Oh please help me with my worktop again

[PersisFord]

I’m useless. I have ordered a matt white handleless kitchen from DIY kitchens and was so relieved to have made that choice...but now I am TOTALLY STUCK for worktops and floors and everything. I have just about got the budget for quartz worktops and was thinking of a pale grey concrete look....but the kitchen is north facing and I’m worried it will suck in all the light like some kind of Dementor. But the sparkly ones are all so....sparkly. And the non-sparkly grey ones look like the skanky laminate I have just merrily waved off in the skip. And I have lived in about a million rental properties and the mid-greys all look like the standard worktop put into a BTL property. And I painted this whole house grey when we moved in and have FINALLY got rid of it so I have a bit of anxiety about grey again.

I wish I had gone for coloured units so I could have a white worktop....but I didn’t.

I want to love my worktop. Other people love theirs. I have spent MANY HOURS in showrooms looking at near-identical squares of quartz. Pinterest is failing me. Please help!!

people who have white worktops of any kind, do you find they’ve stained from anything?

Not so far. Black tea, ketchup, curry - all come off with no more than the scrubby side of the washing sponge and hot soapy water.

Thanks T and Buzz - Buzz what type is yours?

El cheapo Ikea laminate! £50 a pop for the 2.4m
Very happy with them!

Having just gone through a kitchen refit and spent a similar amount of hours agonising, you have my sympathy!

My suggestions would be:

• Go for white worktops anyway, and add colour using tiles, splashbacks and/or paint

• Go for white worktops with a grey marble vein - look at Silestone Et Calacatte Gold www.silestone.co.uk/colour/et-calacatta-gold/ for an example, but most brands do something similar

• Go for grey with a tiny amount of sparkle. I know you said you found any sparkle too sparkly, but I have Silestone Crema Stellar, and I find it lovely and subtle. As the name suggests, this is a sandy/creamy colour (which I do think works with white, it is nice a warm), so if you wanted great, something like Stellar Grey would look really nice - kinda concrete-y, but a bit more interesting www.ivettandreed.co.uk/worktops/featured-installations/quartz/silestone-grey-stellar/

I have white quartz. It has a tiny speckle. If you leave a splash of tea or tomato it will stain but I have bought Barkeepers Friend as a result of Mumsnet and it deals with everything.

www.diy.com/departments/kilrock-bar-keepers-friend-multi-surface-cleaner/653077_BQ.prd?ds_rl=1272379&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIppCUrbHa4wIVArTtCh2NsA8MEAQYAiABEgJMR_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I am veering more and more to just plain white worktops with wooden floors and mustard coloured settee/coloured cushions. I am just not daring enough in terms of kitchen colour - my worry is I will get fed up with it whereas plain white seems timeless and it is less costly to change a couple of the cupboard doors to another colour, that's my way of thinking anyway. I am also planning to paint a light grey colour behind the kitchen units - and may go darker if I become more daring - but there again it is cheaper to buy a couples of tins of paint etc. These quartz worktops are expensive.

Anyone who has the DIY Luca kitchen and has a white worktop where the white matches or works with the Luca white - what is it please?

zgaze which colour Radianz do you have please?

Nope, dh doesn't want all white, he thinks it's too clinical looking - he is suggesting white worktops on grey units or the other way around. Anyone got anything like this?

I lam happy with my kitchen, white work top little bit of sparkle in it (left over work top I managed to use on top of a secondhand table I picked up). Do have white flooring not sure that was such a good idea as I am forever cleaning it 😆

We got a mainly white swirly quartz - north facing so didn't want too dark but didn't want plain white or sparkly! Thought a light granite was too risky with staining etc. It's working really well!

Sorry, I'm on holiday and didn't see the image request! It's something like this and we have the sink moulded in. Its really quite beautiful and it doesn't scratch like the shiny stuff does. The kitchen is a Pronorm Y-line, quite a few we looked at had worksurfaces like these. I think it is 4mm thick and floats on top.

JoJo, I have gone for something similar to this now - white worktops/grey units. My sink is grey - now wondering if it should be white to match the worktops - one step forward, two steps back I think or at least that's how it feels.
Why do things always take longer. Builders have not been up to scratch either but that's for a different thread!

I have a set-under sink in stainless steel in a white quartz worktop and slate grey units.

Thanks Benji, this thread could turn into which colour sink do you have but I'm still interested to know - so, those with white worktops, what colour sink do you have?

It’s the reason I went for a set under sink. Didn’t want to waste quartz by covering or cutting a huge rectangle out of it. This way only the sink bowl is cut out.

Thanks Benji, I think we have ordered a similar thing - will discuss with dh that I am having wobbles about the colour of it later. When or when will this build ever end (and it has been fairly quick in the grand scheme of things!)

@minipie sorry I’ve only just seen this! I have Samsung radianz diamond white. Perfect match to Luca matt white. Husband is an architect so v picky about such things!

Thanks!

Hey,

If you're looking at stainless steel again, have a look at DSM - www.dsmstainlessproducts.co.uk/stainless-steel-worktops.html

They're made to measure and food-grade.