You tell me, which would be more desirable in a house...

adrian_bond

Glass balustrading

hi everyone,

have you looked at glass worktops? Apparently they are the next big thing in kitchens, that may even "out-wow" granite! you can get them made at plenty of places now and are quite expensive, but they can come in any colour you want and are a doddle to keep clean (completely non-porus)! if you have a kitchen with 6mm toughened glass splashbacks, then a 19mm un-toughened glass worktop would look awesome, especially if the sink is sunken into it or mounted underneath! you can even integrate lighting under or along the worktop to illuminate it at night.

i think glass balustrading works very well where there is a need to open up a space in a modern house or flat, but probably wouldnt go wonderfully well unless youre willing to do it properly from the outset. ive been looking at fully unsuported glass balustrades recently; the glass is held entirely from the bottom in a continuous (aluminium extruded section) "shoe", with maybie a stainless steel (316 polished) or a solid square oak handrail. they would look awesome no matter what property they went in, but it sounds like youre doing up a place for profit so its worth geting some opinions on value adding / cost etc before undertaking. of course you would have to have at least 8mm toughend glass on a balustrade just for safety in my opinion, even if its strong enough to take a sledge hammer!

How modern is your kitchen tho? do you have any pictures of what you have or are planning? good luck and i hope you make the house of your dreams!

cheers.

Adrian

aliasojo

Granite/stone worktops

adrian_bond wrote: »

....a 19mm un-toughened glass worktop would look awesome......

Until you dropped a tin of beans on it.

adrian_bond

Glass balustrading

aliasojo wrote: »

Until you dropped a tin of beans on it.

thatw what i thought but apparently the glass is still pretty tough. i use toughened glass all the time at work and can vouch for its strength (similar to sheet aluminium in strength) but dont know much about un-toughened. al the glass worktops sold by the kitchens industry are un toughened tho so there must a be a good reason. maybie, if they do break, they can still be used (with a big crack!). when toughend glass breaks, it splits nto tiny cubes of glass (40 per square inch). does anyone know? cheers

devotee

Something else!

Yeah glass worktop sounds cool.....personally I find granite a bit common these days, but that's just my opinion!

Doozergirl

adrian_bond wrote: »

How modern is your kitchen tho? do you have any pictures of what you have or are planning? good luck and i hope you make the house of your dreams!

cheers.

Adrian

Thanks Adrian, some food for thought. I think glass worktops are beautiful but I has previously dismissed it as think the cost is going to be prohibitive. Maybe someone else could tell me different, I'm also still worried about the amount of gloss going on.

I've managed to delete a whole load of photos but this is the kitchen, lol!
http://www.photobox.co.uk/my/photo?album_id=121839065&photo_id=2089163587

It's taken from about 2/3 of the way back - it's somewhere between 9-10m long! The kitchen is going in an L shape to the left of the picture with an entire bank of larder units with built in ovens on the back wall going right up to that doorway with the lounge and then 3m run coming down the left with the sink. Hob will be on an island unit in the middle, facing out to the folding, sliding doors

So we only need two worktops, no joins.

Kitchen will be this one
http://www.howdens.com/product-range/kitchen-collection/contemporary/glendevon-cream/

Oak flooring delivered today

lagi

Something else!

Nice work, you have good eye for design. I have real trouble visualising.

Thats going to be one nice kitchen.

Doozergirl

CKdesigner wrote: »

Hi DG, It doesn't have to be the usual polished black granite -its nice but it is everywhere!

We sell lots of Silestone tops in the leather finish. Alternatively we have just fitted a new island display in our shop window using a slightly flame textured Antique Brown granite with a 60 mm down stand and 60mm mitred side panels, our granite company has done an excellent job with it, specially when you consider many granite fabricators wouldn't touch flame textured Antique Brown! Virtually everyone that comes into our shop is amazed by it and has to touch it and ask what it is.

What's a down stand?

Dinah93

Granite/stone worktops

Doozergirl wrote: »

This was what I liked the look of. Not too grand designs!
http://www.tradestairs.com/acatalog/s-vision-glass-balustrade.html

REALLY don't like the look of this, think it looks cheap and common, would be an immediate job for me to rip it out, which if I was buying a newly renovated property would irk me that I had work to do.

adrian_bond

Glass balustrading

hi Doozergirl,

the kitchen you have in mind will look awesome. love the very thick worktops! I know Contract glass in norwich do glass worktops which may be of interest, although i would have thought that they are expensive as expected! another bonus to glass that i had forgotten, the pieces can be one piece as long as they arent over about 3.2m i think, but im guessing there would be splits if your worktop is 10m like you say! wish i had the courage and the cash to do a project like yours but im still in my 1 bed flat for a few years as yet im afraid! lol. maybie in twenty years or if i win the lottery.

please post some piccies for us all when its finished! good luck

Doozergirl

Dinah93 wrote: »

REALLY don't like the look of this, think it looks cheap and common, would be an immediate job for me to rip it out, which if I was buying a newly renovated property would irk me that I had work to do.

What would you be putting in it's place?

We'll have to agree to disagree on cheap and common as I don't see how solid oak is cheap and common either in the 'lots of them and inexpensive' way or the 'chavvy' way either.

The staircase is going to be in that style; with cleaner lines - either with square oak spindles or straight glass panels.