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Yes, wooden counters are nice but you have to look at what you are dealing with because they do not work in all spaces. You will notice all the example kitchens you posted have white cabinets which is what most people have that install wood counters. If you have wood floors and stained cabinets, 99.9% of the time wooden counters are not going to look good at all. Even if you have wood floors and white cabinets, I tend to prefer using wood on an island or something else like an accent and not all of the cabinets. It can look nice but it has to be in the right space with coordinating and contrasting elements.
Personally, I have never been able to understand the attraction of granite. Drop a dish on it (even pyrex) and it's history. Personally, I love wooden counter tops. Yes, you have to be careful with the knife, but that's what cutting boards are for. Wooden counter tops are warm and very beautiful. If I couldn't have wooden counter tops for some reason, I'd probably choose 4x4 tile, but I would do that begrudgingly.
I share your dis-attraction to granite, having now spent a decent amount of time visiting a house that has it. It doesn't help that their granite is black, of course, but I also don't care for the feel as well as not caring for the look. Luckily in my house at my price range I don't think anyone will be expecting granite. I was figuring on new laminate being fine for this house, but I do love the look of the wood in those pics, and if I recall wood can be reasonably priced at least sometimes (although maybe it isn't reasonable if it looks like those ).
I wouldn't personally worry about the knife aspect with wood counters. I'd always use a cutting board. What I would worry about is water/wet stuff. It sounds like you have wood countertops now. How do you deal with the wet? Generally I'm pretty conscious of wiping up larger amounts of plain water quickly, but my SO is not and is always saying "It's just water". Plus sometimes you put down a barely wet glass or bowl or whatever without noticing then pick it up later and there's a wet ring. Currently our counters are old laminate so that doesn't matter, but it seems like that could matter on the wood. Does it?
There is a big difference between being someone who requires "trendy" decor and being interested in design and having good taste.
Now, please note that not everyone shares the same taste and not everyone cares about home aesthetics much at all of course. But also please keep in mind that just because someone might rip out that 55 year-old pink bathroom doesn't mean they are super trendy or "require" trendy furnishings.
Some people enjoy design and enjoy the experience of designing a space and then reaping the benefits and living in it day after day. That does not automatically make them trendy.
People like that should build a custom home instead of gutting out a perfectly serviceable bathroom. And the overwhelming majority of people who gut pastel 50s bathrooms put stupid trendy crap like travertine and vessel sinks in.
I disagree. I am not a fan of vessel sinks though. I really like when people remodel existing homes to their tastes instead of building, building, building new homes when there are homes in decent condition that could just be updated. Also, custom builders often charge a lot more than what I could DIY myself in an existing bathroom (depending on how big of a remodel)
I don't think that there are only two options as you suggest:
1) Buy an existing home and leave it to someone else's taste
2) Custom build a home
That just leads to way too many people building new homes (often not as well built) when there are plenty of existing old homes that can be remodeled to fit whatever the new owners want. There is nothing wrong with that. Also, you usually severely limit yourself as far as location goes when you are only looking to build a new home.
"Perfectly serviceable" isn't the be-all-end-all for everyone as not everyone is completely utilitarian. I ENJOY decorating and design. While I don't value form OVER function I like to have BOTH at the same time. Part of what I enjoy about owning a home is doing exactly what I want to it. I didn't want to custom build a home because we knew exactly what location we wanted and there was no room for new development there. We bought a home that needed remodeling and have enjoyed renovating it to our tastes. Yes, lots of the stuff that we have renovated was "serviceable" and it worked but it was ugly and not what we wanted so we have changed it. I really don't see anything wrong with that.
And while I am not a fan of the vessel sinks and some of the trendy stuff..you have to understand that the 50s pink bathroom was trendy then as well so you can't really bash people for gutting something that was trendy 60 years ago and putting something in that is trendy today.
I disagree. I am not a fan of vessel sinks though. I really like when people remodel existing homes to their tastes instead of building, building, building new homes when there are homes in decent condition that could just be updated. Also, custom builders often charge a lot more than what I could DIY myself in an existing bathroom (depending on how big of a remodel)
I don't think that there are only two options as you suggest:
1) Buy an existing home and leave it to someone else's taste
2) Custom build a home
That just leads to way too many people building new homes (often not as well built) when there are plenty of existing old homes that can be remodeled to fit whatever the new owners want. There is nothing wrong with that. Also, you usually severely limit yourself as far as location goes when you are only looking to build a new home.
"Perfectly serviceable" isn't the be-all-end-all for everyone as not everyone is completely utilitarian. I ENJOY decorating and design. While I don't value form OVER function I like to have BOTH at the same time. Part of what I enjoy about owning a home is doing exactly what I want to it. I didn't want to custom build a home because we knew exactly what location we wanted and there was no room for new development there. We bought a home that needed remodeling and have enjoyed renovating it to our tastes. Yes, lots of the stuff that we have renovated was "serviceable" and it worked but it was ugly and not what we wanted so we have changed it. I really don't see anything wrong with that.
And while I am not a fan of the vessel sinks and some of the trendy stuff..you have to understand that the 50s pink bathroom was trendy then as well so you can't really bash people for gutting something that was trendy 60 years ago and putting something in that is trendy today.
I can bash anyone for whatever I want to, it's a free country. So can you.
We're also veering way off-topic. I don't really give a damn what other people do with their houses, though I think they're stupid for gutting a usable bathroom because they don't like the color of the tile.
If nobody else has anything to contribute about countertop materials, I think we can go ahead and close this thread down.
I'm not bashing anyone and didn't realize you were trying to bash me...I thought we were just having a disagreement. This is the home interior design an decorating forum though, so I just wasn't sure why you were completely against the idea that someone would want to re-design and re-decorate a bathroom to their own taste. 90% of the discussions in this forum are people remodeling things simply because they want spaces to fit their taste and enjoy living in spaces designed to their taste, not because the space was falling apart.
People redo custom car interiors and exteriors when the car is working fine but it is a hobby of theirs. People redo their lawns and landscaping when the yard is serviceable because they like a good lawn and it is a hobby of theirs, people build custom furniture when they could buy serviceable furniture cheaper. Everyone has different things things that they enjoy doing as hobbies and while I am not into all of those some people are but I still don't think they are stupid for doing it...
I don't think the thread needs to be completely shut down though.
Last edited by Sunbather; 01-11-2013 at 09:19 AM..
I'm not bashing anyone and didn't realize you were trying to bash me...I thought we were just having a disagreement. This is the home interior design an decorating forum though, so I just wasn't sure why you were completely against the idea that someone would want to re-design and re-decorate a bathroom to their own taste. 90% of the discussions in this forum are people remodeling things simply because they want spaces to fit their taste and enjoy living in spaces designed to their taste, not because the space was falling apart.
People redo custom car interiors and exteriors when the car is working fine but it is a hobby of theirs. People redo their lawns and landscaping when the yard is serviceable because they like a good lawn and it is a hobby of theirs, people build custom furniture when they could buy serviceable furniture cheaper. Everyone has different things things that they enjoy doing as hobbies and while I am not into all of those some people are but I still don't think they are stupid for doing it...
I don't think the thread needs to be completely shut down though.
I'm not trying to bash you, I just don't care to debate this subject because it's not worth either of our time.
My objection to stone is the same as 20yearsinBranson. I don't like the fact that it is so hard you have to be cautious about setting breakable items on it. Maybe after a while you get used to it, but I know other people that say they hate that they have to be careful about that.
My Formica counters are 27 years old. I don't cut on them without a cutting board, so there are no knife marks. I find it pretty easy to avoid putting a hot pan on them...especially now with the glass top stove.
My Formica counters are 27 years old. I don't cut on them without a cutting board, so there are no knife marks. I find it pretty easy to avoid putting a hot pan on them...especially now with the glass top stove.
Me too; the house I grew up in had laminate countertops in the kitchen so I was raised to always use a cutting board and trivets. My counters aren't stained or slashed up with knife marks; it's the particle board portion of them where they meet the cabinets that isn't covered with a laminate strip that is starting to fail and crumble away. The dishwasher, for example, can't be properly mounted in its spot because it won't attach to the countertop. It can still be used, obviously, but that's just an example of where it's starting to fail.
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