ok kitchen style gurus - I need a low maintainance worktop that looks great!

[elliott]

Having read through the granite- yes or no thread I am none the wiser....
We need something that above all is robust - we are truly crap at cleaning/maintainance and have a habit of buying expensive things that soon look rubbish because we haven't time to polish/clean/oil/dust them....
Will granite be an expensive disaster for us? i can't be doing with something that needs special spray or is in any way delicate. Actually our current IKEA bog standard laminate has lasted fantastically (as DH loves to point out), i just want something a little more, well, classy!
What should it be? Granite? Corian? Wood? or will miserly DH get his way?

avoid wood its high high maintenance - go for granite - its no bother a quick buff and it looks fab - get a chippy one not jet black
OR
marble - i dont know what your budget is but me and dp have done up afew houses..mediocre kitchen - nice piece of granite looks a million dollars!

So apron, how much is it direct from a granite supplier?
Just went to a worktop showroom and was by the price of granite.
I could do the whole thing in laminate or Ikea wood for the price of one sq. m. granite. And afford to chuck it out whwn it got manky.
I like granite, hut it is quite harsh looking. What I would really like is a slate one actually, but they cost an arm and a leg.....

We are getting strange sort of fake stone - an aggregate? I think?

I'm told it's easy maintenance, as you can stain natural stone with lemon juice etc, and that's just the sort of thing I'd do. (We can't have a dark one, it must be light, as room is too dark.)

At any rate, it's quite plain, but has a bit of quartz or something in it, so is a bit shiny. Cheaper than granite etc, from what I know.

Cod I agree that dark granite must be getting stale by now - a kitchen supplier said this to me too (but I was shot down on the other thread by the granite lovers!) Paler colours are coming in apparently....

Elliott, f you go for laminate, try to find a specialist supplier locally, rather than just getting what the kitchen supplier has - there will be a much better range to choose from.

I have wood and oiled it several times then the builders said if you give it two coats of completely matt yacht varnish it is indestructible!It still looks matt and should last Having said that it only went in 2 weeks ago!Granite is hardwearing but common now esp the black.When we were viewing houses every one had a beech laminate kitchen with black worktops!

I don't like the big chunky shaped granite ..

I don't think granite will go out of style either .. I think its timelessly classic ... which is what you need in a kitchen .. who wants to go with 'style' for something that's a pain in the neck to do and phenomenally expensive

check out the very expensive showrooms .. the poghenpohl's etc ... you won't see many kitchens without natural surfaces

must admit though I was quite tempted for a while by a glass worktop .. just not practical

Agree twiglwett the glass looks beautiful and comes in loads of colours There was a brighorange one in a showroom we looked in and it was stunning MFI do a really smooth composite surface which looks good too

We've got caeserstone/taurostone. It's is almost white/off white with sparkles and a few specks of colour in. It doesn't show the water marks and I love it. It's a mixture of granite and quartz I think.

Twiglett was looking at worktops a while back -\link{http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=1012&threadid=49448&stamp=050717223526\here}

thanks for the further ideas everyone and the link to the old thread.
still feeling indecisive. Definitely like the look of granite best but we are sooo rubbish at cleaning...also not really sure that we can justify the expense.

For the floor, is wood a pain there too? Does it look manky when you spill food on it? how do you keep it clean?