Help me choose counter, tiles, etc for white shaker-style kitchen

[naturelover]

There, I've decided on white shaker style kitchen, probably Ikea. The kitchen is dark and not very large.

Floor will be the standard beige stone-style tiles.

Walls could be white to match semi-open plan living area - or not?

I'm undecided about type and colour of counter and tiles. Or glass backsplash?

I love the idea of metro tiles but am pretty sure it would be too much white/shiny in one place.

Love the idea of granite but can't afford. Am considering quartz or corian - what are the pros/cons?

If we don't tile backsplash, we'll still need to do something to the windowsill which is by the sink - am I right in thinking that it'll look odd if that's the only part of the kitchen that's tiled?

Decisions, decisions! Would welcome any ideas from those of you with more creativity than me! Thanks

We went for white shaker too. Very similar to Ikea, but local company instead.

In the end for cost reasons we went for Black speckled laminate worktops which actually look lovely.

I hate tiles (or rather, cleaning the grouting between them) so we have gone for glass splashback in fuschia pink.

Hope you find something you like.

We have glass splashbacks and corian workstops. Absolutely love both - extremely practical and easy to clean, no dirt-hiding joins or corners, esp as we had sinks integrated - and corian lasts forever. Not cheap though - never checked but probably comparable to granite? (We had wooden worktops in our previous two houses, which I do think look lovely with Shaker kitchens - but sooo much maintenance to keep them looking good.)

I think you may find that a lot of the corian and quartz is the same price or more as the granite worktops.

I have a white kitchen (but not shaker style).

I went for a walnut solid wood worktop with green tiles (look at the johnsons website for lovely coloured tiles)

Pics on profile.

If the room is naturally dark, i.e, North facing then dark worktops will make it even worse. I would do beech or similar light wood or Kashmir White granite. Don't like Corian, it does damage (no hot pans, no red wine etc anywhere near it or else...) and looks horrid once you've messed it up.

Corian is lovely but same price as granite. Different granites do vary significantly in price, so if you do want granite get quotes for a few different ones - you may find something to suit your budget.

My choice for a white shaker style kitchen would be tiles in 3-4 different colours, randomly mixed. I like uneven, rustic style ones.

I would probably go with a wood worktop and splash out on some nice tiles, but recognise it will need more maintenance.

I think metro tiles would look great and if you use a light grey grout it would give them enough definition that it wouldn't look just like a plain white wall.

I think there have been a few threads recently about discount granite supplies you might want to look at. We used Diapol in our last kitchen and it wasn't much more than hardwood counters. I've also seen a few suppliers on ebay that may be worth looking at. I think a very dark wood would look great there too though maybe stone would reflect light better and keep the space from looking too dark?

Thanks everyone, this has encouraged me to consider granite and I think we can stretch to it! Anyone know if Ikea kitchens are strong enough to support granite counters?