Please vote on kitchen work surface. I have to change mine before selling my house.

[Walnutpie]

I prefer wood, and a butler sink. I'm going to have to revamp my kitchen and want to make sure I do it right for not just me right now, but for selling the house soonish. So I need an unblinkered perspective!

What is your ideal work surface, and your ideal sink, please.

I have the same kitchen as Suzy from DIY kitchens. I have had wooden worktops before and wouldn't have them again. I have quartz on my island unit and Duro pal laminate on my 'working' work surfaces. Personally I think IKEA sinks get poor reviews so we bought Franke tap and sink through DIY kitchens. If you want to pm me I can give you an idea of cost but I think you'd definitely get your money back in the sale price. I agree that even if it is not to your new buyers taste, the cost of not doing it (I. E. What buyers will knock off the sale price for factoring in a new kitchen) will be more than it costs. And that's for the people who are willing to make an offer - the fact that it "needs" doing (so having to have the cash up front for it and go through the hassle of a period without a kitchen) might mean some people will simply walk away without making an offer.

We've installed teak/iroko on the perimeter work surfaces and Villeroy & Boch butler sinks in two out of our last three houses and in both cases it has been the kitchen that our buyers fell in love with. The first house (we sold in 2007) was sold again in 2012 and the kitchen was still in situ. This was in the SE (not London). The other house which was in the rural SW, which admittedly is a different animal to London - sold last year - went to a family with three DC and after bursting into tears, the buyer made an AP offer, mainly based on the kitchen!

Personally I love butler sinks - have installed them at our last four houses and have one already to go in here - nothing beats them for depth imho.

I can understand people's aversion to wood worktops though - we had no issues with teak/iroko, but know people that have had beech or oak and they have had issues with water not mopped up immediately which obviously is going to be more likely with young DC.

I'd agree that installing a new kitchen - which may or may not get ripped out by the new owner - whilst it's unlikely to increase the sale price, is imho, likely to facilitate a speedier sale.

Definitely keep to within the style/budget for the type of house - Shaker units with granite/Quartz (or wood!) sound good to me!

Snatch Suzi and Mandy, we are about to order that kitchen! We are thinking about resale in between one and 3 years in London to another family, and that has influenced our decision. We are also going for a light coloured quartz worktop, not decided the exact one, whether it will have a few flecks of something or not. I am actually glad to hear 2 other mums netters have that kitchen as I want to appeal to mass market, my aim for this kitchen is not to make it unique to me, it would be awful to walk away from my genuine dream kitchen so soon after putting it in!

Can I be cheeky and ask what floors you all have? Big deliberation over floors. I would love a wood chevron parquet, but don't know whether wood in the kitchen is a bad idea (and cost is somewhat a factor!)

we have a large kitchen diner so have solid bamboo. Looks lovely (if I do say so myself )

we had wood and butlers sink, never again.

When we sold our house in London, the estate agent told us not to bother doing the kitchen as we wouldn't get our money back. They said that people put in new kitchens and after they've sold you see them in a skip as people like to put in their own kitchens.

I certainly wouldn't be putting in butler sink and nice work top if I was selling. I'd just price the house accordingly.

I hate butler sinks, so my heart sinks if I see them in a kitchen. Totally impractical for a house of tall people like we are.
Worktop, I agree with the pp who said just get a nice fresh budget one if it really needs replacing. No point spending money on something that will probably be ripped out.

For those if you that used DIY kitchens... Their showroom is in west yorks! Did you go to the showroom or just choose from looking online?

You need to balance your needs/likes/wants against saleability of your house.

I'd go for a good quality bog standard vinyl worktop and a stainless steel double sink with drainer.

I think butler sinks look nice but are a total pain to live with, personally. I would not see one as a plus in a kitchen of a house I'm interested in buying.

Walnut, I remember ordering samples. Their doors are made by PWC, who are the suppliers for Second Nature kitchens. So you could always go to a Second Nature showroom, if they are still around. Our kitchen fitter was very impressed with the carcasses and said they were far better than IKEA.

I did actually go to the showroom but it was only about an hour way.

My ideal is a granite worksurface with an undermount sink. The granite drops off into the sink to give you the edges and it looks fab

The house we've just bought has a newish kitchen, which isn't particularly to my taste. We left it in, though we've redone the rest of the house, as it is a v expensive German kitchen with high end built in appliances, granite worktop, built under sink etc. They have obviously spent a lot of money on it, but we wouldn't have paid more as it's not what we would have chosen and I sort if wish they hadn't bothered as I feel like we have to keep it for a while.

I went to IKEA yesterday and was mesmerised by the Quartz that has little reflective pieces in it. It's beautiful! Very different effect from wood, of course, so that's probably why I was so taken with it.

I didn't look at the price of it yet...

I will get myself to a Second Nature showroom, next.

I loved butler sinks....before I installed one. Too low to wash up in comfortably, glass and porcelain smash easily on the bottom, and the sink itself got scratched. Plus there were indeed water leakage problems onto our lovely cherrywood surfaces, which again I would never buy now I know.

I would go for the most classically neutral kitchen that matches the status of the house, with as much care put into storage solutions as colour and worktops. Our new house has a kitchen more than twice the size of our old one, with about the same amount of storage. No idea how! Hopelessly designed.

Yy, am getting very challenged about storage. Thinking if I could get better storage solutions, I could get less actual cupboards taking up the space so that the dining area is larger.

But about sinks...I've always had a Butler and so consider it 'normal', I'm surprised how many dislike them, and really don't know what is preferable.

I think with the sinks, a stainless steel one is more 'normal' so no one really loves or hates them, it's a very neutral choice. A butler sink is much more marmite, people either love or hate them. So a steel sink is not going to wow or alienate anyone, a butler sink is going to wow half and alienate half. I'd go neutral, it's the sink equivalent of magnolia paint.

If you are interested in storage/layout/ergonomics have a look at dynamic space. Ok you don't have to buy all the fancy BLUM inserts and pull outs but you can copy them with cheaper components (Ikea etc) and IMO the layout principles are idiot proof. If you have good storage, you can get away with fewer units. Avoiding too many corner units helps. Having room for a decent dining area would definitely be a selling point for your house. What shape/size is your room?

Steel sink doesn't have to look cheap, look at say Blanco for really nice ones.

I don't like the idea of wooden work tops. They seem really unhygienic to me... Like the germs are going to seep into the wood

Probably just me though!

Thankyou Raising I need something idiot proof. The room is 9ft 10 x 19ft.

The blanco sinks look nice, I like the white ones, don't know how easy they are to clean, only seen online so far. There are so many nice sinks! I had no idea.

Marking place

When we bought our house 2.5 years ago, the kitchen was ancient and in desperate need of a refurb. The previous owners had, however, but in new laminate surfaces and a new stainless steel sink. Yes, they weren't to our taste and they didn't hide the state of the kitchen as a whole, but they did mean it was serviceable and felt 'clean'. We are now in the process of getting the whole lot refitted.

If you think buyer are likely to want to change the whole kitchen relatively quickly, could you do something similar and go with cheap but functional rather than stylish? No point spending lots if they're only likely to be in situ shirt-term.

Actually, Equimum I just was looking at Formica. And I really like it, because you can get it in gorgeous colours, Aqua, pale blue, chartreuse, even! It's lovely.

Very very different from stone or wood, but potentially stylish and super practical.

Although.... Coloured Formica isn't a budget option! Gah!

It's the standard Formica/laminate type tops that are the budget option, and they are all made to look like wood or stone.

There's tons of them! Why O why don't they make pretty Formica widely available? Looks like it's rare, just a company called John Porter.