(parenthesis)

I've been dreaming of how to personalize and upgrade our kitchen-to-be. It's plain and boring in pale wood cabinetry and faux-wood trim, soft white paint, and blah vinyl flooring. Of course this is not a project we can afford to undertake anytime soon, but it's fun to dream and plan and suppose.

There are some cool materials out there these days that I'd never heard of. On top of being awesome looking, they'd make your kitchen (or wherever you used them) rather unique.

My favorite find: IceStone

This is really cool stuff. It's made of recycled glass and concrete. Super earth-friendly. This "Heirloom Grey" is my favorite shade of it which is rather neutral, actually, but still interesting.

They have lots of fun colors, but knowing myself, if I were going to have something fairly permanent installed in my house, whatever fun color I like today I may be sick of next year. So I'd pair this with a fun paint color on the walls, which I can change relatively cheaply when I'm thoroughly done with it!

See all the colors: www.IceStone.biz

Also Really Cool: Pebble Tile

These are individual pebbles (some varieties are rounded pebbles, some are flat) glued onto a mesh backing, something like those tiny 1-inch tiles you may have seen on home remodeling shows on tv (or real life if you're handy with a trowel). They don't have rectangular edges, though, so you can interlock the "tiles" without any seams to give away the fact that it was easier to install than it looked.

I haven't picked a favorite on these, they are all really cool and look so high-end, like some craftsman painstakingly mortared each and every piece into place.

See supercool varieties:
www.NaturalPebbleTile.com