Some of you have been following our kitchen mini-makeover that we’ve been doing. We weren’t planning to move walls, tear up the floors or replace the cabinets and appliances, but instead looking for ways to update and freshen our kitchen without breaking the bank or having it out of commission for more than a day at any given time. We enclosed a patio that was off of our kitchen, which meant walling up a window and changing out our backsplash.
One of the biggest changes we have made to our kitchen is replacing the countertops with new Wilsonart HD Countertops.
“Wilsonart® HD® (High Definition) is a system of beautiful, “no sticker shock” countertop designs and a selection of “no line” finished edges.Put it all together and you have the realistic look of granite countertops at a fraction of the cost, and without the worries of staining, scratching, and chipping. Wilsonart® HD® High Definition® Laminate is today’s smarter alternative to granite. Believe it.”
I truly believe that changing out your countertops is one of the best ways to give your kitchen a whole new look without having to refinance your home in the process.
When we first moved into our house, we had neon green 70’s countertops. Yes, one would expect avocado green from the 70’s, but we had neon green. They actually don’t look too bad in this photo (that green kind of came into it’s own a few years later), but in person they were beat up, the cabinets were paper thin and falling off the wall, and the paint job we put on them was about twice as thick as the actual cabinets themselves.
That green certainly woke you up in the morning! About five years after buying our house, we did a DIY remodel on the kitchen and went to this, which was nice, but really dark. 
And it now looks like this…
We’ve worked to lighten it up, as enclosing the patio meant losing a lot, if not all, of the natural light in the kitchen. I wanted to go with a lighter countertop, but not super light, and I found the perfect color, especially given my love of gray. It has a subtle reflective quality to it which I really like, and it helps bounce light and help bright up the room.
The color that we went with is called “Luna Shadow“. It was incredibly hard to decide on what color to go with, as there are so many absolutely amazing colors and patterns available. Some of the grainte and stone style finishes absolutely blew my mind. And then there are all of the finish edge options. These aren’t the laminate countertops that you might have grown up with, these are an entirely different and beautiful thing.
Those wonderful rolled Cresent edges are so nice, both when I’m standing against them and when a certain three year old, who is just about countertop height, is in the kitchen. I LOVED the Beveled edge Wilsonart offers, but the Cresent edge is so child friendly.
We love everything about these countertops, the finish, the nice little bit of shine they have, the beautiful edges and I love how getting rid of the small backsplash we had with our previous countertops, paired with extending these countertops out about 1″ inch, gave us a bit more workspace on our counters, something we could certainly use. Here is another look at the “before” of our kitchen, before we started painting and making other changes…
And a look at the patio we have been working on enclosing. My husband has done about 90% of the work himself, and finding the time for such a large project between work, kids and the day to day chores, takes a long time. Like a decade. Or more. Here’s how it looked around 2000…
And then about 12 years, two kids and a swimming pool in the yard later, we were here…
And about 2013…
We still have a lot more work to do, but I know it will all be worth it! For more info on Wilsonart HD Countertops, visit their website!
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