New kitchen, advice re colour of teal tile grouting?

[gerbo]

We have had a lot of work done to our house downstairs, including a much needed new kitchen. Units are white gloss shaker style, work surfaces are solid oak.

We are going to have a turquoise/teal colour tile (and white painted walls). The tiles are the long rectangular beveled ones which seem to be around a lot now.

We're having a grouting dilemma! I was thinking a bright white grout to look clean and fresh against the wall and reflect the unit colour. However our builder seems sure a darker shade is better, a contrast, I suppose a light grey? That seems odd to me, would it look dirty? Or would white be too 'swimming pool' ish?!

Looking online I saw there's blue coloured grouting which eliminates the bright grout one and looked great however it seems to be hard to get hold of.

What colour would you choose? Any advice? I'm anxious as I feel this could make or break the kitchen! (Probably OTT but at the moment it's taking up a lot of my thoughts!)

Grey sounds dirty to me. I'd go with white. Your builder is just that. The builder. Not you, the home owner, or an interior designer.

I'd ditch the tiles, and paint between work tops and units teal. That way you can change the colour every year when you fancy a change

The white will be too bright IMO. A contrast like that means your eye will see mostly white oblongs and not teal tiles.

I think

Thanks for your replies.....we are def doing tiles, Fucky, as I cook a lot and reckon they'll be easier to keep decent, not sure I'd trust kitchen paint.

Still not sure re the grouting....grateful for any thoughts...

God think of the dolmio splatters on white grout

Your builder is right to advise you not to have white. We've just had our bathroom tiled in what I guess is a dark cream and used cream grout. White would have looked awful. Have a look at grout colours. I would go with a browny/taupe colour with teal or even cocoa rather than grey. Look for something that tones with your oak work tops.

Sorry, what's wrong with white? I looks fab. Imo.

Seems its a matter of taste......thanks guys for your ideas.

Beautiful, they look grey!

In answer to the question about what's wrong with white - white grout in a kitchen, especially the splash area behind the hob, will quickly get grubby and can be difficult to keep clean. A darker colour also looks much more modern and works with the worktops better imo.

I must keep an exceptionalky clean kitchen then.... I'd still go white white. Coloured grout dates very quickly.

Well it's a matter of taste. Teal and white reminds me of the 1970s. As do orange and brown used together.

We have white tiles and white grout in our kitchen - we didn't put them in - no matter what I do the grout doesn't look bright and white.