Glossy white worktop in kitchen - am I mad?

[CookieDoughKid]

Designing my new kitchen. It's small but funky and thinking of a German make like Schuller for its clean lines and quality.

I'd love to have a white worktop but I'm not sure if this is realistic. Given we are a busy family, cook ALOT and I need the worktop to last. I would be happy to spend a decent amount of money on it as I think it would be worth it (and I'd use it alot!).

Can you suggest a white worktop? I'm after glossy rather than matt. Even a nice sheen vs glossy I'd consider. Will it stain? Is there any material you'd suggest?? Or am I completely mad and should stay away?! Thanks for reading!

I think all depends on the material rather than the colour. white granite is going to be a completely different prospect to white marble or white laminate.

If you want the worktop to last I'd look at white granite (although this will have colour variations in it too.)

we have had a very pale laminate in the past (white with small flecks) and it stained.

Go for granite or composite, it'll be perfect in white. We have kashmir white granite (white background with grey speckles) or you can have a purer white. High gloss shine, plus we put boiling hot baking trays on it and it has never marked once. A friend has a gorgeous white composite work top - not so glossy, but looks great all the same. She too finds it very easy to use / keep clean etc.

Corian?

Thanks all! For those of you with white granite or composite - how do you cope with coffee & tea stains? Does it wipe off easily? Thanks.

White Quartz is your best option.

Never had a tea stain on our granite, although I do tend to wipe them up quickly. I believe the only real baddie on granite is lemon juice as it can corrode the surface.

we have white corian. It's not glossy though, it's matt. Any tea stains etc get attacked with bar keepers friend and no issues so far. we cook lots and I'm not terribly careful

I have white quartz, with flecks and tiny silver shiny bits in it. It hasn't stained at all, doesn't show any dirt or crumbs, I love it!

I also say White quartz.. I love my quartz... So glad the kitchen designer talked me into it. Every day I caress it.

I'm researching worktops at the moment myself. Quartz seems to be the way to go with the Silestone brand in particular getting rave reviews. I'm going for a polished Silestone but some of the other brands that I looked at seemed to be glossier if thats what your looking for.

Light coloured granites are much more porous than dark granites so I dont think a very light granite would be up to the task.

We have white quartz. I love it. Staining is not a problem. It looks beautiful, feels lovely, cleans easily.

For white, I reckon quartz is best, as everyone else says. Get some samples of everything you're considering and try your best to stain them! We attacked samples with coffee, tea, tomatoes, curry etc.

We have white silestone it was called snow or something like that - it's very good and doesn't mark although every now and again I 'astonish' it as recommended by the fitters which jus seems to liven it up. Would def have it again. We have white tops high gloss white units on the outside and huge island with white tops then cherry wood units underneath oak floor and cherry wood table too soften the white

Thanks all! Great idea to get samples and test them!! I am now going to investigate white quartz.....

Another corian fan. Ours is a pale cream. As somebody else said, bar keepers friend works on any stains - tea, red wine and turmeric all dealt with very easily. Other stains come off with a wet cloth no problem.

Anything pale will stain / mark more easily, even less porous stuff like granite.

Another white quartz kitchen here. We have no stains. But a friend left a wet rusty oven tray on hers and if left an orange stain. Much scrubbing later and it's only just visible but she was quite upset.

Silestone is popular but expensive. Shop around. We were quoted anything from £1,400 to £3,500 for exactly the same product

Another vote for Silestone, it's gorgeous and very resilient.

Super! Thank for the suggestions, really appreciate it!!