Inspiration

We make timber benchtops, so you'd expect us to tell you timber wins. Here's the more useful version: an honest comparison, including the places stone genuinely does the better job.Cost: closer than most people expectBoth are four-figure surfaces for a typical kitchen. Stone quotes usually carry templating and installation on top, while a timber benchtop from us is priced live - smaller pieces start under $1,000 incl. GST and the benchtop configurator gives you an exact number for your dimensions in about a minute. For most kitchens the two end up in the same neighbourhood, so the decision is really about how you want to live with the kitchen, not the invoice.Where stone genuinely winsFair's fair. You can put a...

Choosing the timber for a benchtop usually comes down to two NZ natives: West Coast Rimu and Northland Tōtara. Both make a benchtop you'll still be glad about in twenty years. They just get there with different personalities.West Coast Rimu: warm, golden and full of movementRimu is the one most people picture when they think of a native timber kitchen. It has a warm golden colour, flowing grain and plenty of character, and it reads beautifully across a long run of bench. Ours comes from the West Coast, largely from windfall and salvage sources, so the timber arrives with a story already in it.If your kitchen leans warm - brass, cream, darker cabinetry - Rimu tends to feel like it...