We replaced the existing wooden countertop of our kitchen island with quartz. This was a quick refresh to our existing kitchen in our 130 year old home.

Old House Kitchen before Island Counter replacement

In early 2020 we finished up our kitchen renovation in our old house. We had started out by buying a wooden kitchen island, refinished the floor, installed a brick veneer feature wall with open shelves, and put in a row of cabinets with a quartz countertop.

My preference is to see everything that I need, have lots of space to move around, but not to keep too much stuff. So open shelves are good for me! On the other hand, I like to collect old things – and I’m sentimental about soooo many things. What to keep is always a quandary to me – but it’s a nice problem to have, isn’t it?

It’s a good idea to live in a kitchen for a little bit to see how you’d use it – and we did. We ended up with a kitchen that had lots of space for us to work and move around without bumping into each other.

What we learned from listing our house for sale

We had listed our house for sale, during the real estate frenzy a year and a half or so – but then changed our mind about moving – to give two of our kids a chance to live in the area with us while they finished school! During that week or so of having people march through our house – we saw our house from other people’s point of view. We found out that two things could improve:

1. Young buyers in our area – loved the new quartz counter. “There’s your money-maker” shouted the realtor! Really, we thought – it’s nice and tidy, but it’s not that exciting? – But more quartz is better.
2. The buyers would have liked to see more pantry cupboards – even if it’s a separate piece of furniture that matches our cupboards. I loved my old sideboard – my mom had refinished it for me back in 1990 or so – but our buyers weren’t as sentimental as me!

We took all of that information and stewed on it for a bit – and our needs changed as well! I’ve been making pies like crazy, and my husband bakes the best sourdough bread, and homemade pasta is a regular occurance. A lot of kneading and rolling happens on that wooden island-top!

So we decided to add a little more quartz to our kitchen by replacing the island top with quartz to match our kitchen counter.

Quartz Countertop

Quartz countertops are engineered stone surfaces – which means they are manufactured from stone or quartz particles and resin and pigment – to resemble stone – marble or granite. They are blended and formed into slabs. They are subjected to a large amount of pressure, and then cured and polished. Quartz counters can provide the look of stone surfaces – but with more durability. While stone is porous and needs sealing – quartz is not.

Pantry Project

Our pantry supplies had also grown to include twice as many jars and canisters – and we decided to upgrade that somehow (Link to post about replacing our dark sideboard with a thrifted bakers rack – to fulfill our pantry needs!)

Kitchen Contractor

We called our kitchen contractor to inquire about a new counter to match our existing quartz (in Cloudy Bay).

The cost to purchase the matching quartz was about $3000. It took a little while to get the quotation – it just seemed like the job was too small for these contractors to care about – and installation would be a few months out.

We just wanted to take a slab of wood off of the top of our island – and replace it with an equally sized piece of quartz. How hard could it be? We realized that the contractor likely had to make a new counter in the quartz requested – instead of just cutting us a piece of an existing slab. So we would be paying for a larger piece, and as the job was not that interesting to the contractors – we would have to wait for them to squeeze us in.

We had watched enough (FAR TOO MUCH) HGTV to know that there are countertop companies with big chunks of leftover quartz and marble in their yards. We decided to check to see if anyone nearby had a piece of our Cloudy Bay Quartz already available.

We googled, made one phone call – and a lady in the next town over – had a piece that could be cut to size – in stock. She said “I bet you want this installed by Christmas don’t you?” We were thinking it would take months – so we said OK, went out and inspected the stone and placed the order.

We removed the old countertop ourselves – we called the original builder and asked him where the screws were to remove the top. He let us know there were 16 – all wood-filed in place. We scooped out the wood filler with a drill – and unscrewed the top.

We also gave the cabinet underneath a new coat of melamine paint. We took one of the drawers of our cabinets to our paint store to match the paint colour exactly. Melamine paint is more durable on cabinets and won’t peel and scratch as much as latex.

We paid about $1500 Canadian (tax-in) for the new counter installed. This included having a young man come out to measure the island prior to cutting and installation – having the piece cut to size, delivered – and having two gentlemen level and silicone the piece in place.

We could have saved about $500 by not having measuring and installation assistance – but we know that it is important to have a piece of quartz or stone properly supported and levelled – so that it is safe – and does not crack. This was well worth the effort.

Our quartz island top was delivered and installed within 2 weeks for about half the cost of going through our kitchen contractor. It brightens up the kitchen even more – and we are enjoying preparing food on it.

The quartz is easy to clean, easy to roll out dough on – and for some strange reason – our old eyes seem to find utensils on it – that we could never see on the old wooden counter – An unexpected bonus!

Updating a kitchen doesn’t mean you have to start all over again. Sometimes changing just one thing can make a big difference.

Stay tuned for a future pantry project post – another change of just one thing to our vintage kitchen.

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