KITCHEN WORKTOPS AUTUMN TRENDS 2019

Autumn hips reflected in a slab of Black Pearl Granite

It is hard to believe that we are already at the end of summer and the nights are drawing in again. It’s been a busy summer here, with our volume of kitchen worktops fitted staying high despite holidays and some pretty major health and family issues affecting our staff. Still, we are all back to the grindstone and polishing wheels now, and looking forward to a big run up to Christmas.

As we move into Autumn, I thought that I would take a look back at some of the trends that I mentioned this time last year (Blog parts One and Two). How have things moved on?

One of the six key trends that I mentioned was the fashion for Midnight Blue units. This has taken hold even more than I had anticipated and it seems that almost every other customer that visits us here in Charlwood is having dark blue cabinets of some sort. We have seen kitchen after kitchen with shades ranging from the almost military blue of Stiffkey Blue by Farrow & Ball to slightly lighter more definite blue doors like Howdens Navy. Not everyone is having units all one colour though – we are seeing people teaming this look with lighter grey doors or bone white units.

Blue and bone units in a North Kent kitchen by our friend Fran of Novella Designs. Worktops Bianco Venatino by BQS

Show kitchen installed for HKS in Haywards Heath,West Sussex

Darker doors like these seem to be relatively easy to match with worktops. This can make our job easier, as there are so many different choices of white or off-white quartz. Even the not so white, marble-look quartz and lighter granites look much brighter when installed on really dark units. Accents of the hot metals, brass, rose gold and copper add a touch of warmth to the whole scheme

The trend that has taken us slightly more by surprise is the sudden increased interest in the more spotty/speckled natural stones. When Affordable Granite first started, over 16 years ago, we began importing a material called G603 from China. We felt that G603 wasn’t a very catchy name so we called it Salt & Pepper. Over the years, this sort of look reduced in popularity so we tend to now buy it, or an equivalent from one of our quality wholesale contacts, as we need it.  Some other similar materials are Alma Grey, Eden Grey, Bianco Crystal, Estrella and Grey Galaxy, as well as the slightly larger grained and more sparkly Azul Platino.

Salt and Pepper Granite on dark, high gloss units. See our case study for more info

Azul Platino Kitchen worktops in East Grinstead

There are all sorts of very similar natural stones around the world which share this speckled, monochrome look. In Europe, Spain, Italy and Portugal all have their own characteristic types. Some have a slightly larger or diffuse pattern/grain, while others  have a bit more warmth. The experts told us that Terrazo tiles were coming back to the fore, but we hadn’t thought that the more speckled look would necessarily extend into the worktop market. These lighter stones often need some resealing but are in other respects extremely easy to live with, because of the fleck and pattern that they have.

I actually wonder whether the move back towards speckled natural stone is related to the trend to small spot patterns and polka dots in the world of fashion. This has been the summer of That Zara Dress – is there a relationship between High Street fashion and kitchen worktops? Answers on a postcard…

Image borrowed from the Huff Post article on the dress.

Classic Quartz Ice Branco

We have written a lot over the last few years about the switch from large grain mirror fleck quartz to subtle sparkle. This is continues faster and faster, with our own Classic Quartz Ice Branco now our biggest sparkly material in sales volume. This may seem a paradox – while sales of speckly granite are rising, sparkly quartz sales are definitely going to the less speckled products. These things happen in trends – ultimately it is the customer who decides what they want band we have to provide that demand.

Marble-look quartz continue to be really popular and the market for textured and matt worktops continues to grow. The most popular marble-looks  seem to be constantly changing. Alongside our stock materials, BQS Blanco Massa, Novaestone Bianco Carrara and Radianz  Lucern Lake, we have seen steady sales of more dynamically-veined Classic Quartz Alaska Bianca and Calacatta Gold, and the lovely Calacatta Baleno by Arenastone.

Classic Quartz Alaska Bianca in a South London kitchen

I guess we need to stop somewhere. At one level there are as many trends as customers and materials available – every stone will always be loved by someone, and the important things what do YOU like, not what everyone else is buying. We have been excited to see some great new materials which may not reflect the trends very precisely, but which have found some very happy customers.

Cambria’s dark, blue speckled/sparkled Charston takes us back to the first trend – the blues, but in the top, not the unit. It is a kind of quartz copy of Midnight Blue (Blues in the Night granite) and we think it is stunning. The luscious swirls of Buckingham by Cambria also complement darker midnight blue and Emerald Green cabinets with their rich gold tones.

And for something completely different and more industrial, we are waiting with great anticipation to see a slab of the Frozen Terra by Caesarstone; these beautiful concrete and matt finishes really look so different in a larger sheet! Watch this space – we will blog about the material when we have it!

Close up of Cambria Charston

Well, that’s it! We are now heading into the busiest time of the year at Affordable Granite. People love to have a new kitchen to show off at Christmas. We tend to find that pre-holiday slots for installations of granite and quartz worktops start to run out towards the end of October. So… if you are trying to get a new kitchen done before 2019 is out, please contact us soon with your plans for quotation. Whatever kind of worktop floats your boat, we are confident that we can find products that you will love and which will suit both your taste and your budget. Send us your kitchen plans – even early-stage – for a no-obligation quotation. And have a lovely Autumn!