Iroko worktops. Anyone got them?

BlueC

We're considering Iroko worktops because we like the deeper colour they have compared to Oak and they seem to have better natural properties as a worktop material as they're less prone to staining and more resilient to water etc.

Does anyone here have them? Any good/bad experiences?

Also, any suggestions on what colours they go with? Would love to see any pics if anyone has any?

leveller2911

When I buy in sawn Iroko it can be a warm chocolate brown colour but when you plane it up it is much lighter and can be almost a creamy yellow colour. When you oil it it tends to go a little darker but still fairly light in colour to start with.

After about 1 year it oxidises and starts to turn a really nice warm brown colour, you can stain it darker from the start but it will then go very dark when it oxidises. The grain tends to be fairly plain and not very interesting. If your looking for a timber with interesting grain,fairly hard,takes a good finish and will last then have a look at American Black Walnut.ABW is around 35% more expensive than Iroko.

Iroko is very durable for kitchen worktops and will last a lifetime but it does require regular maintenance.If you scratch it or stain it you can re-finish it easily and make it look new.

Avoid worktops that are constructed from lots of short,narrow pieces (staves) as they are made from offcuts of poor grade timber and look awful.

Iroko is also known as "Poor mans Teak".......I'm full of useless information and I'm here all week.......:D

phoebe1989seb

We put Iroko on our perimeter cabinets in our new kitchen extension in 2012 - we also have a huge island with a granite surface, but having had all granite in our last house and a mix of Teak and granite in the previous one, we felt we wanted to break things up again this time

Ideally we wanted teak as we'd been very happy with it before, but struggled to find a supplier local to us so our architect suggested Iroko as the next best thing as we wanted a darker timber but felt American Walnut was too contemporary for the look we were aiming for/style of our Georgian house.

We teamed it with cream hand painted cabinets and solid pewter handles - a nod to our love of the Arts & Crafts Movement

It is wearing very well and has definitely darkened considerably in the 16 months since fitting - which I'm pleased about as at first I was concerned it wasn't as dark/rich a tone as the teak we'd had previously. We oil it occasionally and do mop up any water spillages immediately - we're extremely careful as a couple, lol, and have no young kids at home to make a mess.

It was the right choice for us.......