Zinc Look Countertops
I am doing a cottage style kitchen design for a kitchen in a really charming Inman Park home and have been looking into zinc countertops for it. I’m finding the whole zinc thing a bit of a mystery. Some people say they can’t get zinc. Some people say that their table tops are zinc when they are really galvanized steel with a patina. Some admit their tops are steel with a patina and that they do that since the zinc only comes in 39″ sheets. Some tops that are supposed to be zinc look to me that they are really galvanized. Oh my, just whats a girl to do?
Well, forget the zinc/steel controversy. I finally found a table top I really like a lot from a vendor named Lindy Wright who has a booth each month at the Scott Antique Market and a company called Millwrigh (678-595-7725). I have bought a variety of things from Lindy in the past and have always admired her handsome zinc look tables. So when I needed some “zinc” countertops made I asked her. She says they make theirs with galvanized steel but put a patina on it that weathers it to a smooth zinc look. Then she puts on several coats of a special matte varnish and finally gives it a few coats of wax. Her tops are also nicer than most because she finishes the edges by screwing down a a 1.5″ wide band of iron which she paints with a glaze giving it a antiqued quality.The nicest thing is the price. For a top to go on an Island that is 75″ by 45″ the price is $595.00.
The StarrLong metal fabricator/artisits in Roswell. who do beautiful work wanted $3,200 for a zinc countertop top that size and it would have to have a seam in it. Way to much for the current budget. But they gave me a price of $800 to make a killer looking custom zinc vent hood cover. So I guess we get the best of both a galvanized countertop that looks like zinc and a real zinc hood vent. Yippee.
