And what is the deal with Corian's Designer White? If it's not for an RV you can only get it via special order? What does that mean? More $$? Wouldn't any custom countertop purchase be a special order?

And can someone recommend a corian white? I want a white white, just barely on the warm side. I'm looking at glacier ice, glacier white, and sparkling, maybe modern, and designer if that is an ordering option.

stillpitpat:

Let me save you some time. Corian will laugh at everything you threw at the estone. I had a piece of Corian tilt over a boat battery I stored all winter once. The fumes etched it slightly.

I refinish 20-year-old white Corian countertops regularly. They are literally new tops when I leave, the old tops are in my vacuum.

You can substitute "acrylic solid surface" everywhere I've said "Corian". I'd suggest you give Livingstone's Icy White or Brisk a look. It's generic Corian.

Our local Home Depot currently has white Corian countertops on one of their sample kitchen displays. Have you looked in your local box stores?

CeramaBryte, the glass cooktop cleaner, removes the gray metal marks. You just need a tiny bit and very light pressure. I'm on my sixth year with quartz and I've only ever seen metal marks twice in front of the sink, when someone wore a belt while doing dishes. You wouldn't ever really use your silverware on your counter to leave a mark that way. And don't ever use a Magic Eraser on quartz as it will permanently scratch it.

I like Corian's Glazier White. The salesperson wanted to sell you on quartz as they have it and it's more expensive. I've had my Glazier White Corian countertops now for over 32 years (and one new 5' section that is not yet a year old) and I still love them. I also adore the clean, seamless look with the big integrated Corian single sink. It's the best sink ever!

Corian is still high on my list, I just need to see it in person. Both the Home Depots closest to me don't have a white countertop in their displays. I think I will have to call some showrooms and find one that has a white counter on display (Elk Grove Village, here I come). I didn't even want to think about quartz, but when we went to Ikea to look at cabinets, the Bjorket display just so happened to have a white Caesarstone counter, and it was just beautiful. I imagine I will like Corian too, I just have to lay my eyes on it.

Joe: thank you for the specific color recommendations. Your assurance is one reason Corian is on my list. Is there really no difference across solid surface brands? Besides price? Ftr, I feel like I should send you a stress ball or toupee for the amount of times you have held my hand about this, while probably tearing out your hair.

Mayflowers: I was in the Bed, Bath, and Beyond parking lot when I read your reply, oddly enough, so I added CeramaBryte to my list. Unfortunately, it did not take out the gray marks. I am concerned about that because one of my kids has some visual and motor problems and I could totally see him putting a plate on the counter on top of a spoon and then sliding it over or something. Certainly he will spill things, which doesn't seem to be a problem as per my test, but he will probably also rub metal on it accidentally. I am in the process of making my cooking tools/kitchen more accessible to him (adaptive measuring cups and the like), and we will need a more forgiving counter.

Anglo: I asked her about price and she said quartz can be the same price as Corian. I was surprised and wonder if that's not true. Maybe a bottom of the barrel quartz? Do you suppose "Glazier White" is the same as "Glacier White?" It would be funny if they kept the color and just slightly changed the name. I am glad I don't have a job that requires me to come up with color names. I think at this point they are all taken.
I am also curious about the integrated sink. Is yours rectangular or somewhat rounded? For some reason, I like the former but not the latter, but I imagine the neater the squares, the harder they would be to clean. I read a Corian hate thread recently where people complained about the sinks and about scratching, but maybe they didn't know that that can be fixed?

I have slowed down a little with my kitchen planning as bathroom gutting/remodeling starts next week. Yayayayayay. As bad as my kitchen is (if you recall the pix), our second bathroom is way worse. It will still be tiny and simple, but it will be clean-looking and pretty cool.

Would your son be putting a hot pan on the counter? That would make me cross quartz off the list. I think scorch marks can be buffed out from Corian, right?

Try bathroom displays. In my area, "no one" does Corian in the kitchen any more. So I found it installed in bathroom displays. We love our glacier white Corian kitchen countertop.

We had Ceasarstone Frosty Carina in our old house. It was nice too. But I really like that the Corian countertop can be refinished (probably not the right term.)

Use trivets for all tops but sintered. Burn marks can be removed/repaired in Corian, not in quartz or stone.

Mayflowers: That is a risk. I was not too concerned about that before since he isn't cooking yet, but he will be and I could see him doing that. My 13yo does do some cooking, and he is pretty distracted so I could see that happening with him too. We will have a trivet on either side once we actually have counters.

jmarino: Good tip. I think I looked at bathrooms at one HD but not the other.

I really was sold on Corian, just going to see it to confirm, and then got sidetracked. Hopefully I will get someplace next week that has it.

In regards to your question about the pricing of Corian and Quartz, I had both priced out and Corian Rain Cloud ended up coming back at a cost of 10% more than LG Minuet Quartz. That was very surprising!

I had a white Corian installation, with integrated Corian sink in a house I lived in for 16 years. The sink became yellow from hot water. I was able to bleach some of that out, but the yellow would always come back. I have moved now, and am thinking of renovating my new kitchen. Due to my experience with the yellowed sink, I was not thinking of using Corian again. Would I have been able to repair that yellowed Corian sink, had I known how to do it?

Diana Pargnelle:

I can't imagine an acrylic bowl yellowing. As often happens, Corian gets the blame when cheaper and non-UV resistant polyester bowls are masquerading in their place.