It’s kitchen week!

The first real thing we’re doing in Design Development 2 is looking at the kitchen layout in terms of cabinetry, what we want and so forth. We initially wanted to go look at some cabinetry hardware companies, specifically Blum and Hettich, but their showrooms were closed on Saturdays apparently. So we had to figure out a Plan B, which ended up being benchtops.

So today we went to look at some granite for our kitchen benchtops. It was a little bit premature because we still really have no idea of what colour scheme we want, which kind of made us think that everything looked good. But it gave us a good idea of the range and the sizes of the slabs.

At the first place (Granite Warehouse), I made a huge long list of ones that we liked. At the second place (Zuccari), we were a little bit more discriminatory. We ended up asking for quotes on two samples that we liked.

The range is typically categorised in terms of price: Low (cheapest), mid, high, and exotic (most expensive). At Zuccari, they used coloured labels instead, which was a little bit confusing, but it was black, platinum, gold, red respectively.

We ended up taking a few samples from each place. These are the ones we took.

Silas Gold from Zuccari. Looked exactly like the Silas Silver slab. It’s a bit hard to see in the photo but this one had an amazing depth of colour to it, and some gorgeous streaks of silvery stone. Quite stunning. Gold sticker (i.e. high range). They had 2 finishes: brushed and polished. The brushed was lovely, but we need polished for any pastry work to get a smooth finish. However our sample of the polished stone didn’t seem to be as smooth as the other samples.

Zanzibar from Zuccari. Deep brown colour with subtle flecks of blue. Quite gorgeous. Gold sticker (i.e. high range). This is one of those subtle ones that grow on you the more you look at it.

Blue Pearl from Granite Warehouse. Despite the name, this isn’t overly blue – more like black with large silvery flecks. Don’t remember the range, probably mid-high. Quite eye-catching.

Titanium from Granite Warehouse. This is actually an engineered stone of a lovely mid-grey colour, with flecks of mirror throughout. Don’t know the price range.

Most stone places these days also do an engineered stone. We’re not huge fans of engineered stone as most of it looks a bit samey, but occasionally I see something that catches my eye.

Anyway, we’ve asked for quotes for the Silas Gold and the Zanzibar from Zuccari, so we’ll see what it comes back as.

The places we visited were wholesalers. The way they work is that they supply the stone to selected stonemasons, who deal directly with the public.

So while we wait for these quotes, we’ve kind of decided that we really need to sort out our colour scheme. The problem I have is that there are so many options! I’ve pinned quite a few, but am still having trouble deciding. I think we’ve decided that we don’t want a wood laminate, but in terms of dark/light we still don’t really know which way we’re heading. I’m tending more and more towards two-toned options, perhaps something like a black carcass with white doors, but no real decisions as yet. I’ll post some pictures of kitchens I like next time.

At the end of the day, this means we need to talk to our interior designer, who will hopefully be able to guide us a little. Meanwhile, we still need to decide how many drawers etc, for our next meeting with the architect on Monday. So many decisions!