Experts reveal the kitchen worktop mistakes to avoid – ignore at your peril

With so many variables in play, there’s no such factor as ‘proper’ or ‘flawed’ with regards to the right worktop materials. Nevertheless, choosing the fabric that most closely fits your persona can go a good distance in the direction of stopping kitchen worktop errors.

Selecting worktops based on persona sort basically boils down as to if you can be keen to miss scratches and stains, and the way a lot care and upkeep you’re keen to undertake.

You will need to be sincere and purchase together with your head, not your coronary heart. You might have your coronary heart set on richly grained wooden or superbly veined pure marble worktops, but when the primary scratch (and so they WILL scratch) is prone to make you weep, it’s most likely greatest to go for a extra sturdy lookalike as a substitute.

3. Overlooking upstands

An upstand is a low strip of worktop that sits towards the wall. Upstands carry out two roles. Firstly, they supply a neat, watertight connection in the back of the worktop, serving to to forestall spillages from seeping down behind the items. Secondly, they shield the partitions.

‘It’s notably necessary to guard the wall behind sinks and hobs as these are the splash-zones for cleaning soap suds and bolognaise sauce,’ says Alice Hood, senior designer at kitchen firm Roundhouse(opens in new tab). ‘Forgoing upstands will lead to your kitchen partitions requiring much more paint touch-ups in time.’

Upstands are normally equipped and fitted by your worktop provider, and are made out of the identical materials, although usually thinner. ‘Select upstands in a contrasting materials or color so as to add a bit design drama to your worktops,’ suggests Alice. They are often any peak, however the norm is round 6cm-12cm. Within the upstand vs splashback debate, the latter is often taller.

4. Selecting the identical thickness all through

witching up the thickness of worktops is a type of refined design particulars that may elevate a superb kitchen to superb. Utilizing chunky worktops on a kitchen island unit and slimmer on the encompassing elevations, or vice versa, is a savvy means so as to add tempo and curiosity whereas avoiding kitchen worktop errors. Various worktop thicknesses in numerous areas of the kitchen can even promote a extra relaxed, freestanding look.

‘Within the UK, we are inclined to use 30mm as the usual worktop thickness, and that’s what our eye has change into used to, so various on this could really feel sudden and subsequently extra fascinating,’ says Oliver from Cullifords. ‘Generally, the thinner the worktop, the extra fashionable the look. Among the newly developed porcelain worktops go as skinny as 12mm, which fits a really modern aesthetic.’

The thicker your worktop, the dearer it will likely be – Oliver has famous an increase in requests for 20mm-thick worktops for the reason that credit score crunch, as they’re 30-40% cheaper than normal 30mm-thick choices.

Chunky worktops are additionally heavier, which might create structural points for the cupboards beneath. One resolution is to faux thickness by including a deeper entrance edge profile to plain depth worktop. The additional fabrication required will add to the invoice but it surely’s a way more reasonably priced option to take pleasure in generously chunky tops.

5. Not listening

Tune into your sense of sound when floor procuring, particularly if you happen to undergo from noise intolerance. ‘The clattery echo of pots and plates on exhausting surfaces may be actually jarring, particularly earlier than that first morning espresso,’ says inside designer Benji Lewis(opens in new tab). ‘A cloth like timber or Corian goes to be extra audibly forgiving than quartz or granite.’

Sound-dampening worktop supplies may assist cut back crockery injury by heavy-handed cooks, and so they are typically hotter to the contact, too, which is why designers usually advocate switching from stone to wooden worktops on a breakfast bar. It’s kinder on elbows and delicate stemware!

6. Forgetting to discover edge profiles

Failure to take a look at all of the totally different worktop edge profile choices accessible is a critical missed alternative. The sting profile refers back to the vertical fringe of the worktop. Extra particularly, we’re speaking in regards to the edge you may see, which is all the time the entrance edge, and typically the aspect, too.

Completely different worktop suppliers give them barely totally different names, however well-liked edge profiles embody Pencil Edge, Half Bullnose, Bevel Edge and Straight Edge.

‘The sting profile in your kitchen worktop is a completion value spending a while on to get the correct one to greatest improve the scheme,’ says Mike Fetherston, design director of bespoke joinery and kitchen firm Hetherington Newman(opens in new tab).

‘If it’s a standard ‘interval’ look you’re going for, contemplate a extra sculpted edge comparable to ‘ovolo’ or ‘ogee’ or if the look is extra streamlined or minimalist in model a easy ‘bevel’ or ‘pencil’ edge will converse the identical language because the cabinetry.’

7. Worktops that come up quick

Whereas be part of strains are sometimes inevitable on lengthy stretches of worktop, a well-planned set up doesn’t embody joins on a key focus comparable to an island unit – not least as a result of they’re nearly not possible to cover. ‘This might be much more obvious if you happen to’ve opted for a waterfall edge, the place the worktop goes right down to the autumn, which must look seamless with no joins for the perfect impact,’ provides Laura Davie, supervisor at floor consultants Cosentino UK(opens in new tab).

Even in case you are solely contemplating small kitchen island ideas, the dream situation is one topped in a single, seamless stretch of gorgeous worktop. There are a few good options. One is to design the size of your island to match the longest accessible slab of your chosen worktop. Normal off-the-shelf worktops max out at about 3.6m-long, with something longer usually solely accessible by particular order.

The second is to go for a seamless worktop materials comparable to concrete or a high-resin composite like Corian, which may be fashioned and/or poured on web site, successfully avoiding lots of the supply and questions of safety related to putting in extra-long worktop slabs.