My fabricator keeps them. She says that I only pay for the material I actually use. Yeah, right.

No marble remnants for me.

Breezygirl - I know, I didn't really believe it either that you only pay for the material you use.

Kaysd - Sounds like you found a nice use for your remnants. I wonder if I should use mine in the laundry room.

Could you make an outdoor table with a remnant? I don't mean like a whole dining table, but maybe a small coffee or end table? I made an end table for my metal porch glider by turning a large Terra cotta pot upside down and putting a flagstone remnant on top. You'd need a stronger base for granite.

I always wondered how people store those large remnants that can't be moved around easily.

Companies do this one of two ways. They either charge you for the full amount of the slab (Which I would hope they are up front about and the remnant would be yours), or they charge you the actual square footage plus a waste factor (the remnant is theirs).

I kept my soapstone remnant(about 1/2 slab) plus had 3 prefab granite slabs that we used for our outdoor kitchen. DH cut 2x4's and made a little base which he sat the slabs on and had them lean against the posts of our deck. The prefab ones sat there for over a year... maybe 2.

OUTDOOR TABLE is so full of win.

Breezygirl - A small outdoor table is a great idea. Hmmm, now what to do with the other two 10' pieces! What was I thinking?!

But wait, Remodelfla has come up with another great idea. An OUTDOOR kitchen. Another kitchen remodel? Dare I? My DH will surely think I've lost it. I have too many renovation projects going on at the same time as it is.

Bfrgranite - Thanks for the insight into how the fabricator companies work. I'm thinking though if I hadn't asked for my remnants (I asked after I received a quote and they didn't change the quote), I don't know if they would have offered them to me.

Uroboros5 - Yeah, Breezygirl did have a good idea. It could be a way of making the backyard an extension of the kitchen.

Yeah--want it?

Most stories I've heard about people keeping their remnants use them for tables, end tables, bathroom counters, mantles, fireplace surrounds and so on.

I have the sink cutout. Because I went in one day and wanted a sample of my actual slab to take tile shopping. I carried that piece to the car before any of the shop guys could see me. They usually make the sample pieces out of these pieces. Larger ones go to their "bones" yard, which is a good thing because I needed one small piece on my one run, and there was piece that matched in pattern mine out in the yard.

So, right now. outside in my garage sitting under my 1994 Saab convertible on the garage floor is a piece of my granite, with a hole cut in it--where they plunged the cutter thingy to make my counters.

Oh, and we also have a jagged piece about 1' square too I forgot about that one. All the mica sticking out, cutting my dh as we dragged it tile shopping too. Oh, the good old days.

Maybe you can sell them on craigslist and defray some of the cost of the countertop. I wouldn't want to use the remnants in other places because it would make the kitchen counter less special. Better for the kitchen counter to stand on its own.

We kept ours - they are in small enough pieces that two adults can move them (one piece at a time of course). If they were bigger than that, it might be a problem to store and move them safely.

At the end of the remodel, we sent the sink cut-outs to Columbia Gorge Stone Works so that they could make wall plates for the switches and outlets in our backsplash. It was a splurge, but we are extremely happy with the results.

There is a 3 foot by 24" piece with a laminated edge from the rangetop cut-out. I'm thinking of using that someday to redo the vanity in the powder room.

We are thinking of using most of the remaining remnants for a fireplace surround and hearth. We are starting the project to pull out the old fireplace and hearth (small fireplace but the old hearth goes along most of the wall and I begrudge it the 4' by 11' it uselessly consumes). The new fireplace will be EPA Phase 2 about 4' wide with framing leaving the rest of the wall for TV and storage.

I'm trying to decide whether the surround will look to pieced together built out of the remnants. The pieces we have are large enough for one piece for the hearth, one for the top of the surround and one for each side from the top piece to the floor. So there would be a short seam where each side piece meets the top piece. I wonder if that will look okay.

We used part of our for a linen closet surface at the end of our hall. The left over from that we sold on Craig's List. It was an odd size but it went for $80.

I was going to use some of it for a cutting board but the cost to have it fabbed and the weight changed my mind.

Jodi-

I did have the fabricator cut a piece from the remnants to use as a top on an antique shaker desk I plan to use in my kitchen to roll out pie dough, etc. They actually ended up giving me two pieces the size I wanted for the top so that I could use what I wanted. They still ended up with a substantial amount of the granite, which I imagine they can sell for a vanity top. Though I am not really sure how the pricing was done, I think we actually were charged for the full amount of the granite so I suppose we could have asked to have all of the excess. I have a small kitchen, but we needed two slabs (though one was not really a full slab) so that there was enough to go into the counter-depth bay window. Without that, we might have been able to get by with only one slab. But I do think the fabricating is a big amount of the cost of the counters, not just the material itself.

Fori - Point taken. I'm starting to rethink this.

Weedmeister - Thank you, all good ideas.

Beekeeperswife - That's a funny image of you sneaking out with the sink cutout. I wonder what they thought happened to it.

Jerzeegirl - I hear exactly what you are saying and part of me doesn't want to use it anywhere else. I was planning to turn my laundry room (which is off of the kitchen) into a laundry room/butler's pantry of sorts and wonder if I would feel like it is part of the kitchen or taking away from it.

Cloud Swift - I've seen the photos of your outlet and switch plates. They're beautiful. I think if your fabricator can do a tight seam on the three pieces for your fireplace surround, it would look fine. We are planning to do something like this for ours in marble.

Jodi in so Calif - Sounds like you put yours to good use too. How big was the remnant you sold?

Vitamins - The antique shaker desk sounds pretty. I think you are probably right about the fabricating costing a lot too. I'll have to take that into consideration in deciding whether to use the remnants for my laundry room.

Well, it sounds like most of you had much smaller remnants and found good uses for them. I think I need to make an actual decision about what to do with the leftovers, instead of just storing them somewhere with no plan. Thank you all for your help!

kitchenkrazed---it was funny. The elderly receptionist is the one who took me back in the shop, at lunchtime to look for a piece of "my" granite, when I found it, I grabbed it, and went out a side door, very quickly. Never a word was mentioned to the fabricator about it. The lady kept asking, "are you sure you can carry it?" oh yeah...

Kitchenkrazed, if you have a patio or deck, you could maybe make a wet bar top out of the remnant? I love the look of old tall sideboards you can find at antique malls, and you could put granite on top and have a beautiful unique piece that ties in to your kitchen outdoors. Or a tall rolling table to slide next to an outdoor grill for a prep or serving surface? Those should be easily feasible without planning a whole outdoor kitchen.

Not a complete kitchen necessarily... but as a counter on a deck. I can't seem to find my picture of it but we just used the slabs on the counter of our (still in progress of getting finished) deck. We added a sink that DH rigged up to drain under the deck and some stools. Here's a long shot without the granite on yet but you'll get the picture. It's all I have for right now. Since the deck was in place and we just have to refinish it, it actually was almost a cost free project.

I agree with everyone that storing the remnants is the tough part. Cloudswift, I think your fireplace would be just fine with the description of the pieces you gave. When we had Blue Pearl granite installed in our kitchen about 16 years ago, we had a NIGHTMARE of a fabricator. Granite was relatively 'new' then and we were younger and didn't think to check the guy out (he was highly recommended by a co-worker). You'll laugh - he fabricated it in our yard!

Anyway, I came home from work and saw a very wavy edge on my longest run and sobbed. Long story short, we fired him and hired another guy. He said he couldn't salvage that counter as a counter (would have been too short in depth by the time he straightened it out) but he could put it on our fireplace. We LOVE it and it is in three large pieces but you have to look for the seams. Now that we have Volga Blue (full kitchen reno last summer), it is across the room from the BP on the fireplace and looks just fine.

HTH - you can't go wrong putting it on your FP!

With careful planning and precise templating by our fabricator, we've been able to use just about all of our material. Since we had to purchase full slabs, this was a huge concern for us. At present, we have just enough left for the bathroom vanity; that is, if we ever get the cabinetry installed in there! Our fabricator is keeping it in secure storage for us. Once the vanity is complete, there may be enough left for a couple picture frames or a door frame trim. I'd say we surely got our money's worth! Our fabricator offered many ideas on what to do with the scraps. He had toilet tank covers (which would be cool in the lav to match the vanity top), little corner shelves, door & window frame trim, lazy susan spinners and fireplace mantle applications installed right in the customer reception area to see in person. All their suggestions were pretty cool. They even had a display of a back-lit translucent stone that you could see the light thru-very cool with a water feature. We'll see what scraps are left after the vanity templating to make any further decisions.

Bee - Thanks for the laugh.

NatalieChantal - More good ideas, thank you!

Remodelfla - Nice backyard! I'd love to see the outdoor counter if you find a picture.

3Mutts - Fabricated in your backyard? Wow, that is old school.

Cienza - Glad you were able to find a use for all of your material.

Thanks everyone!

OK... finally got one!

Wow! Really nice. How did you get the edges so rounded? Did the fabricator do that for you? And how did you get the side "apron" to stay in place? Thanks for posting that photo!

It was one of those pre-fab slabs. We got 3 slabs for free from a friend. DH used some kind of adhesive and clamps on the sides.

Kitchenkrazed09, If we lived near each other, I'd ask you where you live and what it looks like, then I'd offer to buy it from you. :-) It sounds like it would fill some areas in my "in progress" kitchen nicely...I live north of Houston!

any one try having the smaller pieces made into a counter top lazy Susan?

On what happens to pieces left behind: I was taking a woodworking class at the local community college last year and the assignment was to make something with doors and drawers. One lady in the class made a night table with a granite top that a local fabricator gave her as he didn't have any better use for it. It came our very nice and the price was perfect. (P.S. the cost of wood for these projects is considerable, so free bits are the best.)

Sorry to do a bit of hijacking here but I too was wondering - only they're 2x6 honed calacatta marble tiles that are either too plain white looking or too busy looking with the veining. What I put on my backsplash is just light veining.

Subway tile, which it essentially is, would look awkward onddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddsssssss

Ok I just have to say - and this is funny: it's only 6:08 pm Pacific time but I got less sleep than usual last night and am more tired than usual. I was typing the above - as I lie here in my nice cozy bed with my laptop - when I dozed off. That's why the letters are doing that! Isn't that funny?! Too funny to delete - and hopefully someone besides me gets a kick out of that!

Back to what I was sayingggggggggg (just kidding) - an outdoor table would look silly tiled in subway tile, of course. Any ideas as to what to do with left-over subway tile that's too plain or too busy? It's too soft to make a path out of. Sorry again for the hijack.

We have some roughly 18" square pieces of our soapstone left over that DH laid down as "pavers" by our outdoor shower.

I made a round turntable out of a 3 cm stove cutout. First time i tried working stone. If I'd known it was so easy I would have done my own counters.

Thanks for all the responses. Glad to hear of all the different uses for remnants.

Singingmicki - Oh, too bad! It would be nice to know they went to a nice home.

Theresse - sdnhbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz - Oops, sorry, dozed off there for a second.

Qwertyui - I might just do that to keep this project moving. We are in the midst of yet another delay. I feel inspired by Dottiet, who renovated her kitchen herself!