Granite Tile Counter Top Kitchen Decoration

Our granite has been installed for about a year now, and we still really like it. I would do this again the same way, and we consider it a "must do" for the kitchen.

I installed it with polyurethane glue (Elmers) on a base of 3/4" birch / maple plywood, that had additional 3/4" pine support struts underneath. Once in place we use epoxy grout to seal the very thin (1/16" or less) joints. Everything has held solid - no cracking, shifting, etc. The grout has no stains and looks as good when installed (my DW cooks everyday).

While not being full slab, the tiles are large enough to only require a few joints. The island top shown is 90" long. I believe it's a good trade-off for doing granite at $25 per square foot. That being said, I don't think this is a project for a novice or new DIY'er. If you have a fair amount of experience with tile or masonry, it's not too bad.

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Fluorescent Under-Cabinet Lights Decoration

We absolutely love the under-cabinet lights. They really improve the feel of the kitchen, and make working much more comfortable. Here are pictures of the effect of the lighting...
We chose to go with fluorescent because they are the most economical to install, take the least amount of electricity (the green option), and they puts off low amounts of heat. The halogen lights we looked at put off too much heat, and Xenon puck lights were not appealing (and cost more).

The average cost per fixture was about $25.

The arguments against fluorescent are the light is cold, and the fixtures hum - neither is true in our case. The GE Premium UCF Fixtures don't flicker when turning on or hum.

The light actually has a warm feeling, but we have warm colors with the travertine back splash and granite counter tops. This may be very different with other materials.

We would do this the same way again. Possibly in a few years when LED's are more mature, we will try them, since they are by far the most efficient lights made.

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Soffit Above the Kitchen Cabinets

This is somewhat of a controversial topic: Should you tear out the soffit in an older kitchen or leave it in? We left ours in and actually added to it for the additional cabinets. We added a display shelf to it, as shown in the picture:
Are we happy with the choice? Yes. The main reason is the display shelf idea we came up with. If it were just a plain soffit, I would have rather had cabinets that went all the way to the 8 foot ceiling. Here is a picture of it before shelf - not too exciting...
We did not have the problem that many people do: The soffit holds a large amount or electrical wiring or plumbing. Ours is basically hollow, so we were not "forced" to keep it in. It would have been straight forward to tear it out and patch the ceiling, but we wanted to keep it in the design.

Here is a picture of the section I added to go over the double-oven and bookshelf cabinet...
Why we like it:
- We don't think it looks dated in our kitchen with the added shelf. The shelf helps bring the edges of ceiling down, improving the feeling of scale.
- The shelf displays things much better than setting thme on top of the cabinets
- We don't have the "dust on top of the cabinets" problem

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Not So Big House Design

Before doing any remodeling, I suggest you read "The Not So Big House" by Sarah Susanka. Regardless of the size of the kitchen you want to remodel, understanding the concepts she outlines can really help you improve your overall design.

Almost every public library (at least the Portland ones) carries the book. I bought the Not So Big House Collection, which is comprised of two books.
Design decisions we made after reading the books:
- Putting an additional passage-way door in the dining room, so we could have a "long view" to the other end of the house (and then outside) from the kitchen
- Keeping the soffits and adding shelves to create a more "human scale" feeling and the edges of the kitchen
- Using a wider range of materials
- Taking the time to put pull-out shelves everywhere
- Keeping windows on two walls instead of adding more upper cabinets

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