Help me choose a worktop.

[jimblejamble]

I want a white / very light coloured worktop. Could be a very pale green.
We are not the tidiest of households. We're at the point where my DC's are doing things more independently in the kitchen and they will definitely not rename consistently remember to not put hot pans on the side / clear up mess straight away.
So I need something that is as heat and stain resistant as possible.
What should I go for?

Corian! Seems pretty bullet proof so far, still perfect after six months. Mine is off-white.

I've known corian crack and stain. Teabags and roasting pans especially.

If you discuss it with the kitchen fitter, it is possible to have your kitchen assembled so the worktop can easily be unscrewed, lifted off, and replaced with new. They are always lifted onto the units after the units are in place, so this mostly means having accessible fixing screws, and not tiling down to the worktopm (perhaps having a splasback screwed to the wall) and minimising curves, complicated joints, and cut-outs in the worktop. Stone is not a good idea, apart from having to be made to order it is unbelievably heavy, and is glued down so it won't lift off.

It is particularly easy and cheap to swap if you happen to like square-edged laminate worktops. They can be much cheaper than you think, and a carpenter or kitchen fitter can easaily cut and trim them.

you can get sinks that occupy the full width of a worktop, and do not need a worktop under them. My own is now discontinued, I'll see if I can post a photo to show what I mean.

it's a Bistro sink (now discontinued). I think it was Astracast.

there is also rangemaster mezzo sink
now discontinued

I think the Franke aton might be

I am not very interested in kitchens now and not in the zeitgeist.

the point is that it is called a "sit on" or "lay on" sink, and fits onto a base unit, which it fits, and is about 600mm front to back so it runs right back to the wall with no worktop beneath. Very useful for wooden worktops as drips and splashes can't cause stains behind it.

Also have one in the futility room, but that's a catering sink, where it is much more usual, and is not designed to look beautiful.

You could also do it with a Butler, Belfast or London sink.

I have granite and it is great for putting hot stuff on etc but it's so cold! We have it as our breakfast bar too and I hate sitting at it as it's so bloody cold!

Using the kitchen responsibly to minimise damage is also part of learning how to cook, so if they won’t do that then they probably aren’t ready to do anything unsupervised no matter how old they are.

From my experience while granite is the only material that is fully heat resistant it stains like anything and is fragile in that it will chip too.

Quartz isn’t as heat resistant due to the resin - you may get rings on a light coloured worktop if you put down a hot pan, but it doesn’t stain and most stains can be lifted off with a good marble cleaner.

Marble is useless, laminate can be heat resistant but you may have to pay quartz prices for the stuff that’s fully bullet proof.

Real wood worktops are fairly heat and stain resistance if you wipe up spills immediately and oil regularly. If you won’t do that then they are mould magnets

Good quality laminate, fitted so you can change it if needs be. Good laminate is excellent, inexpensive and our last laminate was in the house when we bought it and survived DH's kids doing all sorts of damage.

We've got white quartz and have had no issues at all. We used GMQ marble and they were really cheap.