I watch a ton of home renovation shows. Stainless steel indeed is the way to go, as well as granite. It’s always a tricky thing for a homeowner to fix the kitchen themselves. Most newbie home buyers want to revamp the kitchen on their own anyhow. But that’s just my experience from watching HGTV (I love Property Brothers!)

While stainless is certainly popular, there’s a lot of talk that it’s on it’s way out. There are lots of attractive options, depending on the style of your house.

As far as counter-tops go, I’ve been disappointed in my granite. If I had it do do over again, I’d go with engineered stone. It recycles stone chips, and doesn’t require sealant.

Farmhouse sinks are also popular.

An alternative to granite is butcher block.

@auhsojsa i didn’t meant that I would do the actual work on it.

@syz Yes – I have granite tops in my bathrooms and I am not so happy with the way they get wet.

@marinelife I love farmhouse sinks but that would involve some cabinet work which I’m not sure I want to do.

I look at lots of model houses (for fun) and lately I’ve been seeing these nifty sinks made out of a product called Silgranit. You can get it in a variety of colors, but the ones I’ve mostly seen are black or Charcoal Grey (my favorite) and they kind of have little sparkles in it.

Granite counter tops are still very popular, but there is another product called Silestone which is a manufactured quartz product. It looks very similar to granite, but you can get a lot more customizable colors and it is much more durable than granite. It’s also prettier than corian. What’s great about Silestone too, is that you can have it put directly over you old countertop instead of having to remove your old tiles or laminate. My next door neighbor has this and it’s gorgeous.

Depending upon the color and edge style you choose with Silestone, you can get an ultra-modern look like This or a Classic Look

@Kardamom Ooh – they are nice! I have solid surface veneer (looks like Corian) now so I am not certain whether to redo the whole counter or just the sink.

Jan, you might also consider concrete—yes, it sounds odd, but I’ve seen some beautiful countertops and sinks made from concrete. concretenetwork.com

I’ve had Silestone, and it’s a great alternative to granite. But I’m a died-in-the-granite fan of granite.

Stiainless steel shows every fingerprint; unless you have a passion for polishing, I would skip that idea.

In order to make things look fresher, I recently replaced my cabinets with solid light birch (the two on either side of the sink have glass doors and show off some good stemware and cut glass stuff) and a back splash of slightly variegated apple green tiles.

I left the white formica counter tops and boring stainless steel sink. The whole thing looks really nice. The green echoes the view of fields and woods out the window.

Here sorry for all the foreground distractions.

@gailcalled That’s really pretty! Is that Milo???

@Kardamom: The tall one in the blue apron is my daughter and the supervisor, in black and white on the left is indeed himself.

I personally detest stainless steel sinks. I’d want a good twin sink soapstone with stainless drainer both sides. So if you won’t be around for long in that kitchen, leave it to the next owners to mod to suit themselves. If you’re going to be there for 2 or more years, put in what you like in your budget so that you are happy to cook and eat there. Good luck with your remodel!

@gailcalled Is Milo a good cook too?