Marmor-like artificial stone Mystery White in modern single-family home kitchen
We visited Maria and asked, how Her Mystery White quartz kitchen seems like in everyday use.
Visiting Maria’s family: classical and stylish kitchen for a family of 4
Maria has a family of four – she owns a small clothing sales company, her husband Nils works in wholesales, her 12-year-old son Erik is engaged in sports and her 19-year-old daughter Elin is interested in music.
How much does your family even love cooking at home?
The main cook in our family, though, is me. Daughter Elin is busy with school and band rehearsals on weekdays, but on weekends she is often visited by friends and they make pizza or tacos.
You can’t find Erik very often in the kitchen. It’s good if he remembers to come to eat!
My husband loves to cook, but his working days are very long, so he often gets home last. I guess he sometimes sighs that he’s left with the pleasure of washing dishes.
You moved into a new house and also ordered a kitchen that meets your needs. How did you make your choices and were you satisfied with them?
The bigger choices about the kitchen were made by me, my husband trusts me completely about it. I’m more of a fan of classical style, and I want the kitchen to be timeless and serve us for years.
When it comes to kitchen furniture, I was sure I wanted grey furniture – it’s a safe thing to do and fits everything. After all, color and sparkle can always be brought with flowers or by changing details. Once upon a time when I was young, I made a mistake and chose a burgundy red sparkling kitchen – finding suitable curtains and chair covers was quite a nightmare, and ultimately it looked like a mixed-style cottage! Now, with age, I have come to appreciate the calm look and the classics. With kitchen cabinets, I am very pleased, such framed doors are both classic and beautiful.
A little more complicated was the choice of flat stone. We had a sanded/honed Carrara marble countertop in our previous home, which was installed when the children were smaller, and I sometimes struggled with it to keep the stone clean. This time I chose an artificial stone – you just pull it over with a wet cloth and it’s all right.
Since I still adore marble, alternatively, there were also examples of Noble Carrara and Noble Areti Bianco on the table, which I otherwise liked and were even more affordable. But they seemed somehow brighter, with a smaller pattern and too artificial for my taste. In the end, the choice fell to Mystery White, because it is practically not distinguished by a real marble.
The choosing process often takes the most time. Once the cupboards were in place, the Granitop boys came, took measurements, and then everything went in a flash.
You said you choose between several stones. What tricks would you share with those who find it difficult to choose and decide between similar stones?
First of all, I would recommend setting a budget – it depends on which stones remain on the sieve. The price calculator on the Granitop page was a great help to me.
I would definitely recommend ordering samples by mail, just like we did. It is more difficult to choose on the Internet or in the showroom, but if you look at the stone in your kitchen in a different light, you will immediately see, what works best.
What are you particularly satisfied with, and is there anything you regret?
The important detail I didn’t have in my previous home is a full-height backsplash that fills the entire cabinet gap. A very exciting solution is also that next to the cabinet on the base of the sink is actually a dishwasher, but the bottom panel and handle were made for the beauty of other cabinets, although in fact it still opens all together.
I also very much like the fact that we made the gray sink fit with gray furniture, and the faucet harmonises with the handles of the cabinet door. Oh, yes, of course, window sills – they’re from the same material as the countertop.
As for regrets, I would frankly have preferred a kitchen island in the kitchen, but at the same time a kitchen with this type of protruding part of the room (erker, bay window) still seems to fit better with a round dining table.
There were also some doubts about the faucet and sink – the black Silgranit sink would once again have fit well with a black stove and oven. The faucet could have been black, too, but we still got a brighter option. Of course, there could have been more hiding places, cabinets and drawers, but there’s never enough of them!
The husband is also very pleased with the kitchen, he has only said that he could have put more electric contacts. He saw a flush-mounted electrical socket emerge from the working surface, some kind of… stainless steel backflip socket he liked, but not everything can be predicted.
Look at the stone, faucet and sink used in Maria’s kitchen and try in the price calculator, how much does your dream kitchen cost!!
