Hi, I have Dekton Aura in part of my kitchen. This corner only gets used for making breakfast or cake. I love it. Just took these pics for you; it's evening and the light makes it look more yellow than it is. It has a very slight orange peel texture, think I have the satin finish, not sure.

Dekton is a porcelain style worktop meaning it’s more scratch and stain resistant and harder than quartz. But the pattern is printed on to Dekton where with a quartz it goes all the way through meaning you have to accept plain polished edges or have a dropped edge which is an additional labour cost.

As far as not looking real I think it depends on the finish- for me the silk finishes look higher end than the glossy ones. And personally I really like Neolith as an alternative- I have Neolith Mont Blanc in my bathroom and love it

Thanks all! @Jonathan do you feel like Neolith looks more genuine than Dekton then? I know it has the same hardwearing properties so I have also been looking at that as an alternative

I love the heat and scratch resistance, but never do an undermount sink in it, as it chips. Had a few service issues to solve in the past years..

@rinked oh really?? I read that you can do undermount as long as it's not square, has to be curved edges but are yours curved and it still chips??

The harder the material, the more brittle around the edges. The undermount sinks were rounded off squares.

Thank you @User! Have you had any issues with chipping on the worktop by your undermount sink? Comments above have said this can be a problem?

We have decton in our utility & haven’t had any problems. We have an inset the sink.

We haven’t chipped it yet and my wife is always knocking the edges with saucepans as she is a little clumsy! It’s been in about two years.

Ours is 12mm and has an champhered edge.

Hi Izzi,

We've done a few installations with Dekton in both kitchen & bathroom settings, as well as having it in our showroom. As a high end technical product, I personally like it a lot - though as with any material, it has its pros & cons. My general thoughts below:

1. For a "hard-working" kitchen with lots of cooking & food prep, it is a surface that is hard to beat - very hard wearing, excellent for thermal shock, scratches and impervious to staining
2. If you are looking for the thinnest possible surface, then these sintered ceramic products are the way to go! BUT;
3. As others have mentioned, the full patterning does NOT go all the way through the surface - if you are looking at the more marble-type finishes (as you are), then a Silestone (or equivalent quartz) will give you greater depth and realism. If you have milled in drainer grooves in Dekton, then you will notice the lack of pattern below the surface
4. It can be brittle - drop a Le Creuset on the edge, and it won't be too forgiving!
5. While less of an issue for you, it is a devil to physically machine - you need to make sure your fabricator is properly tooled up and has some experience with the material!

Looking at the patterns that interest you, unless you need the extra-thinness or thermal shock properties, I personally would be more tempted by a Silestone. Their marbled finishes are second to none - if you want something with a hint of something extra, consider the "Lusso" finish with just the hint of a gold fleck through.

I would upload some of my Dekton images, but they are from the much more "industrial" finishes - which is where, to my mind, Dekton comes into it's own.

Let us know what you eventually pick - and share some images too!

I would definitely recommend seeing it in a kitchen setting. We had our heart set on Dekton from the samples we had but just didn’t like the way the edges looked in the display or the depth of it. We have gone for Silestone in the end.

Lovely installation, @Christian Meikle - and I think it is with those darker, slightly more "industrial" tones that Dekton really comes into its own. As a hard wearing surface, it really is fantastic!

Thank you @Caldicot Kitchen & Bathroom Centre! that was sooooo helpful!!! You mentioned the more industrial finishes for Dekton are where it's best - what styles are they? I'm willing to look at other stylings, not necessarily set on the marble type look!

With silestone that's more of a quartz type property right in that it can stain and not as heat resistant etc? I'm unsure what the difference really is between Silestone and just regular Quartz....

I want something that looks 'real' but also has hard wearing properties

Hi Izzi!

Yes, Silestone is a brand of quartz - definitely one of the better ones, and our "go to" for quartz products. Dekton is a sintered ceramic - a very high tech, large format ceramic tile, if you will! With Silestone, the patterning goes right the way through the slab, whereas with Dekton, the pattern is essentially a print just below the surface "baked" into it. So patterning does not go right through, though there may be some of the "graininess" which does go through.

Stain resistance with Silestone is still pretty good - any staining tends to stay at the surface and is still easy enough to remove or, worst case, polish out, but overall stain, heat & scratch resistance of Dekton is still the best in town.

Regarding industrial finishes - Dekton has quite a few that look more like concretes or aged metallic finishes etc. At the more "heavy industrial" end you have finishes like Keranium, Radium and our most popular - Trilium. There are plenty of grey options in either a more concrete or "grey stone" pattern - these work well either with matt slab grey or woodgrain doors to, again, give quite a modern and slightly industrial aesthetic.

If you are looking for a lighter kitchen design, I personally quite like Nilium - essentially a white base, but with some interesting accents which make it not quite like anything else, but very appealing!

Have a look at the Cosentino website, and click on the different patterns - when you scroll down, you'll see lots of excellent imagery of different installations for inspiration. Their sample service is very good too!

https://www.cosentino.com/en-gb/colours/dekton/nilium/

My quartz is 25+ years old and still looks good, though on the most used areas some sand grains came out. It's black and speckled, so I'm fine with that. And quartz is still the most sold top (in the Netherlands that is), even laminates are quite popular again (because of longer lengths).

Dekton would allow you to cut food on the top itself, but since fruit, veg and meat all have juices, nobody ever does that. And Dekton would blunt your knives, so not advised.

When it comes to durability and properties.. Ask yourself how often you leave juice, wine or tins on your counter. And if you ever place a hot pan right on the worktop. Most people don't.

For example my tea tin, salt and pepper are on a small wooden cutting board.

Just quickly taken a photo of one of our small displays, showing one of the more industrial finishes in Dekton on a dark, handleless kitchen. It also looks great with white for a real statement! Sorry about the photo quality - old tablet...

IMG_2087.HEIC · More Info

@Caldicot Kitchen & Bathroom Centre Thanks so much for all your help! I guess the original reason why I was looking at Dekton was that I had heard a lot of reviews on Silestone that it is very very prone to chipping. A lot of people had said if they'd do it again they wouldn't do Silestone as they have had a lot of problems with chipping if something drops or around the sink..... Have you had those issues from clients also?

Just want something that will be pretty indestructible but also look 'real'!

Hi Izzi, Personally, we've not really had any issues with chipping - perhaps our clients are a little more careful!! It can be repaired, though - indeed Cosentino employ people specifically to handle such things in the eventuality of such a trauma!

Dekton is perhaps less prone to chipping, but would not come off well in the event of a Le Creuset being dropped from a bit of height!

In truth, all products have their pros & cons and will suffer "damage" in different ways. If realism is your driving force, I would probably still veer towards Silestone and just take a little more care. If overall Hard-wearing is more important, Dekton has a slight edge. And if the worst ever did happen, with some sort of damage - well, that is why we all spend a fortune on house insurance...

@Izzi Robinson - I had all the same issues as you. Today, I went to one of Cosentino's HQ warehouses in Spain - I am VERY lucky that I live close by, and my kitchen guy installs 70+ Cosentino counters a year, so we were able to go into the warehouse and see EVERY. SINGLE. SURFACE that they make! It was mind blowing. What I will say, is that it is super, super important to try and see them in an installation first. The online colours are off, and the tiny little sample pieces are not indicative of the total slab. I'll attach a photo of the slab of Dekton we decided on - it's called VERA and is very different in real life to online. Secondly - the white calacatta-alikes were a bit too fake for my liking BUT not all of them looked bad. The different textures made a difference to how realistic they were. I currently have a beige Silestone counter. I've had it for 8 years and it's brilliant. I've had no issues with staining (I use lemon juice and a tiny bit of bicarb of soda if it's bad - and have done that maybe 4 times total. I do use trivets and mats and put curry containers on mats first etc, to prevent staining, so I DO take care of it.) I'd highly recommend it as a countertop surface. The other bit of advice is make sure you have a great fabricator - again in Spain I am lucky as there are tons of excellent marmolistas but I do think it makes a difference and that's why some people say they've had issues.

I saw Entzo this morning and it was really nice. Rem is also not as bad in real life as you think, but it depends on your tolerance level for knowing it's not 'real'! Here's my Vera. :) It's even warmer in real life than this photo - and this photo is warmer than the official sample on the Dekton page.

I have silestone currently (a pure white) and haven't had any problems at all with chipping in teh 6 or so years we've had it. I love the look of it, especially when it's had a bit of a buff up! We do have a few stains (usually where tea has sat for a few seconds - it seems particularly prone to tea stains) but they're not noticeable and seem to fade over time. Out of interest, what is the price difference between silestone and dekton? Am I right in thinking dekton is quite a bit more expensive?

@tranquila00 Oh I'm so jealous you could go and see them in person!!!! This is definitely my worry - a lot of the online ones I loved, when I got the samples I wasn't quite as keen. But as you said, the samples are so small that it's hard to tell with those too.

Do you happen to remember if Tundra was one of the ones you saw? To me in the sample it looks more 'real' than Rem but hard to tell if it's not a big slab!

The Vera you've chosen is beeeeeautiful!! I'd love to do that! Unfortunately it wouldn't work with my colour scheme I don't think (white cabinets on main walls and charcoal island cabinets). Your's looks wonderful though

@hedgehog99 I've had prices for both the Dekton and the Silestone and to be honest they worked out basically the same for me!

Hi Izzy, unusual for the Dekton & Silestone prices to be so close - sometimes it will depend on which price group each product is in, or the sizes of the slabs - you may need an extra slab depending on the shape of your particular kitchen and how the cuts can be done! Thickness also has an effect.

As to seeing them in person - Cosentino can arrange for you to visit their yard to see individual slabs, if required. Not sure on whether this is possible under current Covid restrictions, but it may be worth asking your supplier. I know it has helped our clients in the past - though it is not unknown for them to go and pick something completely different, often at a higher price!!

@Izzi Robinson I don’t actually remember seeing Tundra, sorry. I had to discount all the ones not in my colour scheme otherwise i‘d have been there for hours !! I have since changed my mind!!!!!! Much as I really adore that Vera, I’ve decided to go with my second choice, Eter, which doesn’t photograph well and which I would never have considered had I not seen it in real life. It looks flat and dark online but actually has texture and different colours. It’s the big dark slab in the photo. Looks totally different on the website. I worried that the Vera would compete with my floor in the end and that my colour scheme would support a dark counter as I have lots of wood to complement and soften it. Good luck and see if you can get to see some. it’s a big investment and you need to get it right!