Benchtops thick or thin? We ask 6 experts

1. Shane George, Shane George Design

I don't personally get fixated on whether it's got to be thick or thin. It’s got to suit the kitchen and thick looks nice but thin can work as well.

It’s just how you treat it and how it works with the whole design of the kitchen.

2. Kitchen, bathroom and interior designer Natalie Du Bois, Du Bois Design

I see a mix of both – super thin or super thick. 

3. Kirsty Davis, KD Kitchen Design

That’s interesting, I definitely still do both. But I’m finding people are wanting to make more of a feature of their island benchtops. 

So it may be thinner on the working side and really making an effort to perhaps have more of a detail on the front side, where it is built up – and you might have stone on the front side as well. 

In a lot of cases it does come down to cost as well. A lot of people are sticking with thinner but, where they can, are making it a little more interesting from the living side as well.

4. Morgan Cronin, Cronin Kitchens

I absolutely love thin benchtops. In my showroom, I've got one kitchen that basically doesn't have a benchtop – it’s that minimal. 

But the reality is most of the kitchens that we create are designed to suit families, so seating at an island  is essential. And in my mind, you can’t have a seating overhang that isn’t thick. 

This is why a lot of my kitchens have a combination of thick and thin. This allows me to use thin benches pretty much everywhere I can, but introduce thicker benches for seating areas, which has some real practical advantages. 

So I love them both. But generally I'd say thin … with thick for seating overhangs.

5. Damian Hannah, German Kitchens

People still have the concept that the thicker the benchtop, the more expensive it looks. But I’m not a fan of thick benchtops – it really stuffs up the heights of dishwashers and bench heights.

We’re trying to work to a 900mm bench height. So if you fatten the benchtop up to 80mm-100mm, all of a sudden all the cabinetry gets pushed lower, so it’s non ergonomic.

Equally, the dishwasher starts to struggle – you have to go to a ‘low boy’ or a smaller dishwasher, and then your toekicks get compromised. 

So I don’t think the thicker benchtops work aesthetically and ergonomically as well as having a thinner benchtop.

However, these new porcelains, sintered stones, ultra compact surfaces are all made 12 or 20mm – they’re beautiful products. But if you want to go thicker, everything has to be mitred … which does add more cost.

6. Leonie Hamill, Cube Dentro

I am not sure that there’s any consistent trend with this. 

At the moment there are a lot of mixed materials, mixed thicknesses of benchtops – maybe a thick island with a thin back bench. Or two benchtops, depending on the size of your island.  

We’re trying to get the islands as large as possible and when you go over a certain distance you need to either split that by having two different products or thicknesses to create variation.

Story by: Trendsideas