The Kitchen’s Mysterious Trio: Worktop, Floor and Wall Combinations

Of course, when designing a home, every room and living space deserves the same patience, attention, care, sense of style and calculation. Yet one space is a real puzzle: the kitchen. It may look simple, but success demands almost mathematical precision. It is a space of layer upon layer. It may not be considered the main living area, yet its traffic is heavy. As a wet area, hygiene and durability take priority in every material from top to bottom. It demands great attention to detail while remaining free of fuss and frills. It is loved both in solitude and in company.

If you are building a kitchen from scratch or completely renovating one, learn what works with what, and which material and colour combinations are popular, before making certain decisions and choices. Here are the colour, pattern and material combinations for the kitchen's three champions: worktops, floors and walls.

These three come to mind first when we think of textures drawn from nature. The greatest advantage of this combination, a favourite among kitchen designers, is the wealth of colour and pattern options. The three materials also complement one another while providing textural contrast. What is more, they can take on many different guises and suit every style.

Although each of these materials suits all three surfaces, one particularly popular arrangement uses stone for worktops, and even shelves, island tops and sinks; wood, which brings warmth to the room, for flooring and cupboard doors; and marble for walls, splashbacks and tabletops. If you prefer, reserve the stone texture for walls and shelves, and use marble and wood on surfaces you touch and work on directly, such as floors, worktops and tabletops.

There is one point to consider carefully when making these choices: if you use natural stone for a worktop, remember that its surface is porous and may absorb water. It therefore needs periodic sealing. Innovative design comes to the rescue of anyone who wants to avoid these risks, along with others such as breakage, scratching and harbouring bacteria. How? Thanks to today's advanced printing technology, ceramic and porcelain tiles can faithfully reproduce the appearance of any material, from every kind of marble to granite, terrazzo, concrete, decorative tiles and, above all, wood.

They also offer more advantages than the original material: non-combustibility, resistance to chemicals, cutting, drilling and cleaning, resistance to high and low temperatures, stains, wear and scratches, and, most importantly, water absorption. If you would like to meet these superheroes and explore ceramic and porcelain tiles that capture texture, overall appearance and fine patterns as convincingly as the original material, here are some examples:

• For stone-look wall tiles, be sure to explore the tiles in Kalesinterflex's C-Stone, Kalestone+ and Natural Stone collections.

• For wood-look flooring, we suggest exploring Çanakkale Seramik's Legni, Listoni, Woodream, Chakra and Country series.

If you definitely want colour, combine natural wood doors with wooden cabinets in neutral shades such as grey, beige or taupe. Worktops can use stone- or concrete-effect tiles. As the splashback is a small area, it deserves a little movement: try medium-sized mosaics, finger tiles, metro tiles or decorative tiles. For example, tiles in Çanakkale Seramik's İpek collection have a built-in quilted, mosaic-effect design; such designs offer considerable ease of installation and budget advantages. If you would like hexagonal decorative tiles, explore Kalebodur's legendary Hexagon series. Combining decorative patterns with a hexagonal shape, the series features colours drawn from nature's calm palette.

For example, Atria from the Formart collection in the Çanakkale Seramik family is tailor-made for the splashback in such a kitchen. Its asymmetric pentagonal shape creates a very natural surface, while its glossy greens and blues add an enchanting depth to the atmosphere.