Robotropolis -- I love your kitchen. Can you tell me what color your quartz is? I'm thinking about doing a similar combination -- butcherblock countertops with a quartz or similar breakfast bar. Your kitties are so cute!

Hi Gail, thank you! The quartz is caesarstone Alpine White which is one of the newer (2014) colors. It's a very light cool grey with white resin "veins." Very quiet effect. Does not look like natural stone but has a little movement and depth.

I like having quartz around the sink. We do a lot of smoothies and coffee which clean up nicely from the quartz and the distance from water/mess allow us to have minimal (mineral oil) finish on the wood. I like having the wood near the seating because it's a lot warmer and more comfortable to sit at. So it is a very practical combo for us. Total cost quartz was $1060 for 17sf (off cut from fabricator with no sink cutout). Butcher block from ikea was about $700 I think (it was 1000 but we also did our laundry room with bb).

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen reveal thread from 2014

This post was edited by robotropolis on Tue, Jan 20, 15 at 7:02

Love your kitchen and your kitties! Those fluffy paws are excellent for considering the scale (plus they are just cute).

robo, I love your kitchen...but I love your cats even more. I hope you disinfected everything after cat paws touched the counter. Kidding.

linelle, I will say our housekeeping would horrify many! But we never prepare food directly on the counters, always with cutting boards, plates, bowls, etc. So essentially we probably treat the counter cleanliness at about "floor" level. Not "public restroom floor" but "floor." I'm also not much of a disinfecter (unless it comes to salmonella and stuff like that) as I like to give my immune system something to crunch on. Although I eat way too much suspicious street and airport food - I had food poisoning three times last year! And you know, all that jazz about triclosan not being good for you sinks in after awhile.

The cats don't get up on the counters much but when the kitchen was first installed it was like a field day for the orange one, he inspected every corner.

Thanks karin! I always really appreciate your gw contributions and have learned a lot from your posts :)

This post was edited by robotropolis on Tue, Jan 20, 15 at 12:37

Thanks! Who did you use to install your countertops? I'm planning on getting my butcherblock from ikea too, and am not sure who to hire to install it for me -- a woodworker, fabricator, not sure? If you don't mind another question -- which butcherblock did you choose? Thanks!

Beautiful kitchen! How does the butcher block hold up around the stove area? I would love butcher block on our island but we have a cooktop in it and I've worried about stains from cooking.

gail - sorry I missed your question! My GC/carpenter installed the BB. Because I didn't get an IKEA kitchen, the cabinet makers would not install it. It is easy to work with if you have the right tools (big saws, I guess). They did cut and round over the edges where necessary. To save money, I sanded and finished the butcherblock myself with Watco Butcherblock oil and a few coats of mineral oil. I finished by rubbing it out with #0000 steel wool to make it nice and smooth. I pre-finished on all sides and then finished the top with a few more coats.

I got IKEA numerar birch in 40" wide (for the peninsula) and standard 25.5" wide for the rest of the kitchen.

I also found a local woodworker who makes hard maple butcherblock. I definitely would have loved to use him but he was just out of budget. next time I will!

My GC also installed the quartz as that was the cheapest option (instead of getting the fabricator to do it). It was basically two 50"x25" pieces that they picked up at the shop and put in place before the BB. I had that slide in "appliance" sink so it made things pretty easy. I was REALLY worried about corners being out of square (something fabricator/installers with laser templates would take into account), but my contractor said it would be super easy to notch the drywall and backsplash would take care of the rest. So that's what happened and it's totally fine.

rocksnroses, we have had no problems with the butcherblock around the stove. It's going on one year. I think stains could be a possibility. I did have a blueberry stain on one part of the counter. I soaked it in lemon juice and salt and it took it out pretty well. We use potholders/trivet and cutting boards. The advantage of butcherblock is it's fairly easy to repair -- just sand and oil.

I actually need to do some repairs because my roommate has cut on the counters twice now. I asked him not to but cutting on wood seems to be irresistible for some people. If you have guests cooking in your kitchen they could pose a threat to your counters and you may wish to shove cutting boards in their direction.

I don't consider this a huge downside because our alternative in that budget was laminate, which would have the same issues with cutting but be less repairable.

Had we not found the appliance (slide in) sink on Kijiji I'm not sure what we would have done as it would have made using offcuts much more expensive (cost of sink cutout, longer offcut, need fabricator to install). Likely would have gone for the IKEA domsjo because it's one of the only reasonable full depth sink options.

This post was edited by robotropolis on Thu, Jan 22, 15 at 13:47

Oh hi, this was me! I have a very basic understanding of how to use this forum sometimes lol. So I will figure out how to change that. Thanks so much for the pictures!

Oh! Another question I meant to ask about. How are your little wooden corner shelves attached? That's such a great idea for a smaller space and I love the contrast. Did you just have unfinished wood cut and stained?

This post was edited by ayimera on Thu, Jan 22, 15 at 16:55

Thanks so much for all the info, Robotropolis! You really did a beautiful job with your kitchen.

you do realize that your stove will never die now... it will be stubborn and live forever...

I also prepare like you do - a board, a plate or even a paper plate.

and love the kitty paws!

Hi ayimera, glad you saw the thread!

I didn't want to bring the cabinet right to the edge of the wall there because I felt it would block the sight line for whoever had the stool closest to the wall in the peninsula. But then the abrupt end of the cabinet before the wall was going to look weird. So I arranged to have the cabinet stop about 12.5" from the wall (so I could have a right triangle open shelf). My contractor just cut the shelves from the ikea butcher block scraps! And I finished them just with mineral oil. At first I thought they looked a little too chunky but I like them now and they were definitely cheap.

On the cabinet side of the triangle shelf, I believe he screwed into the blocks from the cabinets so the fasteners are not visible. Not sure what he did on the "wall" side of the triangle...maybe a hidden cleat or maybe just a screw sticking out of the wall into a hole in the shelf.

I think this would also be a nice feature around a window instead of bringing the cabs right to the window.

Thanks Gail and desertsteph....I know! This stove will never die!!!