Merry Countermas to us!
They’ve arrived, and they’re absolutely stunning.
As a reminder, the cave room looked like this when we moved in last December:
Back to our brand-new Corian countertops. I didn’t expect them to feel so substantial — chunky, heavy, and stone-like. They have the cool, solid presence of marble without the veining. There’s nothing plastic-y about them. The surface is sleek but with a soft, matte finish that reads like honed marble, and our installer mentioned that the white matte finish is least likely to show scratches, which is a huge relief. Suffice to say, we’re completely smitten.
Of course, things looked a little chaotic while the countertops were being installed, but that’s familiar territory for us:
One of the most impressive parts of the installation was watching how the installers made the countertop seams invisible. They filled the joints between slabs with a special adhesive and heated it with those intense, almost medical-looking tools:
After heating the filled seams, they cooled the area quickly and polished everything until the joints disappeared. It’s seriously seamless — I’d bet anyone a hundred bucks they couldn’t point out where the seams were. The step smells a bit smoky while the adhesive is heated and worked, so Burger, Clara, and I took a long walk while John stayed inside with the windows open. When we returned there was no dust and no mess, just brilliant white counters and the fan running.
Here you can see where a seam ran up this corner before the installer finished the work. Now there’s no trace of it. And yes, that is a baguette — we’re fancy like that.
The installer walked us through maintenance and care, and I actually took notes because I wanted to be sure we remembered everything:
- Corian is nonporous, so most stains can’t penetrate the surface. Many spills can simply be wiped or scrubbed away if you catch them promptly.
- For stubborn stains — say, red wine that sits for a few days — a solution of 10 ounces water to 1 ounce bleach in a spray bottle will generally remove the discoloration from the surface layer.
- The color runs through the material, so if a spot refuses to come out it can be lightly sanded in a circular motion with very fine (around 400 grit) sandpaper, then finished with a fine buffing pad. Our installer gave us the sandpaper and pad and walked us through the process, which means we can handle minor touch-ups ourselves instead of calling in a pro to resurface the counters years down the line.
- Our countertops come with a 10-year warranty. If anything cracks or has an issue, the fabricators can repair it using the same invisible seam technique they used during installation, leaving no visible evidence of the repair.
Hearing that John’s sister has had the same counters for five years with three kids and a big dog and no repairs or stains made us even more confident. We’re already using the kitchen more freely — light stains like spaghetti sauce have appeared and so far there’s been no drama.
One downside: these beautiful new counters make our old cabinets look tired by comparison.
But the plan is to sand, prime, and repaint the cabinets, and finally replace the dated hardware. Once we rebuild and trim a few doors and paint everything, the cabinets should match the countertops much better. We can’t wait to tackle that next step.
This post is mostly about the photos and the joy of having counters back after twenty sinkless days. We chose white Corian because we love the look and the low maintenance. The templating and ordering were straightforward, and the installers did a great job getting everything perfect.
That hulking 3′ by 5′ peninsula is even more impressive in person than in pictures — it’s larger than the dining table we used to have. It gives us tons of prep and serving space for baking, crafting, or spreading out a meal. The kitchen already feels far more functional, and we haven’t even added stools or the trim pieces that will hide the brackets on the peninsula yet.
Note the rounded edge on the peninsula: it’s gently curved so there are no sharp corners to bump into — which is great given the range of heights in our family.
For those wondering how we cooked during the renovation: this time we were luckier than during our first kitchen gut. We always had a working fridge, stove, and dishwasher, so we managed without counters or a sink by using a piece of plywood over the cabinets as temporary prep space. We were careful about food prep and avoided placing it directly on the plywood, but washing dishes in the bathtub did get old — so having the countertops installed and the sink reconnected is a huge relief.
Our fabricators even left us a small cutting board made from the sink cutout, which doubles as a trivet. While Corian can handle heat, we’ll still use trivets for very hot pans — that’s how we’ve always treated counters, and it’s a good habit to keep.
If you’re local and wondering about the installation team, we were very happy with the crew who installed our counters. They were professional, thorough, and left the space tidy.
Before the counters were installed we tucked a small time capsule behind a cabinet — a little note stapled in a zip-top bag that will stay hidden until the counters are replaced someday. John wrote a short message documenting our family and the date, a small time capsule of this moment in our home’s life.
Being this far along, our next projects include cutting down and installing a cabinet for a built-in microwave, building or modifying doors to match the secondhand cabinets we added, priming and painting all the cabinets, installing a backsplash, hanging a built-in range hood and floating shelves, updating lighting, laying cork floors, installing a new stainless dishwasher, and adding crown molding. It’s a long list, but we’re moving forward a little at a time and enjoying the process — especially now that we can wash dishes in the sink again.
UPDATE: We’re officially in love with our new counters. They’ve been a game-changer for our kitchen.