choosing worktops - advice appreciated!

[fortyfourfeasts]

We have quite a large kitchen, about 5 x 4m. We have a kitchen design that includes an island which will be about 3 x 1m. The worktops around the walls will be oak, we are trying decide what to do with the island. I like a white/grey marble effect quartz, while dh prefers a black/grey granite. The quartz gives a lighter effect (grey gloss cupboards) and the granite gives a dramatic effect. I'm concerned that it might overwhelm the room and look too busy (with grey cupboards, cranberry coloured range, black splashback).
Can anyone offer any thoughts?! Or any info about the look/longevity/durability of quartz and granite?

I have granite. It is very durable! I have a grey/white/black speckled! My island is about 3.3m x 1.4 m. Cupboards both sides.

My bigger issue is with oak. We have it in a flat and it needs tlc all the time. It stains and it needs good quality sealing to keep it looking good. If you are remotely messy, it's a pain. Granite is so much better. Or quartz.

Thanks. Good to know granite is hard wearing, have read it can chip and stain. We are having the oak treated with an oil that is meant to be very good, but do understand it needs careful looking after.

We have oak around the walls and are getting Tristone (a composite like Corian which is better known) for the island which has the sink and dishwasher in it. We originally were going with a dark grey but have settled on a much lighter colour which is closer to the colour of the oak.

With your lovely sounding range I'd be tempted not to have a dark island top and make the range the real feature.

Oh and use Osmo on the oak - we tried Danish oil but it just wasn't protective enough and DP is not careful!

I've just had a white/grey marble effect quartz put in our kitchen (mid grey units) and I love it. It's really easy to clean and hasn't stained etc at all. We also looked at Dekton but it was only available in 20mm thickness and was more expensive.

Here are some photos. We put a big slab behind our range cooker and I think the island is approx 2x1.5m.

Wow that looks amazing! Makes my heart beat faster as that is what I visualised for our kitchen.
The oil we were told to use is osmo oill!

It was a labour of love and took a lot of research (should have gone with a proper kitchen company rather than sourcing everything ourselves but couldn't afford the De Vol/Tom Howley prices)!

Not sure where you live but we used The Marble Group in Welham Green for the quartz. Not very convenient for us (SE London) but they were very helpful and did a great job. We went to see the different options in their stone yard which really helped to visualise it.

jw I'm having worktop conumdrums too.

Can I ask why you chose to not have the upstands running to the left and right of the gas burners?

I'd have thought they were some of the most vulnerable areas?

I'm swithering over upstands and wondered how effective they are.

We do have upstand at the front of the pillars now - they forgot to bring those bits when they came to do the original fitting! It turned out that the island piece wasn't quite big enough first time round either so they had to come back and replace the island plus finish the upstand.

The upstand has worked well so far. The only place which I think needs more protection is behind the sink for splashes etc. We haven't seen much of a mess from the hob although I do tend to cook on the front burners.

This was the final version so quartz lining the walls above the range and then upstand to the left and right on the front of the pillars....

That does look beautiful. We are in Notts, so quite a long way from the place you recommend! We are going to have a look at some whole slabs this weekend which will sway one or the other of us!

jw I love your kitchen esp the floor can you tell me what cabinets they are please and also what flooring, if you don't want to say on thread perhaps if you had the time to PM me. we are beginning our long kitchen journey.

Our flat oak work surface was oiled but it just needs constant attention. Granite or other stone composites or Corian are way better. Granite is more or less bomb proof unless you literally drop a ton weight on it!

We have white quartz with a slight sparkle. Love it.

Kitchen designer told me to avoid dark, black as we live in a very hard water area, and the limescale would start to mark it unless we were super fastidious about wiping and polishing.

@Blowingthroughthejasmineinmymi
Of course - no problem!
Cabinets are from Handmade Kitchens Direct (also known as Handmade Kitchens of Christchurch) they are all bespoke but v v reasonable when they have 50% off (which is often as with all kitchen companies). They were then painted in a furniture paint colour matched with Little Green Mid Lead.

The flooring is from Eco Flooring Uk - all reclaimed wood. The website is at www.ecoflooringuk.com/mobile/. It is not cheap but we met them at a home renovating show and they had a good offer on for visitors. I think he does quite a lot of shows so worth trying to seek them out.

Happy to answer any other questions. It was a long project but I'm very happy with it now (and relieved to have my kitchen back)!

Thank you jw really useful!

Which quartz did you get JW13? We've been looking at quartz and it's bloody hard to tell what a worktop will actually look like from a 3"x3" square. We were thinking about silestone bianco river (which, I think, looks similar to what you've got).

No problem @Blowingthroughthejasmineinmymi

@MiladyThesaurus It's actually Unistone (Carrara Venatino is the colour/style).

We looked at Silestone but couldn't find any colour/pattern that was quite right. We also looked at the gloss version of Dekton (which is the same manufacturer as Silestone) but it was v v expensive and we were worried it would scratch as it is very high gloss, although it is supposed to be hard wearing (the colour was called glacier or tundra I think). We wanted to look at Caesarstone but we were told that it was pretty much out of stock in the Uk so had to forget that.

The good thing about the Unistone was they've just started doing XL slabs so we could get a slab that was big enough for our island without any joins.

I can't recommend strongly enough viewing a big slab before you order as it does look so different compared to the little squares.

If you're in London Cosentino (Silestone/Dekton) have a showroom near Old St/Barbican where you can see the slabs and they were really helpful.

Hi JW13 I'm so pleased to hear that someone else has unistone ...we are getting Bianca carrera ..looked at silestone but it was too veiney..unistone is very subtle with the grey going through it ..couple of questions if you don't mind ..
Is it easy to maintain ?
I have 4 grown sons and they make lots of tea ,is it a case of wiping the teabag/drips off the counter straightaway ? if not would it need a good scrub ? We are going away for a week soon after its installed and I'm going to be worrying about my counter I know it !! I've heard barkeeper's friend is meant to be very good.
What daily cleaning spray do you use? Thanks in advance

Hi jigster01 We have only had the work surfaces for a few months and so far they have been great and very easy to clean. I bought barkeepers friend in advance and haven't even opened it yet. Everything has wiped off very easily although I am quite strict about checking all the time (and no offspring to make a mess yet)!
We do have a draining rack and I only remember to look under that every couple of weeks or so and there has been no lasting marks even though it's often wet and a bit grimy. Completely different to the previous wooden worktop which we completely destroyed.
I generally have just wiped it down with a wet cloth and sometimes dry with kitchen roll or a towel to avoid smears. To be honest with the pattern I can barely see marks/smears so sometimes a mark will be on a for a few days without me realising .

Thanks JW13 very reassuring!!!

Having just googled the 2 Unistone colours I've realised we did also look at Bianca carrera but wanted a more defined grain so went with the Carrara Venatino. The Bianca carrera did also look really nice when we saw a big slab though. Good luck!

Thanks JW13. We're nowhere near London but we've just seen a big slab of bianco river silestone. It definitely helps to see what it would actually look like.