Hi Tom,

I don’t know the exact dimensions–my hubby is out of town, and interior designer away. I want to say that it is about 18 by 13 across, not including the depth of the cabinets to the wall. The house is 20 years old, and we are remodeling the whole house. We tried various floor plans, and nothing worked to change the kitchen because of supporting walls. Therefore, kitchen will stay long and narrow. One (I think to southwest or west) end has large bay windows, the other end will have cabinets and sink, next to fridge. That is the long part. Across the kitchen, on one side is the bank of cabinets with double ovens, cooktop (6 burners), and more cabinets. The wall opposite that there will essentially be nothing but the door which goes to the covered deck. Designer wants to leave that wall with nothing on it because of seating at the island, and needing room for traffic. There will be some chair railing and some wainscoting. (although she would prefer not to do that because she says it will make kitchen appear smaller. I want it there to balance out that bare wall.

Because I don’t have exact dimensions, I will put in a couple pictures of the kitchen now, minus everything. Only the floor.

Island will be 10ft. long by 3 1/2 ft. wide, with possible seating for 5-on the bay window side. Also, sm. prep sink.

Not the handiest kitchen by any means, just working with what we have. Also, they DID elevate the ceiling a lot. Highest point is 11 ft. Yes, can lights, 6, and a light over island-like a 3 in one light.

Looking into kitchen from living room side. Now, a stairway has to divide kitchen from living room, so there will be a wall on one side of the stairs–the counter will be up 5 ft. with an open area at the top so from living room you can see into kitchen towards ceiling. (illusion of height) This is the end where the sink and fridge will be. Cooktop and ovens will be on right side, looking into kitchen:

Looking up at ceiling from cook top side. There will also be indirect lighting in the alcoves, and under cabinet lighting.

Another view of kitchen (wall paper was not down yet)

Kitchen, top left, under garage in this picture, and between stairs and bay windows:

Thank you so much for bearing with me as I attempt to explain this mess.

I also wanted to tell you that the designer and I have spent 3 full days in St. Louis looking at tile and possible backsplash options for Volga Blue. Honestly, if I had it to do over I would have picked a different granite. I had no idea it would be so hard to find a backsplash that didn’t look like white stairsteps. We even thought of extending the backsplash of VB up the walls, since there is only about 6 ft. of it across the cooking side, and not much in front of sink. But we are afraid that will be too dark and unfriendly looking. You might say I am totally discouraged at this point.

So anything you say will be of value.

Thank you again.

Lisa

Hello Lisa,First all, I love the tree view outside the window. Thank you for sending the photos as that helps a lot. Volga Blue is a beautiful choice with the dark cabinets and floors when the wood has a little mahogany or cherry tone. It also is gorgeous with stainless appliances. I would never recommend it without these complimentary elements.

You have the opportunity to do something truly fantastic with your kitchen design that will be very unique, classy and customized, while at the same time brightening the overall ambiance. To do this, you want to use glass or opaque ceramic tile for the splash is a mix of light blue tones. As you know, when looking at Volga Blue from any angle you eyes pickup the opalescent blue inclusions in the granite. These are what make Volga Blue so special. Look closely and you will see that the accents are actually quite light sky blue. Using these accents to compliment the full height tile splash is what you want to do. I can not reinforce enough how important the other elements are so don’t change the cabinets or the floor color intention.

Now, I know a picture really helps so I spent a while on the internet and finally found a couple photos to discuss.

In the first photo, you will see a dark granite with full height granite splashes. I wanted to show you this because you could go this route and it would look very nice. It will make the kitchen look darker but more formal. Your ceiling height allows you to get a way with this but I just do see that natural tree view fitting in to this decor. Still, it is a consideration.

The second photo shows the blue tile splash with Volga Blue granite countertops. I love this except for the color and style of the cabinets. The cabinets look cheap and the color is all wrong. It’s a mess. See if you can notice the color accents in the countertop and how they compliment the tile splash!.

You do not have to go with tiny mosaics or even glass tile as shown in the second photo. I do think glass would be best because of its iridescent qualities, but you could use 4”x4” size which is less expensive and looks great. I’ve seen nice products at Dal Tile stores and you can see options on their website.

Usually, I propose different options but you have you have created the perfect setting for a blue tile splash. Even the high ceiling is critical. The room will brighter, friendly, and totally gorgeous. I hope you consider this advice.

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 3rd, 2007 at 10:00 am and is filed under Answers to Granite Questions..., Granite Choice Advice, Granite Color Help. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.