What is Granite?

Granite is a widely occurring form of igneous rock that is formed under continents from great pressure and at great depths. Not all Granites are the same and similarly to diamonds the rare the stone the more it costs.

Granite’s strengths

The beauty of choosing granite for your worktop is it’s strength, durability, uniqueness and natural beauty. Granite worktops are also the only completely natural stone worktop you can have in your kitchen – Quartz being a mixture of stone and resin. The individual nature of granite is such that even two worktops from the same piece of granite will have subtle differences in colour or marking.

How to choose the perfect worktop to match your kitchen

When choosing Granite you firstly need an idea of the colour and style of granite you are looking for, does it want to be a lighter tone to go with light units, or a darker tone to help compliment the use of wooden surfaces and textures. At Spillers we have the luxury of having a number of kitchens with different granite surfaces that you can walk around and touch. We also have a swatch library of real granite samples, showcasing a wide range of styles and colours to help you choose the perfect Granite.

Although samples are great to get an idea when buying Granite especially with stone that is totally even in colour and grain. If however you have chosen Granite with movement and colour veining you will want to see the actual slabs that will be used. Due to this individual nature and characteristic of Granite at Spillers of Chard we encourage the customer to see and select the actual piece of granite from our providers to confirm that this style/colour is right for you.

Another consideration is how thick you would like your Granite the standard is 30mm but you may find you need this slightly adjusted higher or lower in certain situations for example when you want the worktop to be flush with a range cooker.

Granite is far easier to shape than other materials which is why you have a wide array of edge profiles to choose from whether ornate, traditional or sharp modern lines it is often overlooked the importance the edge profile plays in the overall harmony of the kitchen design. Granites flexibility allows it to extend past the constraints of most worktop materials by being able to be used for granite upstands, windowsills or splashbacks all of which add to your kitchen.

Choosing Granite finishes

Once you have your Granite chosen you have a range of finishes to choose from creating an even more bespoke worktop individual to you. Finishes such as Polished, Satinato (slightly matte effect) or Honed (textured effect more in keeping with the granite’s stone beginnings) are but a few of the finishes to choose from.

Templating

All that remains once your Granite is chosen is for your kitchen to be templated this is done once all your kitchen units and extras are in place so the worktop / upstand / splashback measurements can be extremely precise allowing the Granite to be cut and shaped perfectly for your new kitchen.

Bespoke kitchen design and installation service

At Spillers of Chard we have a dedicated Kitchen Design team that can help you through each of the above stages for your worktop and kitchen. We have hands on samples, walk round kitchen showrooms and 3D computer rendered models of your kitchen to help you visualise, tweak and perfect the design of your dream kitchen.

The whole process of choosing granite is an exciting design journey from humble beginning to a kitchen centrepiece which we at Spillers of Chard are happy to help you with. Call our kitchen design team on 01460 67878 and start your journey.