Recycled Glass Black Worktop Is The New Star

In the kitchen, black is the new black for worktops, according to makeover specialist, Granite Transformations. Although earthen tones seemed to be gaining in popularity last year, black worktops have had a strong renaissance, with recycled glass worktop Black Star now clocking up 23% of all Granite Transformations’ sales. What’s more, black worktops in general represent 54% of installations, its granite finishes Nero Stella and Nero Galaxy also proving particularly popular.

 “One of the reasons that Black Star is in demand is that it contains fragments of mirror fleck, which creates an incredible sparkling effect under halogen lighting,” says Granite Transformations’ UK chief, Danny Hanlon. “It’s a diamond-polished surface featuring exceptionally deep hues of blue and black, which goes with any kitchen, rustic or modern, and with any colour of cabinet. A black worktop is timeless and gives the kitchen a sophisticated yet inviting look that most home owners adore.

” Granite Transformations markets its high quality, durable worktops direct to consumers, through its network of showrooms, and its slimline materials can be installed straight over existing kitchen work surfaces, enabling home owners to refresh dated looks and keep abreast of modern décor. So the company is perfectly placed to take the temperature of kitchen colour trends.

It also supplies and fits replacement cabinet doors and drawer fronts, noting current consumer tastes for simple, muted shades. High gloss acrylic surfaced doors in cream and white are especially popular, as are simple Shaker styles in alabaster, pear and light oak woodgrains and flat matt finishes in white and zinc. Black and black-veined worktops complement all these door colours, creating a fashionable minimalist look, and even go with high gloss ‘hot’ colours like plum, red and paprika.

Granite Transformations’ parent company, the Italian-based Trend Group, produces over a million linear metres of worktop materials each year, in granite, quartz and recycled glass finishes, and each of its three international markets has its own preferred palette. Americans lean toward brown and earthen tones, Australians favour white and cream, while in the UK over half of worktops currently installed are black.

“Australians would be happy with ten or eleven colours, while in this country we like to see a choice of 50 or 60, but mainly plump for variations on black,” says Danny. “Americans want to see 80 colours. They’ll still buy the same five, but they want to see 80.

” One other underlying kitchen worktop trend is the increasing use of recycled raw materials. Granite Transformations and Trend pioneered the use of post-consumer recycled glass worktop, made from used beer, wine and mineral water bottles and glass containers, and sources material from colour-sorted kerbside refuse collections. The #1 finish Black Star may look and perform like a black granite slab, but on closer inspection it is made up from irregular fragments of glass, even flecks of broken mirror, bonded together with a touch of polyester resin to give superior strength and outstanding resistance to heat, scratches, cuts, stains, impact and chemicals.

“People may say they like black granite, but it’s quite a difficult material to work with, needs regular sealing and maintenance, and the natural slab is extremely heavy, so you need to rip out the existing worktops and reinforce the cabinet carcases,” says Danny.

“So when they see our Black Star and Nero Maltese glass worktops or our granite-based finishes Nero Stella, Nero Galaxy and Nero Marquis and realise they’ll fit right on top of the existing work surfaces,” he continues, “people like those even more. If it means home owners can have a new look kitchen without demolition, dust, debris and having to camp out in the dining room for several weeks, it’s a bit of a no-brainer really.

” For a preview of all worktop materials and to check out the nearest showroom, go to www.granitetransformations.co.uk  or telephone 0800 822 3410.