Run out of money for worktops - do we get laminate??? Help!

[Ipanema01]

We've spent 90k trying to get our house finished and we've run out of money for the Quartz worktops we wanted. I've seen an ordered a sample of b&q veneto laminate, which has the look of the Quartz we want - any thoughts on this?

We plan on staying here for the foreseeable future so it's not a do up and rent out kind of thing, and I'm so worried we are going to buy something that's going to cheapen the whole house. The cabinets are Ikea and I feel like we need to luxe them up a bit with stone! We also have a completely open plan ground floor so the kitchen is the focal point of the house.
My OH wants to go for the laminate for splash back and worktops, and get the Quartz just for the island (it seems to match). I'm so worried it's going to be a big mistake.

Help!

Have you thought about getting a cheap laminate and getting it covered with a granite overlay? - there's a company that do this kind of thing whose work I've seen and it looks pretty good - www.granitetransformations.co.uk

Another vote for Duropal we have it in grey slate effect and it's absolutely superb and cost less than £150 for the whole kitchen!

We contacted a local stone company and asked them about off cuts from other jobs and managed to do our kitchen in the exact colour quartz we wanted from that. The only downside was that we needed a join at the corner but it looked fine and was a very good price. They cover west London, Middlesex marble.

Hi OP, we were in a similar predicament to you when we did our kitchen 2 years ago. We ended up credit carding the quartz as like you we'd gone for 'economical' benchmarx units which needed blinging up and laminate just wasn't going to give the kitchen the wow factor. We shopped around and found Domo Stone in Slough - I still to this day can't work out how they keep their prices so low but we ended up paying £4K with them when other places were quoting £6+. Highly recommend. They also do a glass service so we got our splashback from them too, coloured to the exact Dulux colour I wanted.

Not tiles (at all). Just have upstands with a painted wall behind. Very contemporary and minimalist (although I may be biased - that's what I have)

Do you have any pictures, NameChanged?

I've been flip flopping on the whole tile idea as I don't like glass splashbacks.

Thanks so much everyone for taking the time to reply. I've told oh no way to the laminate, I'm too nervous about it. We'll have to find a way! I've emailed mister marble for samples and a quote, will try Domo Stone too, thank you. If we could get it for 4K inc vat that would be much more doable.
I'm not keen on doing an interim fix, I know it'll never be changed
Looking at it now I can't imagine it without the beige, stained mdf...!

shortlass camera is rubbish and odd layout with window. Can post better pic in the daylight tomorrow.

Stainless steel?

We've got a similar dilemma at the moment. We decided to go for good quality laminate in the end.

Issue is that most laminates listed above, standard size is 600mm which is too narrow for IKEA cabinets.

We used top shape, 1.5 x the cost more than most expensive laminate at Howdens but it's 650mm depth so can be used with IKEA cabinets (IKEA worktops are 638mm).
www.topshapeworktops.co.uk

They can customize it with curves for you too. We've gone for white star Astro.

Glad you are not going for laminate.

It can look ok-ish but you can't put hot pans directly on it.

Ultimately it will start looking tatty.

I love granite, we have a beautiful polished granite work top and it is so forgiving, I can even cut something on it without a chopping board, put hot pans on etc.

It's 20 years old but still looks great (rest of kitchen falling apart though )

I saw a make over programme that used recycled glass bottles as work tops. The homeowners wanted granite but couldn't afford it so the "experts" used this instea. It looked fab. The bottles are smashed up and reconstituted with resin, then polished. It just looked like stone to me. The programme is a Canadian show called My Dream Home. However there are UK suppliers of the product. Try Google.

I'd like to put in a good word for Affordable Granite in Surrey. They cover your area. We had a granite worktop and island from them, which I am very pleased with. It looks as if other stones are available, and they definitely lived up to their name.

Thank you! I'll try Affordable Granite too