Silver Sparkle Kitchen

Silver flake, packed and sealed, straight over the old walls.

A white ground packed with silver flake and sealed under a gloss, taken behind the worktop and on round the corner. It is the finish we are asked for most often in a kitchen, and for a plain reason: it goes on as one continuous surface, so it turns corners and runs up to the sockets without a joint, a grout line or a strip of sealant anywhere.

Get close to it and you can see what it is actually made of — flat flakes, some silver, some darker grey, laid into the base and packed edge to edge rather than sprinkled through it. From across the room they read as a fine speckled stone; under the unit lights they all catch at once.

The lacquer over the top is the part that matters behind a hob. It leaves the wall smooth to the hand and wipeable, which a rough flake finish is not.