Should Your Kitchen Island Countertop Match the other countertops? Not always! In fact we like to find an area of your kitchen that can stand out as a focal point and the kitchen island always draws attention. For example, we used a copper farmhouse sink a few years back that we are still hearing about. Custom range hoods and bold backsplashes are also great eye catchers that we have keyed in on in the past. But a kitchen island allows our creativity to shine. Such as this…

Stainless Steel Top for a Kitchen Island

Our customer invested in a beautiful Wolf Oven/Range unit that was screaming “Professional Chef in the House”.

Most professional kitchens use 304 stainless steel for all the work area surfaces. So we had our cabinet maker customize an industrial looking kitchen island that mirrored the other cabinets in this kitchen and then had our contractor fashion a countertop out of high quality MDF and plywood. He then wrapped that in a sheet of 304 grade stainless steel sheet. The produce wash sink was also blanketed in the same material and he made sure all edges were sealed with a tight weld and polished to perfection. For the rest of this kitchen, we selected a beautiful slab of white quartz cut to a straight edge.

Well, the Chef in the house loves the commercial feel of her new kitchen island.

White Kitchen, Grey Island with Soapstone

Ever hear of Soapstone? Steatite, the technical name for soapstone, is a naturally quarried metamorphic rock from Brazil, India and the state of Vermont in the US. Although a softer stone, it is very dense and therefore non-porous. Denser than marble and granite in most cases. We like to recommend Soapstone because of it’s natural look and it is easier to work with when sculpting edges. Often the color comes in various shades of grey with nice white veins found within the slab’s body. Here we have a double island kitchen where we used Soapstone throughout the kitchen. We featured this island in our post about modern grey kitchen cabinets as well. The light grey color of the island cabinet looks great with the darker grey Soapstone.


Some time ago we featured a white kitchen with Quartz countertops. There we used a white color quartz for the island and a light grey quartz for the primary kitchen countertops. Looking for a few more

Wood Top Kitchen Island

In this case above, we developed a very traditional kitchen design and included a kitchen island opposing the range area set within a brick enclosure. There is a beautiful slab of hard wood we had built for the top of this island and finished it with an Armor coat of clear lacquer that created a glass-like surface impervious to liquids. Around the perimeter of the kitchen we went with Soapstone countertops, mixing up the countertop materials a bit.

Kitchen Design in Somerset NJ, Monmouth County and the Jersey Shore

Above are just 3 examples of how we can mix and match countertop materials for your kitchen island design. Most of these suggestions came from listening very closely to our customers as they describe their vision for The Perfect Kitchen. Most homeowners when contemplating their new kitchen designs, create visual memories that we just try to unlock as you share your thoughts with us. Here are a few of our kitchen design reviews for you to read through. We are kitchen designers serving customers all over New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Many of our customers invite us into their vacation properties found in Florida, North Carolina and mountain retreats out west. 

We invite you to share your vison with us and it all starts with a phone call.