Useful Tips for Choosing the Best Wooden Worktop

Your worktop is the most prominent kitchen element. Not only are its looks important but also its functionality, and therefore you should choose its material carefully. Here are a few options.

Solid Wood

Using hardwood worktops like oak worktops, or maple, cherry, walnut or beech worktop can add warmth and personality to your kitchen, and it suits mostly all kitchen styles, from a sleek modern townhouse to a rustic farmhouse.

Composite

A composite worktop is made from natural quartz crystals attached together with binding materials forming a very tough, nonporous material for the worktop.

Glass

The glass used for making worktops is processed and made strong. It’s hardwearing, nonporous and heat-resistant.

Granite/Marble

Solid slabs of natural stones like marble or granite are finished to user’s requirements.

Laminate

This material is made by bonding several layers of impregnated paper. If it is made with good quality, laminate worktops can be highly resistant to heat and scratches.

Among all these materials, wood is perhaps one of the most popular. So, are wood worktops indeed worth? Let’s see.

Oak Solid Wood

Among wood materials, oak is the most popular one because it has a strong grain that adds a character to your worktop and kitchen. Its specialty is that it will mature and darken over time, thus adding more depth to the surface. Solid oak wood worktops are very durable and come in ‘prime’ and ‘rustic’ oak. Rustic oak has more attractive features like color variation and knots, whereas prime oak features more consistent color and finish.

Beech

Very strong and durable yet very affordable, beech is a perfect choice for solid wood worktops. It also adds warmth to a kitchen due to its color variation from pale cream to golden to pink.

Cherry

Cherry matures beautifully and go on adding more character as it deepens. Its color is deepened with oiling and exposure to light giving it a golden effect. Its hardwearing properties and close grain make it an excellent choice for a kitchen worktop.

Ash

Ash is another strong, sturdy but light colored wood with straight grain and is a perfect choice for a kitchen worktop as it adds caramel tones to its overall effect. It’s an excellent choice if you want to brighten up your kitchen.

Walnut

Walnut is popular due to its color variation and depth of tone. It comes in European walnut and American walnut, both having a deeper, richer, distinct and impressive looks.

Construction of Wood Worktops

Solid wood worktops are not made from a single plank of wood that can be attached over your kitchen cabinets. Instead they are made from 40-50mm wide solid wood blocks. They can either be given a butcher’s block effect with smaller blocks of wood or fully staved solid wood look with longer staves that can run the worktop’s full length. The former is cheaper due to smaller blocks, whereas the latter is more expensive, but is extremely beautiful to look at because more characters of wood like depth of colors and grain are visible.

So, are you clear about which material to choose for your worktop? Take an informed decision and you’ll be proud of your kitchen.