How to Choose the Perfect Worktop, Splashback, and Shelving: Expert Tips from Urban Myth

The heart of the home deserves a stunning design, but when it comes to creating a gorgeous kitchen, it’s all about the carefully chosen details that truly elevate the space. Worktops, splashbacks, and shelves play a crucial role in functionality and creating a cohesive, beautiful environment to enjoy with family and friends.

At Urban Myth, we understand that designing a kitchen is not just about style, it’s about creating a space that blends practicality, elegance, and durability. That’s why we’re here to guide you through these essential elements, exploring versatile materials like quartz, sintered stone, and porcelain worktops that offer both beauty and practicality throughout your kitchen.

Choosing the Perfect Kitchen Worktop Material
For decades, granite, marble, other natural stones, and laminate worktops reigned supreme in kitchens. However, with modern innovations, homeowners now have exciting alternatives to traditional surfaces. Materials like sintered stone, quartz, and porcelain offer increased durability and aesthetic options that can suit any kitchen style.

Sintered Stone Worktops: Innovation Meets Durability
Sintered Stone is a cutting-edge material that stands out for its strength, heat resistance, and low-maintenance nature. Created by combining natural minerals under high pressure, this material offers remarkable resilience to scratches, stains, and heat, making it an excellent choice for busy kitchens.

One of the standout features of sintered stone is its non-porous surface, which means it doesn’t require sealing, unlike some natural stones. This is a significant benefit, especially in kitchens that see daily use. It’s also incredibly hygienic due to its resistance to bacteria and stains, making it the ideal choice for households with high cooking activity.

According to a KBSA survey, 38% of homeowners are opting for sintered stone due to its long-term durability and eco-friendly manufacturing process.

Quartz Worktops: The Popular Choice for Low Maintenance
Another strong contender is quartz. Engineered from natural quartz crystals, combined with resin, quartz worktops offer exceptional strength and resistance to stains and scratches. These worktops are non-porous, which means they are incredibly hygienic and do not require sealing like granite or marble.

Quartz offers a wide range of colours and finishes, from classic white marble veining to bold and dramatic dark hues. Whether you’re aiming for a contemporary, minimalist aesthetic or a more traditional look, there is a quartz design to suit your style.

In fact, quartz has quickly become one of the most popular worktop materials, with over 50% of homeowners choosing it for their kitchen renovations due to its low maintenance and aesthetic versatility.

Porcelain Worktops: Sleek, Stylish, and Scratch Resistant
If you're looking for a sleek, modern look, porcelain worktops could be the right choice. Known for their contemporary finish, porcelain worktops are created by baking clay and minerals at extremely high temperatures. As a result, they’re resistant to heat, scratches, stains, and UV rays, making them perfect for both functional and aesthetic purposes in your kitchen.

Porcelain offers bold patterns and colours that are both stylish and functional. And because it’s non-porous, it requires minimal maintenance, making it a dream for homeowners who want a low-maintenance, high-performance surface.

Seamless Splashbacks: The Perfect Companion to Your Worktop
Gone are the days of mismatched materials and tiresome colour matching between worktops and tiles or glass splashbacks. The latest trend of creating a unified visual flow by extending the worktop material onto the splashback is here to stay, and for good reason. This technique, particularly effective with quartz, sintered stone, or porcelain surfaces, creates a seamless design that is both beautiful and practical.

Imagine a stunning veined worktop cascading seamlessly onto the splashback, drawing the eye upwards and creating a focal point in your kitchen. This cohesive design approach not only enhances the aesthetic but also minimizes grout lines, making the space feel larger and easier to clean.

The Benefits of a Seamless Splashback
Enhanced Durability: Materials like quartz, sintered stone, and porcelain are incredibly durable, making them ideal for areas behind your sink, hob, or stove.

Low Maintenance: A continuous surface means fewer nooks and crannies for dirt and grime to accumulate, making cleaning a breeze.

Luxurious Appeal: The seamless flow of the material from worktop to splashback creates a high-end, luxurious look that makes a statement in any kitchen.

What to Consider When Using Your Worktop as a Splashback
Using your worktop material as a splashback is a modern and sleek choice, but it’s important to consider a few factors before proceeding.

Heat Resistance: If you have a gas hob, make sure the chosen material is heat-resistant. Sintered stone, quartz, and porcelain excel in heat resistance, ensuring that your splashback remains intact even in high-heat zones.

Ease of Cleaning: The splashback is exposed to spills and splashes more than the worktop. Choose materials like sintered stone or quartz, which are both stain-resistant and easy to clean with everyday products.

Visual Impact: A seamless transition from your worktop to splashback will create a minimalist aesthetic. However, if you prefer a more traditional look, you may opt for a contrasting material for the splashback that complements your worktop.

Shelving: Functionality Meets Style
Shelving isn’t just about storage; it’s an opportunity to add character to your kitchen. Open shelving allows you to showcase beautiful tableware, cookbooks, and decorative accents, while closed cabinetry provides a more streamlined look. Using a mixed approach of open shelving and cabinetry can help you strike the right balance between functionality and aesthetics.

Incorporating Worktop Materials into Shelving
One of the best ways to enhance the design and flow of your kitchen is by using the same material for your shelving as your worktops and splashbacks. Here’s why it’s a great idea:

Unified Flow: By extending the worktop material to your shelves, you create a continuous visual connection, making the space feel more cohesive and larger.

Enhanced Luxury: Repeating the material across worktops, splashbacks, and shelves reinforces the luxurious, high-quality aesthetic of your kitchen.

Design Flexibility: Sintered stone, quartz, and porcelain can be fabricated into various shelving styles, from sleek floating shelves to traditional bracket-mounted ones, providing you with endless design possibilities.

Design Considerations for Shelving
Thickness: Opt for thicker worktop materials for shelving, such as 30mm quartz or sintered stone, to give a more substantial feel. For a minimalist look, choose thinner porcelain options, which can create a lighter, contemporary aesthetic.

Lighting: Adding under-shelf lighting can enhance the visual appeal of your shelves, highlighting decorative objects or cookbooks.

Edge Detail: Pay attention to the edge detail of your shelves. Whether you prefer sleek, polished edges or a softer bullnose finish, this detail can influence the overall design feel.

Conclusion: Designing Your Dream Kitchen
Designing your dream kitchen is about creating a space that’s both beautiful and functional. By exploring modern worktop, splashback, and shelving solutions, you can achieve a kitchen that’s a joy to cook and entertain in, while also looking stunning.

At Urban Myth, we’re passionate about helping you create a bespoke kitchen that reflects your personal style. Whether you opt for sintered stone, quartz, or porcelain, we can guide you through the material selection process, ensuring you choose the best fit for your kitchen and lifestyle.

Remember, there are no hard and fast rules,choose the materials that resonate with your taste and design vision. The right combination of worktops, splashbacks, and shelving can turn your kitchen into the heart of your home.