Black or white worktop? Engineered w floor or stone?

[YellowSunshineSky]

I'm being very indecisive about choices for my new kitchen.

I'm going for Howdens Elmbridge in Porcelain
Tiles are subway tiles Lime House Retro Metro from Fired Earth

Silestone worktop - can't decide whether to go with black to be quite bold and contrasty against the pale green tiles, or go with white to be lighter and brighter.

I like period style traditional kitchens in the style of De vol kitchens - it's hard to copy them though as most of their kitchen pictures are of dark cupboards with white worktops. We didn't choose dark cupboards as we have a galley kitchen with some tall larder/fridge cupboards by the doors and having them dark would have made them loom into the room and make the room seem narrower.

The room has a lot of natural light with two windows, one velux, and after the building work patio doors at one end.

Flooring I'm ummming and ahhhing on too. I wanted engineered wood to give a feeling of warmth (colour wise) to the room and it's good over underfloor heating. But I'm wondering whether it looks a bit 'fakey'.

We went with white silestone as the kitchen is in the dark bit of a long extension and want to bounce a bit of light round. Also I think there'll be less wiping....

I've read that black can have smudges and need drying after wiping.

Today I'm leaning towards white.

We have black and while it looks great you need to shine it each time after washing it down. Otherwise there are smudges. Took me a while to train the whole family and when l would walk in l would immediately see the smudges. Looks lively all shiny. I would get white for that reason.

My engineered oak floor is 16 years old and tough as nails. I love it.

Excuse the mess

That flooring looks gorgeous @BlackAlys. Can you remember where you bought it?

junebirthdaygirl thanks for that description it's useful to know that black needs buffing up after washing. It does sound a bit of a pain.

I'd go for white stone worktops, as weirdly I don't think it shows smudges as much as black does - especially if you go for a "patterned" white (veining or speckles). I have a white speckled quartz now and it's very easy to keep looking clean.

I'd also go for wooden flooring if both your worktops and cabinets are white, as stone flooring might give a "colder" feel visually. Engineered wood doesn't look fake imo because it's a real layer of wood on top of the board so there tends to be more variation- but on the negative side it can be fairly expensive and apparently doesn't always handle big water spills that well.

I went for a Quickstep waterproof laminate in the end - not as natural looking as engineered wood but a lot better than most laminates I'd seen and at least I don't have to worry about spills/dishwasher flooding etc. I have it in the bathrooms too! All my cabinetry is crisp white as well, so as much as I like the look of something like slate on the floors in theory, I think wood floors do soften a room.

Be careful of stone. I had a polished concrete floor at one point - my knees, hips, and lower back really suffered. I now have wood and will never change!

Thanks all, I'm going to go for white worktop, with the engineered wood floor

Definitely white worktop. The black, as mentioned, not only requires a lot of polishing but shows every speck of dust. It's a total pain in the arse.

Thanks all, I'm going to go for white worktop, with the engineered wood floor

That’s what we have. Love it.

We have always had light worktops. I have stayed in places with dark ones, and though they can look good, if they aren't clean, it doesn't show- I prefer to be able to see if a surface needs cleaning. I'm currently very frustrated choosing one for our new kitchen because almost all the light ones these days are very white/blue/grey, and are far too 'cold' in colour. The few creamier colored ones are textures or patterns I don't like at all. I wish I could get the old 'onyx' formica design we had before. They were cheap, hardwearing, and exactly the colour that looks good with our units.