Kitchen Wars: Staind

(...is a terrible band. Okay, maybe not terrible. They're definitely better than 30 Seconds to Mars or Good Charlotte. But, only marginally.)

So, sink was installed. Hooray! Now it came time to seal the counter top. What product? What color? These are questions that plagued our minds for a whole week. Actually, we'd been thinking about it for a while, just in the back of our minds, ready for its turn. There were a few options. A traditional sealer would not give us color options. It would just darken what wealready had slightly. And then we found another product that had food-friendly stains. We grabbed one of our counter scraps, snagged some stain samples, and tried out some of our favorites. We were thinking of a warm brown, since our floors are warm. And we'd already decided on a warm brown for our walls. We got red oak, red mahogany, gun stock, and dark walnut (not particularly warm, but I love me some dark walnut stain). 

A is the traditional sealer, B is the red mahogany, and C is the gunstock. We really liked B and C, but decided they didn't look well with the floor. And A almost matched it, which we didn't want at first, but decided it was the best option.

And honestly? We're so glad that they almost match. We thought the matchy-matchy would look bad, and if we were going to paint our walls a color other than brown, then it might not. But it looks great! Especially considering the fact that once we paint our walls brown, if we'd gone with a stain, then we'd have three browns in one room. And not just that, but three very big patches of those browns. That would not look bueno. 

So, the sealer we got (no idea what it's called off the top of my head--I'm at work) had a few different "versions." The original sealer, which could be used alone or under a different finish, was extremely shiny, as you can see here. It's still drying in this pic, but it was still pretty shiny afterwards. So then we added one coat (and we might go back and add one more) of a satin finish, so it still has a lustre, but it's not blinding! Especially because we get direct sunlight in the late afternoon.

 And there you have it. 

(Date: February 26ish, 2011)