall-side of the counters (but you did with the granite). How are you planning to fill in that gap and make it look seemless?

    Reply

  23. Sarah says

    Re: Sherry’s comment about the doorknobs – Definitely love the idea of metal doorknobs – that would look stunning with the white cabinets (I may be biased – I’ve got these super pretty ornate ones in my kitchen that I love, and they work beautifully with the light colour!)

    Reply

  25. tara says

    WOW!!! Gorgeous, perrtty, white loveliness!! I love all the kitchen posts, and am left in complete suspense after each one because I just cannot wait to see the end result! This is the room I’ve been waiting for you to do all year and it looks amazing so far!

    Reply

  26. Heather says

    Honestly, when I first opened this post, I wasn’t on board. The white counter tops looked way sterile and cold to me.

    But then you posted the pic of just the countertops and the sink, and oh em gee, I got on board FAST!

    Those cabinets are awful and makes it really hard to appreciate the counters, but once they were out of the picture (literally… =) ), the counters looked AMAZING. I absolutelyy can not wait to see those bad boys when they’re finished!

    Reply

  28. maribel says

    Your counters next awesome. its; amazing to see the before pictures. You mentioned you have not decided on paint colors yet…my questioned relates to paint colors. I have a black bed from Ikea I brought years ago (sort of like wrought iron) and a black tv armoire… they do not match, but go together. We were given a tall dresser that is stained almost a cherry wood color. It is really beat up so I would like to paint….Sorry for the long comment. I got to thinking WWSD (what would sherry do). How do you decide on colors when having different styles of funiture to make them look like they belong together???

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Hmm, I think I would either paint that dresser a soft gray color or stain it a deep chocolate color. Those layer in really well with black furnishings! Hope it helps!

      xo,
      s

  30. Deb says

    I have the same countertops (I inherited them) and while there are a few scratches from someone using the counter as a cutting board (ahem), they still look great. My sink is actually Corian too (it’s all one seamless piece) and cleans up fabulously with a little bleach water. I don’t think I’ll ever go the granite route again. Your counters look great!!

    Reply

  31. Sarah says

    Beautiful! Pomegranates are the WORST for stains. We “inherited” a white ceramic sink which is now polka dotted from the seeds. Nothing a little comet and elbow grease won’t solve. So have we made a meal with the new counters and returned sink yet? I can’t imagine cooking without the amenities.

    Reply

  32. Katy says

    Lookin’ pretty snazzy! Sorry if I missed this or if I’m weeks behind, but what color did you decide on for sure for the cabinets?

    Reply

    • sarah says

      Does it make sense to decide on a cabinet color after you redo the lighting? That way you see what the color will actually read as in the long run? I think getting rid of those rectangular florescents will make a huge difference in the whole space (make the counters really sparkle and the wall color read richer)…especially in photos (which i guess is just for your readers’ benefit..since you get to look at it in real life, not just thru the camera lens!)

      Counters are gorgeous! It’s so fun watching all of this come together!

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes, that absolutely makes sense! Although we think if we pick a color that’s similar to the counters, if the lighting changes, both colors will change together (if that makes sense). So if they’re both cool-toned whites and the lighting gets less yellow they’ll get cooler together, but one probably won’t clash with the other since they will always have similar undertones. Hope that makes sense! We’d love to do the lighting first but we still have to find pendants for over the peninsula and our electrician is pretty booked until Jan…

      xo,
      s

  34. Jen @newellnd says

    I love the time capsule idea. Such a special thing for future homeowners to find.
    The counters look really clean and fresh in your kitchen. Can’t wait to see how it progresses!

    Reply

  35. Carrie says

    In the words of Rachel Zoe, “I die.” They are so gorgeous!!! Your first kitchen is in my “Dream House” folder on my laptop, and now I can add your second kitchen.

    Reply

  37. Allison says

    It looks great!! I’ve always been a fan of corian because my dad used to install it – and therefore we have numerous corian tabletops! I know you mentioned a while ago you were considering a not-white color for the cabinets now that you have white counters, so any idea what color you’re leaning toward?

    Reply

  38. keri says

    i am crazy excited. and jealous. very jealous. i’m counting my pennies to see if I can rationalize a new countertop….. :)

    Reply

  39. Allison says

    Sherry! It’s like your biggest ceramic animal friend yet! Everything looks so good, and ps the new additions to the living room are really lovely.

    I think that Karl looks much sleeker on that new rug! Do you still like him better than the Pottery Barn couches? Trying to decide on a sectional!

    Reply

  40. Erin @ The Impatient Gardener says

    Two great transformations in two days. I love the counters. I love me some white on white kitchens so I just can’t wait until you start painting. (Please hurry!)

    And yesterday’s living room transformation was AWESOME. My favorite thing you’ve done so far. I hate to say it, but Kermit the rug bugged me more for it’s size than anything from the get go. That new rug is awesome. But weren’t you worried about ordering it sight unseen? Joss and Main doesn’t take returns, right? Anyway, lovely all around. The house is really coming together.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, I was super nervous but John and I liked it and the price was right (everything else that big was double the cost) so I guess we thought we could try to craigslist it if we hated it, but didn’t click “buy” until we were 99% sure we would love it!

      xo,
      s

  41. Megan says

    Green with envy! They are gorgeous, fresh and clean. Everything you would want in a sunny, open kitchen (which you know have). FYI I want to fast forward your kitchen makeover! I am just dying to know how it is going to turn out.

    Reply

  43. Bre Buskey says

    I love the note you guys left, very sweet idea… I would have loved to find that instead of the bong we found hidden above our kitchen cabinets when we moved it. :)

    Reply

  46. Beth says

    I love your countertops! I benefitted from them, too – I bought a house recently with Corian countertops but didn’t know any of the great details about cleaning/caring for them. I’m now much more educated about my countertops…and now I understand why my realtor’s eyes lit up when she saw the countertops in the soon-to-be-mine house!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      When the counters were installed in our first kitchen they scraped our white painted cabinets (sob!) so we were determined to paint these after the counters/scraping occurred so they’d be mint!

      xo,
      s

  50. Karina says

    Congratulations! I’m so excited that my husband reminded me that it is not my kitchen. haha! The counters look great! Can’t wait to see the finish (progress) product!

    Reply

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