#About kitchen bench top choices

How do I choose between different bench top materials?

Yes, we know there's a lot of choice when it comes to bench top materials and it can become quite confusing.

What we are going to cover here is the range of products available together with their advantages, disadvantages and relative pricing. We intend for this to be completely unbiased but acknowledge that not everyone may agree with our assessment.

When advising you on bench top options we will start with a discussion about your lifestyle and likely budget. A family with active young children has very different needs in terms of durability than a couple whose grown-up children have all left home. Likewise a young couple starting out in their first home are likely to have a lower budget than someone building or renovating a high end property.

It is very important that you discuss your lifestyle and likely use of the kitchen with your designer so that they can recommend what bench top is likely to work best for you. This is where it is important that the designer is impartial and not aligned to any one product. The table below gives an overview of the most commonly used Bench Top materials. After you have glanced through that you may want to read about the different products in more depth.