close

How To Choose Your Kitchen Worktops

So you’ve chosen the kitchen cupboards, selected the white goods – sorry stainless steel – and commissioned the bespoke door handles. Time for the worktop. And this is where you get to really make a statement.

from kitchenworktopsuk.co.uk
from kitchenworktopsuk.co.uk

Gone are the days when you were being quite posh if you chose wood, announcing your wealth if you ran to granite and, like most people, just selected the right shade of laminate and forgot about it.

Now, if you are looking to create your dream kitchen, you can choose from dozens of different materials, including stone, quartz composites, corian and glass, not forgetting those old favourites, wood and stainless steel.

kitchen worktop image from lacucina.de
corian worktop image from lacucina.de

“Glass is the ultimate wow factor for kitchen worktops,” says Robyn Gifford, a consultant at Roundhouse Design. “It’s tough, it’s beautiful and it comes in any colour you like. It’s also low maintenance, although it does scratch if you are wearing a diamond ring.”

Some might say that if your diamonds are big enough to scratch your worktops, you probably aren’t doing your own cooking.

recycled glass worktop from bottlealleyglass.co.uk
recycled glass worktop from bottlealleyglass.co.uk

Julia van den Berg, of Decoglaze, says: “Glass is becoming a major trend. One of its great strengths is that we can do lengths of 3.8m, which means that there are fewer joins.

“You can literally have any colour you want. We operate a colour matching service so you can bring in a sample of the paint you are using on the walls or the cupboards and we can match it.”

glass worktop from glasslogic.co.uk
glass worktop from glasslogic.co.uk

Neutral colours are always the most popular but sometimes a really strong shade can really add something special to a space.

glass kitchen worktop from maldonglass.co.uk
glass kitchen worktop from maldonglass.co.uk

The other popular choice is Corian. Paul McDowell, from DuPont Surfaces, says: “We offer 70 colours of Corian but by far the most popular colours these days is one of the many variations of white, although some more daring customers occasionally buck the trend and go for a vibrant shade such as celestial blue or indus red.”

Robyn agrees that Corian is having a fashion moment. “It can be moulded which makes it very hygienic as you can use it for both your sink and worktop together so there are no joins, so there will be no water damage and nowhere for germs to congregate.

corian worktop from kitchenemporium.co.uk
corian worktop from kitchenemporium.co.uk

“One of the reason our clients like it is that consistency of colour. Granite has natural variations but Corian is very uniform and they like that. Everyone wants pale colours now. They also don’t want to spend thousands of pounds on a colour that might be unfashionable in six months time.”

But what about wood? That staple of the kitchen worktop. It’s environmentally friendly, warm to touch and very natural.

wooden worktop, image from roomenvy.co.uk
wooden worktop, image from roomenvy.co.uk

John White, managing director of Anderson Sinclair designers, is blunt. “When people come to me asking for wood, I usually manage to dissuade them,” he says.

“It is beautiful but there are too many negatives. It burns, it’s porous which makes it unhygienic if you have an undermounted sink as it collects germs and gets damaged, and you have to re-oil it every few months.”

image from housetohome.co.uk
image from housetohome.co.uk

But he adds that there’s nothing wrong with using a mix of surfaces. “The old concept of the triangle of the cooker, sink and fridge is outmoded now. We work in zones. Wood for the eating area, Corian for the sink and food prep and perhaps granite round the cooker where it needs to be able to withstand hot pans.”

As for me? I have stainless steel. It can take the abuse of hot pans, water and scratches without making a fuss. Yes, it is quite an industrial look but we have softened it with leather handles on the cupboards and reclaimed painted floorboards that are an antidote to the cool modernity of the steel. And basically, if it’s good enough for a professional restaurant it’s good enough for me.

stainless steel kitchen worktop
stainless steel kitchen worktop

And, I quite like how it goes with the tin ceiling too.

Further reading on how to plan the perfect kitchen

1
my stainless steel worktop

 

 

Tags : glass worktopskitchen worktopsstainless steel worktopswooden worktops
Kate Watson-Smyth

The author Kate Watson-Smyth

I’m a journalist who writes about interiors mainly for The Financial Times but I have also written regularly for The Independent and The Daily Mail. My house has been in Living Etc, HeartHome and featured in The Wall Street Journal & Corriere della Sera. I also run an interior styling consultancy Mad About Your House. Welcome to my Mad House.

8 Comments

  1. Hello, could I get your stainless steel supplier please? It’s exactly what I’m looking for (on a budget. A small one!)

  2. The point you made about the mix of surfaces in a kitchen seems very on trend. We have a huge amount of customers now mixing glass, stone and solid surface materials in their work spaces. Interesting read, thanks.

  3. Informative post! I agree that it is an important step to choose the right worktop for your kitchen. Besides Granite, there are several other options available these days. Quartz, ceramic, laminated, etc. worktops are also getting popular. The variation in color and patterns of the stone you are choosing for your worktop should match with the interior and accessories in the kitchen.

  4. I have kitchen envy reading this! Recycled glass is amazing, the manufacturer I used suggested I to go to the factory and choose the proportions of each colour & material to be used in the worktop – we had shells collected from Brighton restaurants in the mix, and it looked fantastic when it arrived.

  5. I’ve always fancied the idea of a worktop made from thick, mat, pale green glass – a little bit like one of those stones that can be found on beaches. Given the choice though, I’d probably stick with a thick, dark wooden one, it always looks great even when aged.

Comments are closed.