A hassle freekitchen worktop that also looks nice

[amysaidno]

I am currently researching kitchen worktops. My DH wants black granite but I'm worried that it's going to take a lot of looking after. Looking at granite care it looks like a lot of things can cause permanent stains. We currently have wood which is ok but needs oiling and spills need to be cleaned up pretty quickly. Saying that, if it is damaged quite badly, it can be sanded and re-oiled. What else could we have that looks great and is unlikely to be wrecked by kids?

Well, actually DH and I like our laminate. DH is a terrific cook, loves to have all day cooking sessions catering for huge numbers, and is notoriously messy during the cooking and clean up process.

We've gone for high-quality laminate twice now, because DH hates granite and I know that wood would never survive him. It looks very good, and stays looking pristine with little effort.

watching with interest. I'm not v good at cleaning/maintenance. We have stainless steel which I don't like, and some wood, which I hate. Granite would be lovely but I live in a hard water area and I think it's too high maintenance. I always start with good intentions but there's no point pretending I'll follow the advice to "just give it the once over with a microfibre cloth after every use" or whatever.

oooh! Laminate sounds promising. After reading your post GrendelsMum I had a quick search for laminate worktops. A lot of it seems to be mock stone/granite or mock wood. Does this look anything like the real thing? Or is it best to steer away from direct imitations?

LCPO - you sound just like me with the good intentions!

Exactly! You start with good intentions, don't keep them up, and then it looks grim.

The quality of the mock wood varies a lot between the manufacturers and the type of the wood. We found that even with the same manufacturer, some of the wood looked much better than others. Light wood especially seems to come out looking a bit off. Ours is mock damson wood, neither too dark or too light, which we think looks very attractice. It's obviously not wood, because it's too smooth and glossy and perfect looking, but it looks good. The best thing about it is that you can be a bit of a slob for a week and when you come to clean up, it goes back to looking perfect.

I have black granite and I never look after it and it is bomb proof. In fact this is the first time I have noticed that you should look after it-oops

My black granite gets an occasional wipedown with a microfibre cloth (when visitors are coming!), and always seems to look fine. I haven't observed any other rules about looking after it.