modern kitchen with bookmatched granite island?

9 years ago

Hi all -- I can't find an inspiration photo for this look, which may mean either that I'm not great at computer searches or that it's a horrible design idea ;)
Our kitchen essentially will be a long (22 ft) single wall design (perhaps a slight L-shape) with a large double-sided island (approx 14 x 5.5). Opposite the single wall will be a full wall of windows/glass doors overlooking the patio/pool (the pool comes almost right up to the kitchen, so there will be color -- blues & greens- from the patio as well as a bright painted tile mural just outside the kitchen). Our plan is for a modern, European style kitchen, but our house will be rather eclectic, mixing modern with antiques and bright paintings.
I was thinking that a fabulous piece of bookmatched granite would be a nice contrast to the modern lines of the kitchen -- adding some interest and softening the modern lines. Essentially, our kitchen will look something like this -- but without the dark backsplash on the back wall, and we were planning on doing the island cabs in wood.

Modern Kitchen by Other Metro Photographers Elad Gonen
And I was thinking of granite like this -- not necessarily blue, but I love the bookmatched granite.

Thoughts? Help with inspiration pic? I am not good with design, so all thoughts are welcome ;)
Frankly, what I really want is a glass counter (for looks -- I think it would reflect the pool water nicely). But it's prohibitively expensive (once i saw the price, I didn't even research whether it would be a good countertop material).

This post was edited by alermar on Sat, Sep 6, 14 at 11:47

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Comments (5)

bellsmom
9 years ago
This is an older thread here on GW about this. Hope it is useful.

Here is a link that might be useful: An older thread on bookmatched granite
alermar
Original Author
9 years ago
Bellsmom -- Thank you for that thread -- a lot of great information, and I hadn't found it in my searches.
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Cloud Swift
9 years ago
Those blue slabs above look like Azul Bahai (aka Blue Bahai). That stone is sometimes sold as granite, but it is subject to etching.

Blue stones do go well with trees and a pool, but they tend to be toward the higher end of granite prices. Some blues are quartzite and don't etch - Azul Macaubas and Azul do Mar. We have Azul do Mar which you can see on the post that Bellsmom linked.

We first found Azul do Mar only in smaller slabs and were thinking of book matching for our island. One of the slab yards found they had big enough slabs at another location to do the island top in one slab so we didn't book match. Book match can look spectacular when it is done well, but we preferred to avoid a seam if we could.

You said it is a double sided island so I assume around 4' wide.

Depending on your island length and slab length, symmetric book matching might not allow for an efficient layout of the counters on the slab. A common slab size is aournd 8-10' by 5-6' feet though some vary a lot from that.

If your island is 9' long and you put half on each slab for book matching, then the the island takes about 4.5' of the length of each of the slabs.

You have two pieces about 4-6' by 5' to use in the rest of the layout. You probably want some long thin 27" wide pieces to use on the perimeter counter. 4' by 5' pieces don't lend themselves to that unless you are willing to have a seam every 5'.

On the other hand, if you use one 9' slab to do the island as one piece, then you have the other slab where you can get 2 runs for perimeter counter the length of the slab.
chiefneil
9 years ago
Bookmatching can definitely look awesome, especially for pieces with a lot of movement like the slabs in your photo.

I actually have the same granite on my island, and it's kinda sorta bookmatched. I don't think the slabs were exactly sequential, but it looks like they were from the same block so the bookmatch is close at a glance, but not perfect. They aren't great slabs to be honest - my original slabs turned out to be cracked, and then it turned out that azul bahia is sufficiently rare that the two replacements I got were the only ones to be had for a few hundred miles.

Anyway, the seam runs left to right across the middle in this photo. There are a lot of other really gorgeous granites with movement that would probably offer a more dramatic bookmark effect at a lower price, so you have a lot of great options out there.

{{!gwi}}
alermar
Original Author
9 years ago
Thank you cloudswift and chiefneil -- I am in love with the bookmatched look (Chiefneil that counter is gorgeous!), but I think I've been down from using it on the kitchen counter. Ultimately, I think it will be too busy for the look I'm going for. But . . . perhaps behind the living room fireplace :)
Thank you!