What to know about Mason Mitres for your kitchen?

In any kitchen design, the use of Mason Mitres is an attractive way to finish neatly and ensure a clean join between profiles.

Choosing a kitchen benchtop is one of the most exciting parts of the design process. As benchtops are the work horse in any kitchen, designing the best join is also one of the more important decisions to make.

…and a laminate join can look very smart – can you spot the join in this image?

Laminate benchtops offer great options

Laminate is the most cost-effective of all benchtop materials, and has been a trusted choice for many years. Laminate benchtop manufacturers offer a much more extensive choice of colours these days, and one would be forgiven for mistaking some stone-effect laminate benchtops for the real deal.

Polytec Benchtop Colours

Polytec Benchtop Range

The choice of laminate benchtops is long lasting and offers enduring qualities from waterproof, impact resistance, high levels of scratch resistance and stain resistance.

Why use Mason Mitres in my design?

A mason’s mitre is a type of benchtop join. Although traditionally used in stonework or masonry, it is now commonly seen in kitchen benchtops everywhere.

In a mason’s mitre, the two elements being joined meet as if a butt joint but a small section of the front has a small mitre made.  This ensures that the benchtop profile (like the Semble tightform benchtops) are carried through the joint perfectly.

Additionally, mason mitres allow the appearance of a full mitre joint to be created with significantly less waste than occurs with a common mitre joint, in which triangular sections must be removed from the ends of both joint members.

Mason Mitres & Benchtop Orientation

When laying out a kitchen design, it is worth thinking about the orientation of the benchtop joins. That is, which direction should the joins run for best practice.

While there is no fixed rule, there are a couple of factors to consider when designing your benchtop plan. Firstly, wherever possible try to balance the lengths to avoid really long or really short benchtops.

Secondly, while an properly installed mason mitres join will have a high degree of moisture

resistance, it makes sense to orient this join away from the sink.

If you are planning a kitchen island than any island benchtop (typically 900mm deep) will require the mason mitres to be arranged so you do not have the join extending through the island. While this is technically possible, it is certainly not desirable or recommended in any way.

Designing with Joins

Want to know more?

Modern laminate choices mean a benchtop range that is virtually unlimited in colour, finish and now texture…(via woodgrain embossing). The exceptional colour depth and clarity that is available through modern laminates is akin to natural materials and can offer some distinct design advantages for the savvy renovator.

Laminate benchtops are not only an economical choice for many renovations they are also available in a huge range of colours & finishes.

Benchtop Join Video