Kitchen worktops

[Isthisit22]

We’re prob getting a fairly modern high gloss kitchen but stuck for what to use for the worktops.
Had real wood a couple of years ago and though it looked great, it was a nightmare to look after.
Quartz looks good but pricy and haven’t seen any laminates that didn’t look cheap. Any suggestions?
We’ve had massive building work one so a it skint at this point but don’t want to ruin it with cheap looking counter tops.

Hi, you are trying to solve the big question here. Unfortunately there is precious little in the way of mid range worktops. There is cheap laminate and expensive laminate but at the end of the day it's still laminate. Next up is wood and then there is a big jump in price to solid surface like Minerva, quartz and granite. Even the thin worktop cladding stuff offers little in the way of savings.

If you are looking to keep down solid worktop costs there are a number of ways of doing it. Firstly design the kitchen so there are preferably no joints. This may seem impossible at first but you can use a free standing cooker eg. harback.co/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/inch-wolf-stove-between-counters-slide-in-versus-freestanding-range-difference-and-gas-best-high-end-ranges.jpg And you can use a sit-on sink, 2 examples here eg www.kitchensinksandtapsdirect.co.uk/media/catalog/product/cache/7/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/b/u/butler_60_sink.jpg sinkadvice.co.uk/sit-on-sinks/4594101856

This offers the added bonus of no sink fitting to worktop costs which can add considerably cost to the total.

With a bit of imagination you can often create a kitchen with stand alone worktop pieces ( pop on tops as we call them) This now gives you the option of just buying cut to size pieces of worktop and just having the kitchen fitter put them on. You can even buy many solid surface worktops in ready made 620mm widths, polished three edges and just have someone cut them to length on site.

Lastly, although most may have similar retail cost, many worktop colours cost much less to the supplier than others so there is more scope for bargaining. Some of the Eastern Block quartz materials are also very good quality but less pricey than the Spanish or Italian brands. The same goes for Acrylic tops. Some types of granite too like Bianco Sardo and others which have lower wholesale costs so there is more scope for discounting.

Even if you can't do all of the above for practical reasons even adopting some of the ideas can considerably reduce the finished cost yet still leaving you with a classy looking kitchen .

Good Luck

I've got a gloss with kitchen with a granite top. I'm so pleased we spent the extra money. Six years on it's still a stunning kitchen.

We got Minerva in a white marble finish. Agonized over the extra money. But it is really lovely and I’m really glad we did it.

I'm planning on recycled glass tops for my new one. A friend had it done and it looks fantastic and has survived really well

We have Quartz. Shop around, I live on the outskirts of London and had a company in Yorkshire come down and fit ours for around half the price of what we were being quoted locally.

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Quartz won't age, or mark and looks amazing

I agree with all the above. Solid surface is the way to go if your budget can stretch to it. They are all streets ahead of laminate and wood in my opinion.

I’ve got white mirror chip quartz and love it. We ummed and ahed but it was worth it.

We did the same, had loads of laminate samples but just couldn't get it right so went for quartz in the end and love it. Get loads of quotes, find somewhere small and haggle and haggle!

Whats your budget?

Lunastone quartz is excellent quality and is priced at the lower end of the quartz price range (but still in the £ks). www.quartzworktopsdirect.com/ is the manufacturer website and the cover nationally.

I previously had Ikea laminate which looked good, lasted well, I had it over 10 years, and only changed it as we refurbished the kitchen. That was priced in the hundreds rather than thousands.

We have the cheapest silestone in our kitchen; it's great. On the other hand, my DF's 25 year old kitchen with laminate worktops still looks amazing. So decent laminate can look nice if you look after it. His kitchen is handleless white with matching worktops. Doesn't look older than 5 years and was installed almost 30 years ago.

Following this - currently trying to pick a work surface too.

Thanks everyone. We have managed to find an independent company local to us who can do the quartz for £1200 cheaper than Wren (who were getting the kitchen from) so we’re going with that. Very happy

Isthisit22. Good choice, I am sure you won't regret it.