Adding Solid Granite Top to Island

Another of the little projects that I’ve wanted to get done has been adding a solid piece of granite to my little island in the kitchen.  I love this hand-made piece (made  by an ex) that I have hauled around with me from my first house to this one. It’s one of those pieces that I’ll always find a place for.  It’s only 2×3’ in size, but it’s such a cute and versatile piece and I’m glad I had room to add it in my current kitchen, even though it won’t fit in the middle of the room without being in the way.  I do have things stored underneath and it’s a nice surface to place things that are going in and out of the fridge.  It’s a little workhorse in my kitchen and besides, it’s so darn cute and great for my Christmas decorating!

When it was originally made over 10 years ago, it was done with a granite tile top edged in a wood border.  I repainted the island for this house in white and gray and it flows really well with the gray granite in my kitchen.  But, the top had more of a gold granite in the granite tiles that were originally used and wasn’t the best color anymore.  I always felt a nice solid piece of granite would really enhance that little island and take it way up in elegance.

When I renovated my kitchen 2 years ago, I discovered Legacy Granite over in Alpharetta.  They are a great company, wonderful to work with and very professional in their installations.  I had a great experience with them when I used them for my Kashmire White granite countertops in my kitchen, so when my sister was recently renovating their bathroom, she and I went there to talk to them about the bathroom countertops that they were adding to their current vanities in the master bath.  Since I was there, I also asked them about doing a piece of granite for my small island.  They had contacted me back then after I did my kitchen posts a couple of years ago, since I mentioned them in the post and thanked me for the mention.

After talking to them about my small project, they were very gracious and offered to sponsor this granite island top for me and they gave my sister a discount too on her countertops, since I’ll be blogging about that whole project too.  I’ll be sharing her master bath renovation with you soon too.  It turned out beautiful!!  The granite I chose is called Steel Gray and with the Ogee edge on it, it would have cost around $400.  The fancy ogee edge was an extra $150, so keep that in mind if you need to do a project like this.  You don’t have to do a fancy edge and I didn’t do one on my kitchen countertops, but on this little island it was a nice addition.  Fancy is fun sometimes!

Here’s the original island top, a golden granite tile which was nice at the time, but a new top would definitely look better.  I decided to just keep this top as is and not remove anything, leaving the wood molding that would then enhance the new top.  I measured to have the new top overhang just about 1/2” or so all around.  I still wanted that molding piece to show.

Old granite top before, the whole shot.

Here you can really see the golden tones of the granite tile on here.

Before Christmas, Legacy Granite arrived in their big truck with my fancy little granite top for my island.  It was like Christmas day for me!

These 2 strong guys brought it all the way up my walkway and in the house to the kitchen.

Setting it carefully in place, it was instant gratification.  We did add a couple of shims on the backside to keep it from rocking, since my original top was not completely level.  You can’t even see that at all.

And here it is just after the top was added.  I noticed immediately that the wood molding that I had painted gray would need to be changed to white, to really make that new granite pop.

So I got out my white paint that I had used on this island and quickly painted over the gray, making it all white.  Looks really good now!

The white painted molding really shows off the new granite and Ogee edge.

I absolutely love the difference it makes in my little hand-made island.  Totally takes it up a notch and makes it look more high-end.  By keeping the top separate, I can move this around a lot more easily.  If I glued down this top, it would weigh a ton and be very hard to move.  So now, I can move the top and the island separately if I ever need to move it.

Closer look at the Ogee edge.

I am so completely happy with the new look and since I’ve had this piece for over 10 years, it was time for a little update.  It will continue to be a work horse for me in the kitchen.

If you are in Atlanta and have a need for granite, I would highly recommend Legacy Granite. They have actual slabs that you can choose from on site and you don’t need a middleman.  They treated me very well when I did my kitchen (they had no clue I was a blogger then) and for the granite I wanted, no one beat their price and they did an excellent job with the installation process too.  I definitely recommend the company for any granite needs you have.

Hope you enjoyed my little island project and got some ideas yourself.  Solid countertops are so nice and I love the color of this one.  The darker gray/black tones of Steel Gray flow really well with my Kashmire White countertops in the kitchen and now it’s all cohesive.

Note:  This island countertop project was sponsored by Legacy Granite, but all ideas, concepts and opinions are all mine.

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