What material for countertop?

[Garald]

Time has come to choose the material for the ground-floor-studio's kitchenette's countertop. It's not much surface really, especially given that half of it or so will be taken by a small drain and a two-burner induction stovetop.

 

Main issue: no matter how hard my girlfriend tries, it seems I can't be trained never to use bottlecaps to measure out oil. My ancestors on all sides must have done that for many generations. So granite and other expensive porous surfaces are definitely out.

 

Advice?

[ProDave]

Take a bottle of oil with you to the stone merchant.  My Italian Granite is definitely impervious to oil and red wine.

[ToughButterCup]

17 minutes ago, Garald said:

...My ancestors on all sides must have done that for many generations. ...

 

Your ancestors chose what as a worktop?

Edited March 9, 2023 by ToughButterCup

[Garald]

8 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

 

Your ancestors chose what as a worktop?

 

Well, my parents used to have tile, my grandma had tile, and I'm pretty sure that my grandpa on my other side had tile. I'm sure there's something to be said against that, though, since it is less common now.

Also, this studio will be gf's home office much of the time, and she wants the kitchenette to be unconspicuous.

Edited March 9, 2023 by Garald

[markc]

granite shouldn’t be porous, its heavy and dense. Stay away from soap stone with oil or wine … soaks up like a sponge. Marble often has cracks and fissures which do pull liquids in.

[Garald]

Odd - gf has been unjustly accusing me all along, then. What color of granite should I use if I want stains (oil and so forth) not to show much? Apparently the obvious answer (black) is not the correct one.

[Conor]

2 minutes ago, Garald said:

Odd - gf has been unjustly accusing me all along, then. What color of granite should I use if I want stains (oil and so forth) not to show much? Apparently the obvious answer (black) is not the correct one.

Anything with speckles. Grey and red for example.

 

We have a quartz worktop and no issues with staining. E.g. even tumeric and oil wipe off easily.

[ProDave]

Ours is green, a little unusual which is why we chose it.

 

[Kelvin]

11 minutes ago, Garald said:

Odd - gf has been unjustly accusing me all along, then. What color of granite should I use if I want stains (oil and so forth) not to show much? Apparently the obvious answer (black) is not the correct one.

Not black as it will show up any water marks. Light colours with a speckle or pattern through it.
 

Granite is sealable and it’s also very heat resistant so it’s a good material. 
 

Also who measures oil out. A good glug is a tablespoon here or there. 

Edited March 9, 2023 by Kelvin

[Blooda]

38 minutes ago, Conor said:

 

We have a quartz worktop and no issues with staining. E.g. even tumeric and oil wipe off easily.

 

We have light grey quartz. Even Pentel N450 permanent marker can be removed with 

       and      

 

Not the best combination but saved me getting a[nother] rollicking from SHMBO, last weekend.  [disclaimer :- test on a discreet section first  ]

[Garald]

Also, what would be wrong with just getting something inexpensive from IKEA? I'm not a fake-wood person in general, but this is a case in which a good-quality fake could be substantially easier to maintain than real wood. Take, for instance,

 

https://www.ikea.com/nl/en/p/saeljan-worktop-oak-effect-laminate-60439173/#content

 

[Kelvin]

If it’s hidden away like a utility room might be then nothing wrong with it. 

[Garald]

10 minutes ago, Kelvin said:

If it’s hidden away like a utility room might be then nothing wrong with it. 

It's a nook, and we might even be able to get folding doors to hide it. I take this IKEA countertop is practical but ugly or otherwise shameful?

[Kelvin]

Nothing shameful or ugly about it. We are using laminate in our utility room as do most folk. It’s hard wearing, doesn’t stain, and cheap. 

[Iceverge]

Laminate here too. Happy so far. 

[Garald]

I'll just let my parents decide. They will be the guests in the guestroom much of the time. It does seem that cheap IKEA countertops have much better reviews than expensive IKEA countertops - that probably means that, if we were going to go for granite (or quartz - how does that compare?) we should get it elsewhere.

 

Of course there's also marble:

[Kelvin]

Quartz is also good harder wearing than granite but it can be damaged by hot pans because it made from quartz and a resin. If you are as slap dashed with the hot pans as you are with the oil then granite might be a better choice. Granite is porous so can stain but you can seal it. There’s more choice of colours with quartz if that’s important. 
 

We agonised over the counter top material choice too for our island. In the end we figured it was more likely we’d spill stuff on it than sit hot pans on it so went with quartz.