Kitchen worktops - opinions please

[jasper]

I first asked about kitchens here 2 years ago and still have the cobbled together painted several times 20 y.o. kitchen
However am now at advanced planning stages and want opinions on worktops and sinks.
Go ladies !

Sofia, what's wrong with stainless steel (apart from smudge factor)?

I love granite and it doesn't have to look too modern, I have a mix of cream shaker units, black granite worktops and stainless steel range cooker/fridge. It looks fab (even if I do say so myself) and the granite is great. Yes you need to wipe it, but I just use an old tea towel to dry it quickly and you don't seem to get marks. I do polish it properly about once a month when I do a good clean of the kitchen (otherwise it's more a quick wipe and hoover).

I work for interiors magazines and more and more people are putting modern kitchens in old properties, so you don't need to worry there. Personally I would go with granite and a small upstand of granite rather than tiles on the walls, it looks fantatic that way. Franke sinks are great, simple stainless steel which will take a lot of pounding, and decent mixer taps with levers (so much easier to turn on and off) I would have gone for a tri-flow tap with a filtered water handle, but didn't have the money.

Gonna hijack this one a bit. We have wooden worktops round the sink area (there when we moved in). Lovely, but everyone keeps telling me to be careful with them. I try to keep them dry, but bit low on the list of priorities with everything else.

What sort of treatment do they need. Whats this with the oil man?

I think I would have done for granite too if I had had the money. I like wood as well but was worried about keeping it dry etc and also our kitchen has wood doors and the wood worktop just didn't set it off so we have plain boring blue ordinary worktop. As for sinks I like either stainless steel or porcelain, we have the porcelain one from IKEA, no drainer but this isn't much of a problem as we have a dishwasher.

I put in IKEA wood in my last house, and was very happy with it, BUT you must oil and then beeswax it ON BOTH SIDES. I just did the tops, and it warped, Doh!

another apology for hi jacking this thread but it's about kitchens!!!

Crunchie... you may not remmeber but you gave me lots of advice on what range cooker to get and just though i'd update you that in the end i ended up with 110cm belling evoloution 152 stainless steel!!!! v. excited as the new kitchen is now built and cooker arriving next week!!!... but we have bits of b and q kitchen carcassess everywhere... sounds very similar to your kicthn (though i suspect yours is much snazzier!) ivory shaker, stainless steel range and must confess to having a plain old formica worktop (grey slate style)... budget just doesn't stretch to granite!!!! i feel like such a poor relation next to all you granite and corians!!!! .... i have got a franke sink though!!!!

bea, well done!! Bear in mind I work for a Home Interest magazine....how do you think I get things?? I do pay, but usually trade prices which mean I can get a good discount. My granite still cost nearly £1900 though!!

When it appears in one of our magazines I will let you all know, my editor was around last night deciding which rooms to use for a photo shoot. My kids room, bathroom, living and kitchen will all be used, and maybe my bedroom!! You'll all be able to see my taste in stuff. However bear in mind for the photos all the c**p gets cleared away!

another vote for granite - and you can put lemons on it no problem (it's unsealed limestone & marble that can't cope with acids). You can get something that doesn't look modern at all (had it in a big farmhouse-style kitchen in our old house and it looked just fine). Get a sink that's mounted underneath the worktop so that you don't have a rim to clean.

PPH, how does a slate worktop work? Doesn't it get very scratched?? I love, love, love the look though. (also think granite with cream units looks lovely - a friend has this in their new kitchen and I am deeply envious)

Bea, I'm having bog-standard worktops, as well, so you're not the only one. Mine have always been durable and are also much more forgiving if you drop anything breakable onto them, plus they can be replaced quite easily and cheaply if you get fed up of them.

You're doing better than me Bea at least you have a decent sink. We have the builder fitted kitchen which includes the most loathsome plastic sink. Yuk.

Crunchie, my kitchen sounds v. similar to yours. Inherited lovely black granite but teamed with bright yellow (!why?) shaker-style units & stainless steel oven/fridge. I hastily painted the kitchen cream (Dulux Jabot from decorators chart - v. nice creamy white) and changed the handles and now I love it.

The granite is good & smart & neither overtly modern nor olde fashioned looking. BUT I must say it does watermark like crazy - maybe I don't wipe it enough - but 2 kids, job & messy husband...Couldn't agree more with the deep double stainless steel sink, whoever suggested that. I think they're great.

My mum has tiles and she has to have grouting industrially cleaned about once a year as it goes greyey/yellow & looks really unhygenic.

I had wood before and it split round the taps despite copious oiling. And this was before kids so not such heavy duty kitchen usage. I became obsessed and if anyone got a drink of water and splashed worksurface I'd leap up with a teatowel - not conducive to relaxed dinners with friends.

crunchie, anto - snap kitchens, great minds...

hoping to pick more brains.... you designer kitchen fiends...

my idea for splashback in the kitchen at the moment are to get some lovely glass tiles... b and q have some lovely ones at the moment... but with ivory shaker units and a grey slate workstop... what colour for a splashback?... quite fancy the idea of a complete glass splahback... a lovely fresh blue... but doubt the budget would strecth... also whether the colour would work... (by the way the floor will be oak laminate)

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Sounds nice bea, I would still put an upstand of the slate rather than a tiled wall. Un upstand is about 10cm up the wall of the same material as the worktop. It gives a fresh modern look, doesn't cost much as it uses the off cuts from the worktop and, personally I think looks nicer than tiles. However so saying a glass splashback would be pretty, and water marks would just add to it!

PS then you can apint the rest of the walls any colour (fresh blue) you like. I have deep maroccan blue on all my walls and into my breakfast room - it is a very strong colour, but I love really rich jewel colours. You could have the Ivory cupboards, dark grey slate worktops/upstands and then straight into your blue. I wouldn't put another texture in since the worktop will be making a real statement.

Not necessarily any good for you but we found some lovely stainless steel tiles with pattern in the surface iyswim. We used them for the upstand-thingy by the stainless steel sink unit. ALso got ss border tiles, really nice but expensive so limited the space.

bea, if you shop around you can find back painted glass in solid pieces for quite reasonable prices. Try Preedy's in NW10, I think they do it. I think it's a wonderful idea.

Aloha, I have slate on the floor in our kitchen and love it. It's very important that if you do use it on a floor or countertop in a kitchen that you get non-porous slate....it really varies by country of origin. Brazilian - good, Chinese - bad.

Stainless steel never looks clean on countertops unless you dry it with a tea towel...very tedious and too time consuming for my taste.

I think tiles on worktops should be outlawed. They look terrible, wear terribly and are totally impractical.

the slate seems to be fine, it is just on either side of the aga (sorry, not allowed to admit to an aga on mumsnet I seem to remember ). Anyway, kitchen came with the house so I don't know if it is brazilian or what. It's by a rather smart co though, so maybe it is good stuff which is why it looks fine.

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I also think Corian is great, just don't like the particular design we inherited

Reply to Pupuce, way down the thread: I have to oil it again!