Hi. I fitted Fenix Ntm worktops and cabinet fronts about 4 years ago. Got them from Plykea. We have white worktops and very dark blue doors. I installed it all myself. Here’s what I’ve learned: Its very matte and is soft and warm to the touch and feels and looks very premium especially in dark colours. As a cabinet & drawer front its amazing. As a worktop it‘s less so and DO NOT get it in white unless you want to develop serious cleaning OCD. It does mark easily and holds onto stains etc very stubbornly. You can rub with a regular cloth but they wont go. What you need (and this is my biggest tip which took us about a year to figure out) is lots of MAGIC ERASER SPONGES. We buy them by the truckload and they are the only thing that cleans this material and effortlessly at that, you can scrub pointlessly with a regular cloth or sponge and get nowhere but one light rub with a magic eraser removes anything. In white the other issue is deeper scratches. If you break through the white layer by dropping a knife or something else then you reveal the dark base material which then highlights the damage. It will drive you crazy. I’m going to experiment with some white worktop repair kits to see if I can minimise these marks which obviously are inevitable on any worktop that isn’t solid stone. In short, we should’ve gone for another material if we wanted white worktops but we wouldn’t change the cabinets and fronts as they look as good as the day we got them. Also Plykea did a great job on their side and combined with the ikea cabinets that are actually very good you get a premium looking kitchen for a very good price.

The Fenix NTA color “Hamilton “ looks like brushed stainless steel. The problem you are going to have on a countertop application are the edges. Beside finding someone to fabricate it for you it’s the most problematic issue with using any Fenix laminate for countertop. The 1.2 mm through color can be mitered and blended pretty well but can also look like a hack job by someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing. Also the price of 1.2 is a lot higher and can’t be rolled to ship so you will pay for crating. The metallic is not through color so it has to be edge banded. I do not like what the edgebanding looks like on the metalics. You see a clear line around the perimeter because the metallic layer is only on the outside. Don’t know if “bloom” colors are available here. Haven’t checked but Fenix in now being made in North America as well as Europe.

I think we are moving in the direction to do the island, perimeter counters and backs splash (all the way up the wall) in the same White Santorini Quartzite. Any feedback on this? Im sensitive to adding too many different materials into the mix. Is this too much of one thing?

I have both 1% and 5% white solar shades in my house. 1% in bedrooms for privacy and light control. 5% in living room to preserve some of the view and to reduce heat gain. It's a neat concept to be able to see the view through the 5% shade, but as soon as the sun is no longer an issue, which is much of the time (overcast days, trees leafed out and anytime after mid-day), I roll the shades up, because that's the view I really want to see. The sun shines through the 5% shade so much so that it hurts my eyes, so I have to position myself somewhere in the room where it is not an issue. I'm not sure how different black would be, but I've noticed that a lot of restaurants have black. I considered black, but I sort of prefer light and bright. I'm not sorry I ordered white, the view may be blurry, but the mind fills in the blanks, if that makes sense. I ordered mine from blind.com.