If you are in the market for new kitchen or bath countertops, a trip to the showroom of any prospective dealer is strongly recommended. Seeing samples and displays tend to help better than pictures on a computer screen or in a magazine. A trained salesperson will be invaluable in helping you out with the process. Here are five items you can bring with you that will really help make this experience both successful and pleasant.

• Door/Drawer with good representation of overall stain look. The color differences in the showroom versus your home will be different. The more you can bring the home environment to the showroom, the better you can “thin the herd” of the many choices out there. Even better if you can bring paint swatches and flooring/wall choices. Besides, it was time to dump out that drawer box anyway.
• Rough dimensions. Accuracy is not necessary, but layout and approximate dimensions will help determine if you need seams, check seam positions, grain direction, if appropriate and give you a price range to work with.  Try to include an approximate sink center in your layout. Give them back wall measurements instead of inside measurements. Let them figure out the difference.
• Width of sink cabinet – this will tell us what types and sizes of sink you can use. Or can’t. That’s just as important, right?
• Overlay style of door/drawer front. Full or traditional? Inset? These require different overhang values. Not essential, but it helps. Full overlay doors are almost the same size as the frame of the cabinet. Traditional overlays leave about an inch of frame showing. Insets are what they sound like. They set into the frame of the cabinets. Beautiful, but you tend to pay for that beauty.
• Pictures – if possible, to show area and obstructions. They are surprisingly awful for color accuracy, but a great help with revealing the space.

Any project that involves this level of information, expense and expectations should be approached with as much preparations as possible. We at Mather Countertops hope this primer will help you get the most out of your visit, and the best out of your countertops. If you have any further questions, please feel free to write, call or stop by. We are here to help.

Mather Countertop Systems

339 Chapel Rd.

South Windsor, CT 06074

(860) 528-5667

www.mathertops.com