Bake-N-Blog

Today I'm going a little off topic of what we usually talk about around here. 
Staci at Staci Edwards Design blog is hosting a Bake-N-Blog event on August 19th.  Participants sign up for one of the 33 cupcakes that are on the Ming Makes Cupcakes website.  On August 19th we will all blog about the baking experience and how they taste.  I'm not really a baker, so this is definitely going to be a challenge for me, but I thought it would be fun to participate.  Plus, I've watched a couple of episodes of Cupcake Wars on the Food Network now that I have TV and I've been wanting to try my hand at making some funky cupcakes.
I wanted to make Cupcake #30 (picture below) but it was already spoken for.



So instead I'll be making Cupcake #20 Coconut Sponge Cupcakes with Chocolate Espresso Buttercream.  Can you tell that coconut is my absolute favorite flavor? 

Anyway, pardon the distraction if you came here to read about stone, and humor me on August 19th when I talk about baking again. 
If you would like to participate go to Staci's blog and sign up.

Walnut Cabinets with Stone Countertops

If I were to build a new house today I would do Natural Walnut Cabinets in my kitchen. 
Are you shocked?  Were you totally expecting me to say I'd do white cabinets with Statuary Vein marble countertops? 
Well, I would..........if I didn't have a husband who hates painted cabinets.  Dang marriage and compromise.  :)
So my second choice (and his first choice) would be the natural walnut.  Today I thought I'd show a few pictures of Walnut Cabinets with Stone Countertops.
Of course I'll start with Carrara marble countertops.  I think this Carrara looks great on the walnut cabinets. 
Photo source.

Okay, I'm really embarrassed to be showing a picture of my nemesis (Corian) on my blog but I really do think this is a beautiful kitchen.  The peninsula is amazing, it would just be 10 times more amazing if the countertops were CaesarStone!  

Photo from Trendir.

Speaking of CaesarStone....
This next picture is from our portfolio, the countertops are #2141 Blizzard CaesarStone.

Photo from MGS by Design.

This kitchen has Madura Gold granite countertops.  Madura Gold is a really soft/ warm colored granite.

Photo from Pence Building.

These countertops look to be Bianco Romano granite. 

Photo from F.W. Lang.

I love the curvy cabinets in this next kitchen.  The countertops are probably quartz.

Photo from Home Gallery Design.

Another photo from our portfolio, this home was in the Utah County Parade of Homes this year.  The countertops are Giallo Ornamental granite.  Giallo Ornamental is by far the granite we are using the most often right now.

Photo from MGS by Design.

Another curvy kitchen.  The countertops are white quartz and how about that backsplash?  Love it!

Photo from Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

This last photo is from our portfolio again.  The countertops are #2400 Champagne Limestone CaesarStone. 

Photo from MGS by Design.

What countertop would you put on walnut cabinets?

Sunday on the Snake River

My husband and I spent this past weekend in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  Jackson is about five hours from Salt Lake City (where we live).
It was so beautiful up there, I just love the Jackson area in the summertime.  We spent Sunday on the Snake River with some friends.  There was a little bit of fishing, but for the most part we were just hanging out enjoying the beautiful scenery and perfect temperatures.
While sitting by the river, being the geek that I am, I started studying all the rocks along the river side.  There were some really beautiful stones along riverside. I saw quite a bit of slate, some granite and some quartzite.  Today I researched the geology of the Snake River thinking that I would find a pretty straight forward answer as to how the area was formed and what types of stone are in the area.  Instead I found that  the geology of the Snake River is pretty complicated.  The best nutshell answer I found was from Keith Patton who is a geologist that writes on All Experts.  Here is his answer regarding the geology of the Snake River...
"...the Snake River Plain is believed to be related to the trail of the hot spot currently beneath Yellowstone. I will use an analogy of a blow torch under a plate of steel. If the plate of steel is moving the torch does not have enough time to burn completely through the plate but it will still leave a trail of altered metal. If the plate stops the torch will burn through. Hawaii is a real life analog. If you look a map of the pacific ocean floor you will see a trail of volcanos and sea mounts over 1000 miles log leading from Hawaii, west to Midway Island. These volcanos and seamounts were once over the torch of the mantle plume beneath the pacific plate. A mantle plume is an upwelling of hot material from deep in the Earth vertically to under the crust. In time these plumes can "burn through" and form a volcano. Iceland is another example. The plume believed to be the source of the Snake River Plain is another. It resulted in the catastrophic eruption that formed the Yellowstone Basin and is the current source of the hydrothermal geysers found in the Park.".


Photo by me.  Not a bad place to spend a Sunday eh?

Spectrus granite fireplace

This post was originally posted in September 2009 by BJ. 

This office and fireplace is done out of Spectrus granite. It is a very bold color. You can feel the personality from this entire room coming through. Not just form the design but from the 6ft. stuffed bear in the corner looking over your shoulder. 

It is very common to use a natural stone product on a fire place.  It really does not take much material at all to cover the area. Often you can use scraps that are left over from the kitchen slabs or a small unique remnant that gives the room some character.

Just a little side note, this is one of 6 bears in this home. All of which are form Canada.

Don't forget to determine where the holes for the computer cables go so they can be drilled through the granite. Easier to do it while being installed instead of coming back later after everything is done.

Chroma Vanity

There are some really new and interesting products out there right now and CHROMA is one of them. It is hard to get the full effect from the photo but this product is hot!!! Chroma countertops are just 1 of a 100 ways to use this product. Check out www.3form.com for more info.

Photo by BJ.

This post was originally posted by BJ in September 2009.  Stay tuned for more Chroma pics and info tomorrow!

House Beautiful's Kitchen of the Year

Jeff Lewis from Bravo's Flipping Out designed this year's Kitchen of the Year for House Beautiful.  It is currently on display in the center of New York's Rockefeller Plaza until July 23rd.

The countertops are CaesarStone, I love the Waterfall edge on the island.  I've talked about them here.

The backsplash is from Walker Zanger.

This wine rack is my favorite part of the kitchen.  I know, I know, you were expecting my favorite part to be the countertops or the splash.  Well surprise!  Yes, I do love those too but this wine rack is pretty awesome.

All photos from House Beautiful's website.

IceStone Photo Competition

IceStone's second annual photo competition winner was Maria Madani of the Georgetown Design Group. The project was the Benning Public Library in Washington D.C. and the IceStone color is Denim Moss. It's a beautiful project. To see the other entries click here.

A close up of the Denim Moss IceStone.

Edge Detail- Full Bullnose

The Full Bullnose Edge Detail is probably the edge that you see most often on granite.  Especially because it's the edge that comes on the pre-fabricated slabs.

Typically with 3 cm slabs people keep it at that thickness and don't laminate the edge, so it looks like the line drawing above and is 1 1/4" thick.  We do laminate 3 cm material though and I think a 2 1/2" Laminated Full Bullnose looks great.

When the slabs are 2 cm then we usually laminate the edge so that it's a total of 1 1/2" thick like the line drawing above shows.  We can make it any thickness that you want though, we just build it differently....oh, and it costs more of course!

The next two pictures are both 1 1/2" Full Bullnose edges.

Photo source.

Photo source.

Sex and the City 2- The Kitchens

Mock me if you will, but I am a HUGE fan of the Sex and the City chronicles. 
So yes, of course, I loved the second movie! 

Not only was the movie fantastic, so were the interiors.  I loved Carrie's new apartment and I've always loved Charlotte's place, but I'll just show pictures of their kitchens here.

Carrie's beautiful kitchen backsplash is tile by Heath Ceramics from Ann Sacks.

Charlotte's Kitchen is white on white, the ever-so-popular subject around here.  (Sorry, this is the best picture I could find!)

Even if you aren't a fan of the TV show and movies, you have to admit the interiors are amazing. 
If you have seen the second movie, tell me....what did you think?

FAQ Friday: Why does it take 2 weeks to get my countertops?

At MGS by Design we are about 2 weeks out from the day we template right now.  That time frame is always fluctuating based on how busy we are, but we try to keep it at about two weeks.

There are several reasons why we need this two week time frame.
1) An average sized kitchen with a stone that isn't difficult to work with and a standard edge detail usually spends 2-4 days in the shop being fabricated.  If the material is harder to work with, if the kitchen is very large or if the edge detail is custom we may have to add several days of shop time.
2) We need a few days to work the job into the shop.
3) We don't always work on weekends, so sometimes there is 4 days that we aren't working on your job.

So, while we know that you are dying to get your new, beautiful countertops please be patient with us!  We want to finish it up as quickly as possible too so that we can get paid!  :)

Photo source.