If you have an island in your kitchen - what kind of worktop do you have?

[lostlalaloopsy]

The question is in the title!! We are building an extension and adding an island to the kitchen. But DH and I are a bit on what to do about the worktop. We were thinking granite but it's pricey! Anyone got any suggestions/recommendations?

We have a Cardene one. The island is 3 metres by 1.5m. It has a purple ledge come breakfast table. No one uses it. Wished we had put a sink in it.

We added an extra island to our kitchen and put a granite top on it to match existing worktops.
What are your current worktops?

White quartz; i think the builder purchased from Ikea. Island has an area for stools so I thought the space would be great for the DCs to do their homework while someone cooks when we were buying. Turns out I'm terrified of DCs getting pen marks/markers on the countertop so now it's not used too much.

We've got silestone on ours, same as the rest of the kitchen. It's brilliant we went with a light marble effect, it doesn't show splashes and doesn't stain. So much better than the granite we had before which never looked clean unless polished all the time (who has time for that!).

You can have a different surface to the rest of your worktops on an island. If you don't have a sink on the island, a wooden worktop can look good and is much cheaper than granite.

Like: www.bordercraft.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/iroko-painted-2.jpg

no, but I formerly had a peninsular between the cooking part and the sitting/eating part.

A stone-effect laminate, same as the other worktops. Laminate is easy to clean, hard wearing, and easy to take off and replace with new at whim. Its only drawback is that it is not expensive.

Carrara marble. Looks beautiful. It's a bugger to keep clean.

Granite on our island

Black granite, it's lovely and very easy to clean.

Marble look Silestone, 4 years old and looks like new.

Oak on island, laminate worktops with sink and hob on. Would have loved all oak but paranoid about keeping it dry round sink.
Natural wood on island is lovely and with woos it's easy to do smooth rounded corners so you don't bash your hip walking by it!

We have a light quartz. It's great as you can do anything to it and it doesn't stain or lose its shine. You can even remove sharpie marks. The only maintenance is a wipe down.

Quartz here too. Brilliant stuff. Looks gorgeous!

Granite. Does need shiing up nicely everytime but completely indestructable and same as the day it went in 14 years later

Oakton island which works really well. In time will replace oak where sink and hob are, as it doesn't work well in those areas. But the island is great in oak.