Merry Countermas to us!
They’re finally here, and they look stunning.
For comparison, the room looked like this when we moved in last December:
Back to the counters: our new Corian surfaces are heavier and more substantial-feeling than I expected — almost stone-like but without the veining of marble. They have a soft, matte finish that reads a bit like honed marble, which feels sophisticated and avoids a plastic look. The installer mentioned that the white matte finish hides scratches better than other finishes, which is reassuring with a busy household.
Installation was messy in the sense of people and tools, but not dusty or disruptive. Here’s a shot of the room during the work:
One of the most impressive parts of the process was how they made the seams disappear. The installers filled the joins with a special adhesive and then heated those areas with hot tools until the material fused, which created an almost invisible transition between slabs:
After the adhesive was heated and flash-cooled, the installer polished the seams until they were undetectable. I genuinely couldn’t find where the pieces met afterward—so much so that I joked I’d pay anyone who could point to the seam. During that step we took a walk because there was a bit of odor while the material was being worked, but it wasn’t a dusty process and we soon came home to pristine white counters with fresh air circulating.
Here’s where one seam had run along a corner before the final smoothing; now there’s no trace of it. Three cheers for seamless countertops. And yes, that is a baguette—chef status, apparently.
The installer also reviewed maintenance and care, and I took notes because I wanted to be sure we’d preserve the finish. Highlights:
- Corian is nonporous, so stains cannot deeply penetrate; most spills can be wiped away with common cleaners.
- For persistent stains—say, a red wine spill that sat for days—a diluted bleach spray (roughly 10 ounces of water to 1 ounce of bleach) can remove discoloration from the surface layer.
- The white color runs through the material. If a mark won’t come out, you can lightly sand the area with very high-grit sandpaper (about 400 grit) in a circular motion and then use a fine buffing pad to restore the finish. Our installer provided a pad and sandpaper, which means simple touch-ups are DIY-friendly.
- Our Corian comes with a 10-year warranty; if a crack or other issue appears, the fabricator can make repairs using the same seam-filling method so the fix is virtually undetectable.
Knowing that John’s sister has had the same counters for five years with kids and a big dog, and no repairs or stains, makes us even happier with our choice. We’re already using the kitchen more confidently—spaghetti sauce has made an appearance without incident—so we aren’t babying the counters like we did with our first kitchen’s granite.
One thing these sleek new surfaces do highlight: our cabinets look dated by comparison.
We plan to sand, prime, and paint the cabinets and replace the tired hardware so everything feels cohesive. We’ll also rebuild and resize some doors to match the updated layout before priming and painting.
This post is mostly about photos and the joy of finally having counters after twenty sinkless days. You can see more about our reasoning for picking white Corian and project costs in our other posts, but here we wanted to share the finished look and a few installation details.
That peninsula is enormous—much larger than the old wood dining table we used to have. The extra surface area is a game-changer for baking, crafting, serving, and general prep. The kitchen is already more functional, and we haven’t even added stools or finished the trim to cover the mounting brackets on the back and side of the peninsula.
Those rounded peninsula edges are a welcome safety feature—no sharp corners to jab Clara, John, or me at different heights.
We’ve been fortunate this time around to keep a working refrigerator, stove, and dishwasher during the renovation, unlike our first kitchen gut. We made do with plywood on the cabinets as temporary prep space, but washing pans in the tub was getting old. It feels great to have the sink back in action:
The fabricators also left us a small cutting board made from the sink cutout, which doubles as a trivet. Corian shouldn’t receive direct, super-hot cookware, so using a trivet or cutting board is wise—same approach we used with our old granite.
We were very pleased with our installers, Five Star, who worked through Home Depot on our order. They were professional and explained maintenance clearly.
Before installation, we tucked a tiny time capsule behind a cabinet—sealed in a ziplock and stapled to the back—so someday whoever removes the counters may find it. John wrote a short note about our family and the installation date:
John’s note reads:
Today our new countertops are being installed. We are a family of three (four if you count our chihuahua Hamburger). I’m John Petersik (age 30), my wife Sherry (age 29) and I moved here 11 months ago in December of 2010 with our daughter Clara (age 1.5). We write a blog about our home improvement adventures called Young House Love. If you’re reading this it means you’re probably getting new counters too. Hope you enjoy them!
Next steps include installing a cabinet for the built-in microwave, building matching doors for the added cabinets, painting and priming, finishing the backsplash, installing the range hood and floating shelves, updating lighting, laying cork flooring, installing the stainless dishwasher, and adding crown molding. It may take into late January to complete everything, but we’re making steady progress. Taking the renovation one day at a time—and finally having a usable sink—has made all the difference.
UPDATE: We’re officially in love with our new counters.