Quartz upstands - tiles or not?

[discardedBox]

We're having a new kitchen fitted and are having quartz work surfaces. The company has suggested 100mm quartz upstands - would you tile above these or just have painted walls?

I'm worried about the walls staining with food splashes - does anyone have any experience?

I almost never splash anything except behind the sink or cooker, so I wouldn't tile but would put something in just those areas.

You can get wipeable paint for the odd bit.

We went with acrylic splashbacks with our quartz (you need glass not acrylic if behind a gas cooker though).

100s of colours to choose from, no grouting to clean & were cheap in comparasion to tiles & upstands.

We're really pleased we went with this option as they clean easily (food does splash up pretty far sometimes) & look brilliant. We can also update them easily by getting a different colour in the future.

We went through a local glass company but you can do it over the Internet too.

Gas hob not cooker

Same, our walls were white so we went with a Matt white one and it blended in perfectly.

Have you got wall cupboards? We're just having floor cupboards (is that what you call them??) so no natural place to end the panel.

Same question to snarky bag!

Yes to upstands and I have extended to quartz for a splashback on the hob. I've also had window sills done in the same quartz (white marble). I love it but it probably depends on the type of quartz you've picked and your budget. It's not cheap but lovely

I don't have anything about the upstand. Walls are painted white and can easily be touched up if needed. I've not needed to and it's been in a year. Well used family kitchen. I cook daily

We have bought a house with quartz upstands, tiles behind the hob and painted walls.
We need to put something on the walls, as they are getting destroyed - we must be much messier cooks than the previous owners! Acrylic splashbacks are our current top choice - but we do have wall cupboards, so a natural end point. Good to see them recommended.

Why can't you just pick a top level - after all people stop tiling at convenient points in bathrooms, so why not a kitchen?

I have white marble look quartz that came in two thicknesses, and used the thinner (and cheaper) thickness to go from the worktop all the way to the top of the wall cupboards. Not cheap but looks amazing, so if you don’t have much walk to cover could be an option.

We've tiled above ours, we had originally planned to have glass splashbacks but it turned out our walls are not completely straight (Victorian house) - the kitchen fitters had to be creative to get the quartz upstand looking right and it just wouldn't have worked with glass sheets on the walls. We do get some splashes, nothing severe though, we chose a coloured grout to avoid the discolouration you tend to get with white.

I'm definitely a messy cook! I love the minimal look of just upstands but think maybe it's not for me :(

So need to choose between splash backs or tiles.

The idea of extending the quartz is nice but I think would cost circa £2K extra - so sadly not an option.

We have quartz with the upstand and then just a painted white wall - tile was my preference but DH was dead set against it and it was not something that bothered me that much.

Now I am forever clambering about to clean the wall because the cooktop is so close. We have a Farrow and Ball finish that was recommended for kitchens, but tomato is especially a pain in the neck and it has stained in a few places. We’ve resigned ourselves to a new coat of paint every year.

You’ll still be cleaning it one way or the other, it’s just the staining that’s the real problem I think.

The idea of having to repaint doesn't appeal at all - lower maintenance is appealing - life is busy enough!

We are mid kitchen refit and having the same discussion, looked at acrylic but seems to scratch quickly, have seen a matt finish one in Wicks which looks like it will fair better, but colour choices are limited. My mum has glass splash back behind her hob and sink and this is my preferred option, they can colour match anything, no idea of prices though (mum has incredibly expensive taste).

Kitchen we are replacing had a steel sheet behind hob and just upstands elsewhere and paintwork got really grubby behind sink and I didn’t like the steel, it wasn’t easy to clean. Next to our bin also got grubby so we’re looking at a panel of glass/acrylic behind that too.

No we didn’t have wall cupboards so just did one full run across the wall with the hob not the whole kitchen area. As the walls and splash back were both white it worked well

I’ve got antiqued mirror splashbacks. Easy to wipe clean, and no grout to keep fresh looking.

@discardedBox. We've got them in 2 places - behind the hob which does have wall cupboards so they fit round them, and at the end of the breakfast bar which has no cupboards. We did it as wide as the breakfast bar and about 20 cms high. Looks good.

I wouldn't worry about having no wall cupboards, and just stop it where you would stop the tiles if you don't want the whole area done.

Definitely look at using a glass company for it rather than wherever you got your kitchen from as they will be cheaper and have more colour options.

Good luck

If you go for tile or a splashback, I wouldn't bother having the upstands. It's just more joins and siliconed bits to keep clean.

Thanks all - we've decided on tiles as know the wall will get splashed if we just have paint

Will talk to the company who are measuring this week about the silicon/joins for upstands.

Great advice! 😊

So in case anyone is interested - we went for upstands and 4 rows of tiles which we also extended to behind the hob (more than 4 rows) instead of a splash back and we're really happy with it. Thanks so much for all of the advice - I really appreciate it 😊

We had a quartz overlay on our worktops and matching panels on the walls. It's brilliant and so easy to keep clean. Doesn't stain or mark with pot pans or sharp knives. Can't stand grouting

You already decided but you can get quartz splashbacks rather than upstands. The upstands don't do much and you end up with stained/peeling paint. We therefore chose quartz splashbacks for a cohesive look, and there is no grout with large slabs. The cost was surprisingly low (about 300 pounds extra for 2x1m splashbacks incl fixing, so similar to what we would have paid for tiles, labour and adhesive).