Help - oak or walnut worktop with chalk white in frame kitchen?

[aftereight]

I am having a painted finish, in frame kitchen fitted, and need advice re worktops please. It's a high ceiling, Victorian kitchen. I have chosen flooring with will suit either wood colour.
I want solid wood, and have oak in the budget, but have a bee in my bonnet about wanting walnut. Walnut would be twice the price, and with the deal I have found on oak, it will be 3x the price!
Can't really afford to blow the budget on the walnut, but feel I'll always feel slightly disappointed if I don't. DH is adamant we should stick to the budget.
Any advice please?

You may always feel slightly disappointed if you don't go with the walnut, but you my not. However, it is a better prospect than forking out 3x the money for walnut and thinking "I wish I"d gone with the oak..."

What could you spend that extra money on?

Isn't walnut quite dark?
I really like oak, I think it looks really classic.
Soup has a good point re what you could spend the extra on...

You need to look at the expense in conjunction with the value of your house.

If it's relatively low-value, or small, or you are not planning to live there for a long time, then it may not be worth the investment.

If it's your "forever" house and worth a bit more, then the investment in walnut will make more sense. But it won't grow the value of your house any more than the oak.

Maybe you can economise elsewhere.

Isn't the rule of thumb not to spend more than 5% of the value of the house on the kitchen? Don't know if that still applies.

I have oak and love it.Walnut is lovely though but if you have a budget you may have to cut back elsewhere to have it.All wood takes maintenance to keep it looking good but I have had oak and iroko and oak comes up really well when re sanded iroko doesn't.

Hi, thanks for all your replies, food for thought..

pannacotta yes, walnut is v dark, I like dramatic contrast, have had dark wood (iroko) in the past and loved it.

Cointreau hmm, well that's my thought. We have bought a really good value kitchen, and it is definitely a room with lots of character and needs to look elegant but homely (fairly big 3 storey Victorian house). But I take the point that oak could be more classic when we sell one day in the dim and distant future..

noddy that's really interesting about oak being easier to resand. We had iroko in a previous house but never got to the resanding stage.

soupdragon I don't know why but, you hit a (fickle!) nerve and it made me laugh!

Thanks :)

Not convinced wood is a great option for a work surface but that's another thread. Walnut is softer than oak and might be less suitable for a worktop - have you priced other dark woods like wenge etc - no idea if they would be better but there are worth a look.

Hmm, thanks for the tip off - didn't realise it's softer than oak.

I love wooden worktops but unless you are very careful, they can get a bit shabby so I would for oak on the basis that I could replace it every few years.

If you oil them regularly they stay in quite good shape.A very light sand and re oil every year helps.I do maintain ours though and although oak can be sourced cheaply i have found the really cheap stuff really marks eg ikea.This time I spent more and it really shows.If you oil about 4 times at the beginning and let coats really dry before re doing that helps too.I don't think IO would be replacing these though as they were quite £ for me anyway

Ooh, sanding sounds a great option - I was thinking of replacing a section of mine where a pear fell behind something and rotted causing a horrible big splodge. Do you think I could sand that stain away? It's really dark and noticeable (have put bowl over it as short-term solution ). Would I need to hire one of those mini-belt sanders or would a normal Black & Decker type one do the job?

I just used a small black and decker one it looks like an iron.A really light touch and a bit of oil and its good as new.

We have walnut by accident. Ordered iroko but they delivered walnut and got to keep it. It is a thing of beauty but it does dent and mark easily. I would say nit worth extra but then I am tight!

I have walnut on the island and granite elsewhere which means I can roll pastry on the granite. I absolutely love the walnut although I was completely paranoid about it for the first few weeks. Fitter put 5 coats of oil on it then I put four more on and it's keeping the watermarks at bay well now. I used 0000 wire wool and liberon finishing oil on fitter's recommendation. It does scratch a bit but I don't mind a bit of character - as it's the island it's a bit like a kitchen table. Have cream cabinets and the I love the contrast.

I have a white kitchen and walnut worktop. I love the dark and light contrast. We got ours from barncrest and were very happy with the service and price.

I have had it for 18 months now. It needs a bit of an oil every now and again but it doesn't take very long to do. I did have to sand one part of it back as the grain had risen. This is the spot where I had my slow cooker and the heat had caused a slight raising of the grain. It was sorted easily by a light sand and reoil. I now put the slow cooker on a chopping board and it is fine.

Pics on my profile btw.

I have bone white inframe and oak./ My mate has similar with a big bit of slate as worktop where her oak ran out-looks great

Thanks all, have decided on walnut.
cece great pics, looks lovely!
I have a couple of quotes, one from Barncrest, who I've used in the past. Will post sone pics when it's done. Just need to choose wall/ paintwork colours now.. :)

Cece - lovely kitchen - where did you get your bar stools/chairs, I've been looking for something similar.