11 Ways To Use Stone Countertop Remnants In Your Home Decor

We've all been there after a big home remodel when we're left with so many extra materials, and we're not quite sure how to dispose of them. Even the most budget-friendly of home upgrades might leave you with an excess of tools and pieces that end up cluttering your home, or worse going into the trash. While there are some items that can be easily returned, things like off-cuts of countertop stone are harder to get rid of and can feel wasteful going into the garbage. But with stone countertop remnants, in particular, there are a host of ways to upcycle the stone to use in your home decor.

Demolition and home remodeling can be a wasteful business, and in fact nearly a quarter of construction waste comes from remodels or home upgrades. However, with a little imagination, it's definitely possible to creatively reuse items that you may have thought were destined for the trash. With these ideas to use stone countertop remnants in your home decor, you'll be decreasing your environmental footprint and have a unique decoration piece that's ultra special to your home or makes for a great gift!

Sometimes the off-cuts from your countertops are strange in size, like the round-ish piece that comes from cutting out a space for your sink. Embrace the curves for this idea, and make a matching lazy Susan to sit on your countertop. The tonal piece will look incredibly chic in your kitchen, but it's also extremely functional, housing anything from easy-to-access spices or kitchen tools. By simply adding some lazy Susan hardware to the underside of a round cut, you'll have a whole custom piece in your kitchen.

This option is fantastic for any strangely shaped or sized countertop remnant since you can creatively interpret what you want your cheeseboard to look like for a unique hosting piece. Serving cheese on a platter like this just adds a touch of class to your hosting duties, and friends with a keen eye will see that it matches your countertops in your home. As an added bonus, you could make a number of differently shaped cheeseboards out of your remnants for future host or hostess gifts as well. 

For any odds and ends from your leftover countertops, you can make a bar soap dish, proving that even the most compact of pieces can be reused and recycled. This particular project works well with less porous stone countertop options like quartz since likely the soap dish will be exposed to plenty of moisture by the sink and from people with wet hands handling the soap. Add a layer between your stone soap dish and the porcelain sink with some rubber feet at the bottom of the dish to prevent it from scratching the sink surface.

Make yourself a bespoke matching coffee table with your countertop remnants to add some design cohesiveness between the rooms where the countertop is featured and your other living spaces. Sometimes it can be difficult to find furniture that matches your aesthetic, so with this idea, it's one less piece you have to think about. And, if you have an excess of your countertop material, you could try making a matching end table.

Much like the lazy Susan idea, a cake stand made from remnants of countertop cuts is another great tonal decor idea for your kitchen. There are many genius ways to repurpose a cake stand in your home, so if cake-making isn't a big hobby of yours, this piece can serve as a chic decorative item that helps fashionably display things around your house, like that aesthetically pleasing candle in the living room or those stunning perfume bottles in the bathroom.

Another great way to repurpose the smaller remnants of the stone countertop, you can make coasters of all different shapes and sizes, each with their own unique patterning and veining pulled from different parts of the stone. Stone coasters are also exceptional gift items for the holidays or housewarming parties, and it'll just mean so much more that you made them, or had them made, for the recipient. While they are incredibly sturdy pieces to use, stone coasters can double as a decorative element in your kitchen and living room.

If you have a thicker countertop, and the cuts may feel a little too bulky for something like coasters or a cake stand, then fashioning a few matching book ends to decorate your bookcases may be just the idea for you. Piece together a couple of geometrically shaped blocks to add some dimension, or go simple and classic with rectangular pieces so that the books are the true stand outs. Either way, this is an incredibly creative way to reimagine some of the odder, bulker pieces left over from your countertop install. 

We've all been there when a trivet you use under a hot pan isn't quite thick enough and ends up transferring some unsightly marks onto your wooden tables. But, with a trivet made from your hardy countertop pieces, you'll have an equally functional and fashionable serving item. While trivets can come in a variety of shapes, this is another great idea for those strange cut-outs from the sink. If you opt for square or rectangular trivets, though, they can also double up as serving platters or really substantive placemats as well.

Crafting a chic candleholder from some of the leftover pieces of a really luxe countertop stone is an incredibly imaginative way to make sure those expensive pieces can be reused. The simplest method is to drill a tealight-sized hole somewhere on a mid-sized slab for a low-key yet still tasteful candleholder. However, if you're not comfortable with stone-cutting machinery, a professional can help you make some bigger statement candle holders that can house larger, multi-wick candles for ultimate luxury vibes. A local stone fabricator, like the one who cut your countertops, should be able to help you.

Sometimes when the first cut in a countertop is made, it's not always straight, so you'll get some strange angles or wedge-like cut offs. While some may think of those pieces as net losses, you can re-engineer them as stunning doorstoppers under your interior doors. While a little shaving or extra cutting may be involved with this idea, it's one of the easier, lower-stress stone accessories you can make. Even if you are unable to achieve that perfect wedge shape for an under-door stopper, a large block of marble — in any shape — can be used to prop a finicky door open.

There are many ways you can forge a paperweight from stone countertop remnants. It can be as easy and simple as cutting an extra block from the leftover pieces of the stone, or you can get creative and craft some more interesting shapes like pyramids or semi-spheres. Another great gift, particularly for those starting their first office job or for friends who have at-home offices, you can potentially get many of these little decorative pieces made from the off-cuts, all in various sizes and shapes.