What Stone Material is best for my Kitchen Benchtop?
Stone is by far the best choice for your kitchen benchtop. It gives a home a feeling of sophistication and class while being a beautiful, timeless, hardwearing surface to work on.
Stone benchtops fall into 3 main categories:
Natural stone benchtops such as Granite, Marble, Quartzite, Limestone and Onyx are quarried directly from the earth as a single chunk. These benchtops are all natural stone that have been taken out as large blocks which are later cut into individual slabs and polished.
The beauty of Natural stone is that every slab is unique. We recommend personally selecting your slab/s from one of our recommended stone importers:
Universal Granite
CDK Stone
Cosentino
Because Natural stone is Porous it must be sealed before use and we recommend that it is re-sealed every 5 years. Love My Kitchen Benchtop will seal your natural stone benchtop on the day we install it. We recommend using Lithofin NanoTOP for superior stone protection.
Composite Stone (also known as Engineered Stone) is made up of crushed quartz bound together by a polymer resin in a ratio of 93% quartz to 7% resin along with other materials such as coloured glass, mirrors, shells and metals for aesthetic reasons.
Composite stone has the look and feel of natural stone. Its composition of mostly Quartz along with an impervious resin make it an extremely hard wearing and durable benchtop product. Composite stone is available in a wide variety of patterns and colours to suit almost any Kitchen style from the Classical to the contemporary. Composite stone has better resistance to stains and scratching than natural stone. Due to its non-porous properties most Composite stones require little to no care and maintenance. We recommend these stone importers:
Caesarstone
Prime Stone
Silestone
Trendstone
Uniquartz
Archant
You can learn more about Composite/Engineered Stone in our article "Which Engineered Stone or Quartz is the best product?".
Sintered Stone is created using a recipe of natural stone, glass and porcelain ingredients. These materials are brought together using a process known as Sinterized Particle Technology (SPT) which involves mixing the raw materials under extreme pressure and heat.
Sintered Stone is recognized for its heat resistance being one of the only stone products you can place hot pots directly onto. Its UV resistance allows it to be used for both indoor and outdoor applications. Sintered Stone is available in 4mm, 6mm, 8mm, 12mm and 20mm thick slabs making it an ideal choice for splashbacks, fire hearths as well as bathroom and shower walls. View our Sintered Stone manufacturers and their colour ranges below:
Dekton
Florim
Neolith
You can learn more about Sintered Stone in our article "Sintered Stone: All you need to know when choosing your kitchen benchtop".
Colour Schemes
Choosing a colour for your kitchen benchtop can be one of the most challenging tasks. Unlimited choice can be paralyzing and prevent someone from making a choice to change altogether. That is why we recommend talking to us. Our well-trained staff can guide you towards the best stone product to suit your style and your budget.
View the Stone and Colour Ranges
Click our stone supplier's logo to see their colour ranges
Choosing your kitchen benchtop
With so many benchtop products and choices we have created a short video to help you know where to start when it comes to choosing your kitchen bench. A new ‘updated’ version of this video is on its way. Thanks for your patience. If you have any questions feel free to send us a message at the bottom of this page or give us a call.
What style of benchtop are you wanting?
To find out how to get your free colour consultation at your home give us a call. You can reach us at 0800 23 66 44