Dekton For My Fantacy Countertops

Photo of Dekton countertop on Instagram here

In Manhattan, whether you are single or a family of 4, regular people learn to live in smaller spaces. Sure, I’d love to have an extra room or more square feet in my apartment. Who won’t? Still, I’ve chosen to live in a Manhattan high-rise over a bigger stand-alone house in the suburbs. Manhattan is culturally diverse, relatively tolerant, and unbelievably convenient, and I’d never ever trade living here for a maison outside of Manhattan. Living in New York City has made me more mindful, more minimalist, and less impressed by opulence and materialism.

Photo: Noel Y. Calingasan

But don’t get me wrong, I want a modern, comfortable apartment with all the necessities of a large house, and I think we Manhattanites do a fairly good job of having it. For example, our washers and dryers are usually in a communal laundry room in our buildings rather than located in our apartments. The same goes for our recycling and garbage bins for sanitation pickup. They’re communal. Frankly, less of a burden to an individual shareholder! The multimillionaires in Manhattan live in larger co-ops and duplex condominiums where they set their recyclables and trash out their back doors, and their maintenance crew swings by several times a day to collect it, but sheesh, I don’t mind dropping off trash myself into communal bins. I don’t need our maintenance men to come around to me, individually, to feel well-to-do important!

However, just like homeowners everywhere, I entertain if-money-were-no-object fantasies about what I’d do to upgrade my home.

Today I’ll share one of them. My fantasy kitchen would have Dekton countertops. A Dekton countertop is an ultra-compact, high-performance surface (a blend of 20 natural minerals and materials used to make glass, porcelain, and quartz). It’s not cheap, costing $80 to $160 per square foot depending on surface thickness. I think it's smart to have at least 20 mm thick. Dekton is completely non-porous, resistant to starches, extreme heat, UV rays, and never requires sealing!

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Hot pots and pans will not scorch Dekton. Sunlight won’t fade it, and food spills won't stain it. Since the surface is non-porous, you don’t have to seal (or ever re-seal) it, and it’s easy to clean. Be still my heart!♥

Sounds indestructible, right? But it’s not. The surface is brittle, so stuff you shouldn’t be doing, -- abuse such as hitting the surface with heavy objects -- will chip a Dekton countertop along its corners. Moreover, installing Dekton isn’t an amateur's job, as special tools are required, and Dekton is more expensive than quartz or granite.

The builder of my Manhattan high-rise installed laminate countertops, and they serve me well enough. I use silicone mats to protect them from hot pots. There’s nothing wrong with laminate countertops, but high-performance, smooth, sleek Dekton is my fantasy surface and what I’d install if I desired to bear the expense.🙂

IMHO, it might be wiser to upgrade to a new abode before you put more than a set sum into upgrading your present home, but perhaps I’m still thinking like la classe moyenne. We, regular folk, are always weighing when and what to spend money on. 

That said, what’s your if-money-were-no-object home improvement?

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