Rest Cabinetry sells countertops from our Norcross location, alongside the kitchen cabinets, range hoods and cabinet accessories in our catalog of nine product categories. This page covers the part of a countertop job most people get wrong: the order you make decisions in, the measurements that actually control the number, and the things that have to be settled before anyone cuts anything.
Countertop work varies from project to project. The materials are settled - granite, marble, quartz, quartzite and porcelain - but slab availability, edge profiles, fabrication, templating and installation are quoted per job, and this page says so at each point rather than guessing on your behalf. Contact us with your layout to confirm what is available for yours. Everything else below holds true regardless of what you choose.
Rest Cabinetry stocks countertops in granite, marble, quartz, quartzite and porcelain. They are not interchangeable, and the differences that matter in a working kitchen are not the ones showrooms lead with. Here is what actually separates them.
| Material | What it is | Living with it |
|---|---|---|
| Granite | Natural igneous stone, cut from quarried blocks. Every slab is different, and the slab you approve is the slab you get. | Hard and heat tolerant - a hot pan will not mark it. Porous, so it takes a periodic sealing. Movement and colour vary slab to slab, which is a feature if you choose the slab and a problem if you order from a sample chip. |
| Marble | Natural metamorphic stone, the classic white-and-grey veining. | The softest of these five and the only one that reacts chemically: lemon, wine and vinegar etch the surface regardless of sealing. Owners who love marble accept a patina. Owners who want a counter that looks new in five years should not choose it. |
| Quartz | Engineered - crushed stone bound in resin. Manufactured, so pattern and colour repeat predictably. | Non-porous, so no sealing and nothing soaks in. The most forgiving surface here for a busy family kitchen. The resin is the limit: it can scorch, so trivets matter, and prolonged direct sun can fade some colours. |
| Quartzite | Natural stone - despite the name, unrelated to engineered quartz. Often reads like marble. | Harder than granite and far harder than marble, with much of marble's look and none of its acid sensitivity. Porous, so it seals like granite. The usual choice when someone wants marble and cannot live with etching. |
| Porcelain | A manufactured slab, fired rather than cast. | Effectively non-porous, heat resistant, scratch resistant and UV stable, so it holds colour in a sunlit kitchen or outdoors. Available in thin profiles that suit a minimal edge. Its weakness is the edge itself: porcelain can chip on a hard corner impact. |
A shortcut. Busy household, want to stop thinking about it: quartz. Want natural stone and cook with heat: granite or quartzite. Want the marble look without the etching: quartzite. Sunlight, an outdoor kitchen, or a very thin edge: porcelain. Want marble and know what you are signing up for: marble.
Colours, finishes and slab availability change with what is in stock, and edge profiles, cutouts and fabrication are quoted per project. Email [email protected] with your layout and the material you are leaning toward, and we will confirm what is available for your job.
A countertop is not measured from a drawing. It is measured from your cabinets after they are in place, level, and fastened to the wall. Any variation in the room - a bowed wall, a floor that falls half an inch across the run, a base cabinet shimmed up to clear tile - ends up in the template. That is why the sequence never changes, whoever ends up fabricating your tops:
The most common delay in a kitchen is a sink that arrives after the templater does. Order the sink at the same time you order the cabinets, not after.
| Measurement | Typical figure |
|---|---|
| Base cabinet height, no top | 34 1/2 in |
| Finished counter height | about 36 in |
| Base cabinet box depth | 24 in |
| Finished top depth | 25 1/2 in |
| Front overhang past the box | about 1 1/2 in |
| Island overhang for seating | 10 to 15 in |
| Standard backsplash height | 4 in, or full height to the wall cabinets |
These are the industry-standard figures a kitchen is normally built around. Two of them matter more than the rest. Finished counter height determines whether a slide-in range and a dishwasher will fit under the top without modification. Finished top depth determines your square footage, because it multiplies across every linear foot of the kitchen. Slab thickness affects both, and available thicknesses depend on the material - ask us to confirm what applies to the material you are considering.
You can produce a usable planning number in ten minutes. Sketch the plan view, break every countertop run into rectangles, and for each one multiply length in inches by depth in inches, then divide by 144. Use 25 1/2 in depth for perimeter runs. Measure the island at its finished size, including the seating overhang.
| Surface | Math | Sq ft |
|---|---|---|
| Sink run | 96 x 25.5 / 144 | 17.0 |
| Range wall | 60 x 25.5 / 144 | 10.6 |
| Island | 72 x 40 / 144 | 20.0 |
| Total | about 48 |
Treat that as a planning figure for conversation, not a quote. Real fabrication numbers depend on how the pieces nest out of a slab, where seams fall, and how many cutouts there are. Note every inside corner on your sketch while you are at it, because corners are where seams get decided.
Cabinet doors and countertops fight each other when both are busy. A shaker door already casts a strong rectangular shadow line across the whole room; put a heavily veined top under it and the eye has nowhere to rest. Flat slab and high-gloss doors have no shadow line of their own, so they carry dramatic movement in a countertop much better. Pick one element to be the loud one.
Undertone matters more than color name. A cool grey-white cabinet finish next to a warm cream-white top reads as a mistake rather than a choice, and no photograph will tell you which way a finish leans. Get a real door sample and hold it against the real countertop sample, in your own kitchen, in daylight and again under the lights you will actually use.
Two-tone kitchens give you a third option: a perimeter top that disappears against light wall cabinets, and a contrasting island top that becomes the feature. Decide that before you order, because it changes the finish quantities on both the cabinet and the countertop side. Browse the cabinet lines we stock and check the brands and finish families, then ask us which finishes are currently available.
Two practical checks people miss. A dishwasher has to be secured to something - stone tops generally need side-mount brackets rather than top screws, so confirm the dishwasher supports side mounting. And if a range hood is going in, size it against the cooktop and confirm the counter depth behind the burners before the template is made.
Seams are unavoidable on most kitchens, because slabs have finite length and because a top has to physically fit through your doorway. What you control is where they land. Ask for seams to be placed away from the front edge of a sink and out of the main sightline from the entry to the room. Get the seam plan agreed at template, not on install day.
Overhangs need support once they run past roughly ten inches, though the exact figure depends on material and thickness. Beyond that, plan for steel brackets set into the cabinet or visible corbels. Brackets have to be installed before the top goes down, which is another reason the island seating depth needs deciding early.
Email your layout sketch, your rough square footage, your cabinet selection and your sink and cooktop models, and ask us to confirm the following for your specific job:
Rest Cabinetry
6115 Jimmy Carter Blvd, Suite E
Norcross, GA 30071
[email protected]
Our pricing is login-gated. A logged-out visitor sees "Login to Buy" rather than a figure, because we are set up for wholesale and trade buyers. Log in to see pricing, or email [email protected] with your item list and we will come back to you with the numbers.
Orders can be picked up in Norcross the same day, or delivered in 7 to 10 business days. Ask us to confirm how that applies to the countertop portion of your order specifically. On returns: unopened RTA cabinets may be returned, while accessories, toe kicks, fillers and moldings are non-refundable. If an item does not arrive in a reasonable timeframe, we offer a refund for that item or an alternative size. Full details are on our shipping page and delivery and returns, with more in the FAQs.
We are on Jimmy Carter Blvd in Norcross, in Gwinnett County, just off I-85 and within a short drive of Peachtree Corners, Duluth, Doraville, Chamblee, Tucker, Lawrenceville and Suwanee. Same-day pickup helps when you are working to a tight install schedule anywhere on the north side of metro Atlanta. See the areas we serve and our photo galleries, or browse all product categories.
Send your kitchen layout to [email protected] or use the contact page, and we will confirm what is available for your countertops and cabinets together.
Our pricing is login-gated. A logged-out visitor sees "Login to Buy" rather than a figure on every product, because Rest Cabinetry is set up for wholesale and trade buyers rather than one-off retail browsing. Log in to see pricing, or email [email protected] with your kitchen layout and item list, and we will get pricing back to you for your specific project.
We are at 6115 Jimmy Carter Blvd, Suite E, Norcross, GA 30071, in Gwinnett County on the north side of metro Atlanta, just off I-85. That puts us within a short drive of Peachtree Corners, Duluth, Doraville, Chamblee, Tucker, Lawrenceville and Suwanee. Reach us at [email protected] or through the contact page on this site.
Whether fabrication, templating and installation are available depends entirely on the project, so we will not promise anything in the abstract. Email [email protected] with your layout, rough square footage, sink model and cabinet selection, and we will confirm what is and is not available for your job before you commit to anything.
Cabinets first, always. A countertop is templated off your base cabinets after they are set, leveled and fastened in place, because every variation in the room ends up in that template. Order and install the cabinets, get the sink and cooktop on site, then template, then fabricate, then install. Reversing that order causes rework.
Yes. Orders can be picked up at our Norcross location on Jimmy Carter Blvd the same day, which helps when you are working to a tight install schedule. If you would rather have it delivered, delivery runs 7 to 10 business days. Ask us to confirm how that timing applies to the countertop portion of your order.
Unopened RTA cabinets may be returned. Accessories, toe kicks, fillers and moldings are non-refundable. Those are the two categories our published policy names, so for countertop items ask us to confirm the return terms that apply to your specific selection before you place the order rather than after. Full details are on our return policy page.
If an item does not arrive in a reasonable timeframe, we offer a refund for that item or an alternative size. Contact us at [email protected] with your order details as soon as you notice a shortfall, rather than waiting, so we can sort it out while the rest of the install is still moving.
Break each countertop run into rectangles on a plan sketch. For each one, multiply length in inches by depth in inches and divide by 144. Use 25.5 inches deep for standard perimeter runs and measure the island at its finished size including seating overhang. A 96-inch run works out to 17 square feet. Treat the total as a planning number, not a quote.
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