Acrylic type worktops? / Pietra or Minerva?

[LoobyLou2709]

So we are finally doing our kitchen, and having to make a decision on the worktop! The very helpful lady in the shop went through all the types of worktops, she said the Acrylic worktops (Pietra or Minerva range) are becoming increasingly popular as they are classed as a solid surface, but are a lot more affordable than your granites, Quartz, Dekton etc, I've done a lot of googling and looking on MN but can't seem to find any reviews, would be nice to hear if anyone has this and what there thoughts are, I LOVE Quartz, but having done a major amount of renovation to our house our budget just won't stretch sadly!

Have you priced it up for your space? For us, because of the number of pieces we'd need it didn't work out much cheaper than quartz.

We are having Minerva in our kitchen. We originally wanted granite and had budgeted for it.

What swayed me was this blog www.swoonworthy.co.uk/2017/11/minerva-worktops-review.html/

It was so informative about Minerva.

But also, the builder who suggested it and we went with gave us a reasonable sized sample to try. Not the tiny 4cm piece they have in showrooms! It felt solid and not plastic like which we were worried about. We have stain tested it and checked we liked how it felt to put glasses on it (I like hearing a clink of solidness). We tried curry, red wine, tumeric and green marker pen. They all came out. Tumeric was the worst but even that came out after a few goes with a cloth.

Also, it's slightly easier to fit as it's done in situ rather than templated. It adds to the savings!

If I hadn't been given the sample (which I still have as using it to match up to tiles etc) then I wouldn't have gone with Minerva. We are going with calcatta marble.

There are a lot of images on instagram if you search hashtag Minerva (I can't get the symbol yo come up on my laptop!)

We spoke to the people at Makeover Centre about what was the best worktop for us and they recommended laminate as it comes in many different shades and is the closest thing you can get to those Instagram worthy shot.

Maybe get in touch with them as they can offer you advice on the phone and might change your mind.

Thank you so so much for your super helpful replies! We have just had quotes through and you were correct and that the Acrylic came in at £700 more than the Quartz! 😱
I think I went a tad crazy when designing the island and am now paying for it.. Very helpful article about the Minerva, I have read through so thank you for the link, really don't know what to do now!

Gosh that's a lot!

There are some slimmer profile square edge laminates around with reinforced edging - topshape, eggar and spectrum(? Spectra?). These brands all do 38mm profiles but we specifically went for a thinner one. They are eye wateringly expensive compared with standard laminate but still massively cheaper than quartz. We went with that in the end, but if we'd been buying the kitchen through Magnet I was tempted by Maxtop.