My Kept Inexpensive Granite Countertops

The notes below stay with placement, materials, and the sequence that avoided a redo of the redo. Project Get-Our-House-Fixed-Up-To-Sell is in full force with our kitchen redo getting done this week! The old battered thermofoil cabinet doors and drawers are outta here and those lovely mint green formica countertops are next. We're replacing them with an inexpensive granite and The next step is to see what a difference it makes!

Oh and did I mention that this entire kitchen redo is being done start to finish in five days?? Already, the new maple cabinet doors are up and the trim around the top and bottom of the cabinetry are starting to be installed.

Since this kitchen redo is being done on a tight budget, we're sticking with an inexpensive entry level granite to keep the cost in check. It's pretty crazy how much the price can go up when you jump up just a tier or two on your granite.

And while of course I would have loved to have walked straight to some drool-worthy slabs of carrara marble and slapped a “mine” label on them, sticking with an entry level granite turned out to be more doable than I had thought. After visiting a few granite yards, I narrowed my tier one granite choices down to three favorites that I think would all be great choices for a kitchen redo on a budget.

The first of my favorites is New Caledonia (also known as Oyster Pearl) – it's great for neutral-loving peeps like me since it includes shades of white, black, brown, and gray.

and it coordinates nicely with white cabinets:

Another great option is New Venetian Gold, which is one of the most popular granites out there.

I like how it looks with white cabinets but think it looks even better with wood-toned ones.

And finally, I really liked Black Pearl (also known as Black Uba Tuba) – it's a black granite that has quite a bit of variation in tone throughout it, which is key for hiding the watermarks that more flat blacks can easily show.

So which granite is getting installed in my kitchen on Thursday? Black Pearl was the winner! I think it's going to work best with the simple, clean lines of our kitchen and the adjoining family room.

Update! Our kitchen reno is done! Here's how it turned out with our black pearl countertops:

You can get all the details on the rest of this budget-friendly kitchen redo in my post on kitchen cabinet refacing!