Home flipping is a practical combination of artwork and DIY skill. Many people make an enjoyable living by turning around shabby houses – transforming them back into modern family homes. The process usually involves a few upgrades; technical, structural, and aesthetic. From replacing the carpets to remodeling the kitchen, there are dozens of ways a home flipping project can renew an older house. In addition to making the home livable and up-to-date again, the biggest challenge is selling a flipped home at it’s new, improved value.
The best tactic is often to add a touch of luxury design at an efficient cost. Home flippers are creative geniuses at turning old homes and available materials into something beautiful and new again. They restore wood floors and reinvent the shape of windows with scraps of molding and trim. In the same spirit, granite remnants make an amazing project resource for clever home flippers. Bring the luxury of granite into your rehabilitation design at a fraction of the cost of granite slab.
Types of Granite Remnant
Granite remnant can cost between $10 and $100 per square foot depending on the thickness and size of the slab, making it far more affordable for small projects than buying a large pre-cut slab. Remnant granite is also perfect for one-off projects that don’t need to match a continuous theme. When going in, expect to find three different types of granite remnants: small slab squares, thinner slices of slab, and uneven pieces.
- Remnant Squares
- Larger sections, often whole squares and almost-squares cut from slabs used for previous projects. Half and quarter slabs available for larger remnant projects.
- Slab Slices
- Thinner rectangular slices of granite, often trimmed from close-sized slabs. Perfect for small countertops and small remnant projects.
- Uneven Pieces
- Cut as trim from previous projects, irregular mix of sizes and shapes. Ideal for mosaic and paver projects.
Introduce Granite or Accent Existing Granite Countertops
- A Touch of Luxury
- Often, granite remnant projects introduce the luxury touch of granite to an otherwise modest home design. A few small granite-topped surfaces or granite-mosaic backsplashes can make a house feel like a more refined home.
- Spotlighting Resealed Granite Countertops
- If the house you’re renovating already has a granite countertop, then granite remnants can accent the existing slab.
- Polish and re-seal the countertop to renew its beauty (and durability). Then add like-color or elegantly contrasting granite remnant designs to accent the existing counter
Patchwork Countertop and Cladding
If your home renovation needs a new countertop but you don’t have the budget for a whole slab, consider a large remnant or even a patchwork countertop design. Patchwork takes advantage of granite’s natural variations – no two slabs are exactly the same – and uses complementary designs instead of uniformity.
A patchwork granite countertop might alternate or mix remnants of similar or complimenting colors and grains to make a multi-section surface. You can also clad things like shower stalls and fireplace surrounds with beautiful granite remnant patchwork design.
Granite Remnant Mosaic Art
Another option is to use a jigsaw and make your granite remnants even smaller for mosaic art. A mosaic made of all one piece of remnant can create a beautiful design that is both uniform and chaotic. Use multiple remnant-pieces of different colors and you can create a splash of complimentary chaos or even create images using the mosaic style of artwork. This can be done on a small scale with tiny granite chips all the way up to mosaic paver patios.
Granite-Inlaid Wood Toppers
Many homes have wood-topped surfaces that could use a little sprucing up. Maybe the entryway has a half-wall with an elegant carved wood topper -perfect for placing handbags on the way in or out the door. Carve a groove in the center of the topper and inlay a small-cut slab of remnant granite Choose a vivid green granite or striking gold to really bring out the elegant contrast with stained or painted wood.
Once you get the hang of granite-inlays, you can use them for any wooden top in the house, from the bartop to the built-in shelving.
Small Bathroom Counter Design
Smaller bathrooms are ideal for narrow granite remnant. Bathroom counters are often shorter and even narrower than kitchen counters. Their designs are also unique, with no need to perfectly match the prominent color-and-grain in the kitchen. This makes bathroom design perfect for the small rectangular pieces of granite remnant. Choose a beautiful remnant strip that matches your bathroom color scheme for a unique – and affordable – luxury bathroom remodel.
Granite Shower Stalls and Tub Enclosures
Another great place for granite remnant in the bathroom is your shower enclosures. Shower stalls are often tiled or clad in smaller pieces of stone, where creative patchwork is a popular style. Choose one larger piece of granite remnant to clad your shower space above the bathtub line or create a beautiful, mixed-remnant design for an entire shower stall.
- Clad one wall (and the floor) with different remnant pieces
- Create a wainscotting two-toned effect
- Design the entire shower enclosure with a multi-grain mosaic pattern
Granite Remnant Flooring and Paving
Remnant is a fantastic way to introduce luxury granite floors to your home flipping project. For a small tiled area, replacing with hard stone floors, or paving the outdoor patio; granite remnant makes excellent stone flooring. You can use even rectangular pieces to make a pattern of grains in the floor. Or you can pave in uneven remnant pieces for an elegant mosaic floor or patio design.
Remnant Granite in the Garden
Granite remnant also makes excellent gardening accents. It’s affordable, beautiful, and naturally holds up well in all weather. Uneven granite remnant can be used in place of pottery pieces as artistic flower bed trim. Or you can cut thin strips of granite to use as edges for your beds and plantes. Granite remnant can be used as independent pavers for garden stepping stones, or large partial slabs can create paved sections of your yard within the landscaping design.
Rare-Find Granite Mantle or Bartop
Sometimes, digging through granite remnant reveals a rare find: a beautiful and vivid – yet smaller – piece of granite that you’d love to use in a one-off project. Home flippers are in a unique position to make use of rare-find granite pieces in smaller projects like the den’s bartop refinishing or a new mantle piece for the fireplace.
These single pieces of granite make beautiful accents when they are an independent part of the room design. Help buyers fall in love with a special flip by accenting with a rare-find in granite remnants.
Granite Chip Trim
Even small pieces of granite can be used to make a home uniquely beautiful. Consider all the places a home flipper traditionally adds a little trim. Try granite-inlaid trim instead. Create a two-row mosaic pattern that looks incredible topping the wainscoting, or as top-of-tile decor in the bathroom. Tiny flecks to hand-sized pieces of granite can be used as trim all through the house and, together, can pull your granite-accented design together from room to room.
Granite Staging Props
Last but certainly not least, you can also use some of your remnant granite as beautiful staging items. Polished granite remnant makes an elegant cheese platter, or a subtle dining table centerpiece when you are staging your renovated home to sell. After all, the flip isn’t complete until adoring buyers purchase the updated property. When remnant shopping, be sure to pick up a few pieces for your staging props selection. Nothing says ‘elegant lifestyle’ like polished stone pieces of decor that subtly match the granite you’ve inlaid into backsplashes and bartops throughout the house.
Home flipping is a valuable and time-honored way to bring old homes back into the fold. Granite remnants are a home flipper’s secret weapon for adding just a touch of budget-ready luxury to unique home renovation projects.