330 Homes Spring 2022

s p a c e l i f t | d r e a m h o u s e | f r e s h d e s i g n

by BRENDAN BAKER and photos provided by ARCHITECTURAL JUSTICE

TRENDY TEXTURES Kitchen designs are evolving to cleaner, more elegant materials.

K itchen remodeling is one of the best ways to increase the value of your home. Frequently, the remodel cost is offset by your home’s new market value. But what inspires homeowners to undergo a remodel is usually more abstract. Do you want to increase the size of the kitchen, add improved storage or just bring it up-to-date with colors, textures and appli ances? These are just a few of the reasons we can think of, so we talked to some kitchen pros to find out what trends are in this year. “Quartz is the majority of what we do today,” says Jimmy Domer, the gen eral manager of Hartville based Top Advantage Surfaces. “Our main brand is Cambria quartz, which is manufactured right down the road in Kent.” And the love of quartz is widespread — it’s one of the most popular materials on the market right now. “The progression went from Corian, the acrylic stuff, to granite — and granite is still popular, but more of the high-end granites — to quartz,” Domer says.

Top Advantage sees a lot of whites and grays used in kitchen countertops and backsplashes today. “More homeowners like the natural look of the veining,” Domer says. “So now you see a lot of white countertops with gray veins or gray coun tertops with white veins.” A drawback of granite is that it is porous, and there’s some maintenance involved, like resealing. That’s be cause it is cut from stone in stead of being manufactured from powder-like material.

“Quartz is so nice be cause it’s non-porous and smooth,” Domer says. “You can put raw chicken on it, clean it off with soap and water, and not have to worry about any bac teria lingering in the grain. And it doesn’t stain.” Cambria quartz uses 93 percent quartz and 7 percent proprietary resins, according to Domer. "When quartz is made it has the consistency of cookie dough, they spread their

color and everything into the mix. It is then com pressed and heated, and when it comes out it is in a hard slab. After this step, it is diamond polished to a matte or polished finish," says Domer, adding that Cambria can make many designs and use many col ors, so their possibilities are nearly endless. “Five or six years ago, we were doing a lot of beiges and tans predominantly. Now the trends are lean ing towards whites, and a

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