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Jun 12, 2025

My Chef Friend Told Me I Needed This “Luxe” Upgrade — And It’s Made My Kitchen 100x More Functional

As a mom of five, I’ve learned with every home we’ve lived in more about what I like and what our family needs in a kitchen as time has gone on. And thus, each kitchen has incorporated lessons I

As a mom of five, I’ve learned with every home we’ve lived in more about what I like and what our family needs in a kitchen as time has gone on. And thus, each kitchen has incorporated lessons I learned from the previous one. For example, although my first two sinks were split my latest one is one huge basin (thanks to advice from my chef friend), and I love it. That’s just one example of the game-changing little decisions that have made a huge impact.

There are a few design details that I’ve gone back and forth on between kitchens, though. One of them is the countertop material. The first countertop I chose was quartz and I loved its durability, but felt that it lacked a certain kind of “life.” So I tried granite for my second countertop, and it was pretty and I enjoyed the fact that it was natural stone — but it eventually chipped and was also way more work to clean and maintain.

For our current kitchen, I thought I was going to go with granite again. I fell in love with a slab full of beautiful colors and sweeping movement. In the end, though, I opted for something that surprised me: an understated but beautiful gray quartz countertop — again, thanks to the advice of my chef friend who recommended something non-porous and durable. The finish I chose, which I’ve enjoyed every day for over two-and-a-half years, just happens to be one of the hottest countertop trends of 2025: a honed finish that has a matte appearance. Here’s why I love it.

As much as I love the drama of natural stone, I realized that I need my kitchen space to feel calm. With seven of us and two huge dogs, our house has plenty of activity. I didn’t want a “loud” piece of stone adding to the din. The lightly veined creamy quartz I chose has enough variation to keep it from being boring, but it’s subtle enough to keep its presence in the background. Even the fact that it has a matte finish adds to its subtlety. Rather than drawing the eye with a gleaming finish (or visible smudges), its honed finish feels quiet.

Because they’re matte, our countertops disguise dirt and smudges much more than our previous granite countertops did. While this adds to the calm feeling they evoke, it also makes them so much easier to clean. All I have to do to get them looking their best is wipe them down with an all-purpose cleaner. I don’t have to buff them dry or polish them to make fingerprints and other marks disappear. This saves me so much time and gives me a kitchen that looks cleaner with less work.

In addition to being easier to clean on a daily basis, the quartz countertops require no real maintenance. Unlike granite countertops, which need regular polishing and intermittent sealing, quartz countertops are good to go with regular maintenance. Furthermore, stains don’t seep in like they do with more porous stones like granite. I also love that I don’t have to buy or store specialty cleaners for our quartz countertops. We’ve also had zero issues with chipping, in contrast to our previous granite countertops.

This last point is a bit odd, I admit, but I love the hand-feel of our honed quartz countertops. They feel … soft, somehow? Even though it’s a super-hard stone. I don’t always run my hands over the countertops, but when I do it’s a smooth and pleasant sensory experience — another way I enjoy my favorite-ever countertops.

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