Here are some tips from the industry professionals on how to choose your kitchen countertops.
Renovating your kitchen is always a big decision. And not only budget-wise. It is the room in your house where you, most likely, spend most of your time, and where you rely on the functionality of all the elements more than anywhere else. Do the opening doors block your way, do the cabinets accommodate everything you need, is the floor tile easy to clean and, of course, is your kitchen countertop maintenance free and designed to fit in your space well?
What are the common challenges in kitchen countertop design?
Kitchen Countertops – Design
Kitchen countertops are challenging – out of all kitchen elements, they have the strongest impact on your space visually – cutting it in half and literally shaping up the kitchen space. The layout of the kitchen also dictates the style of the countertop and materials that can be potentially used. When planning your kitchen think through all the possible aspects of kitchen design and how it will integrate into the design of the whole house.
Kitchen Countertop – Colour & Pattern
When deciding to go dark or light, keep in mind the colour of your cabinets. Remember that contrast, while sometimes brings interest to the space, also minimizes it. You may choose a darker countertop to make stains less visible, but while doing it, you will inevitably attract attention to your kitchen countertop and will make it look bigger next to light floor and cabinets.
Another important point is how busy the pattern is – in the modern design market while there are plenty of countertop materials that offer pattern-less solid color design, a lot of natural stone materials such as marble, granite, and quarts boast bold statement patterns that you can integrate into the entire space design. You have to remember that once you choose the slab with distinctive pattern or grain – you will have to look at it for many years to come…
Kitchen Countertops – Configuration
This is where functionality is crucial. The right configuration of the kitchen, and countertop, of course, can save you a lot of time when it comes to cooking and cleanup. If you have the flexibility when planning, you always have to consider the “fridge-stove-sink” triangle – having it too far apart adds a lot of extra legwork.
While planning efficient configuration you also have to take into consideration whether it is an open plan kitchen or entirely separate room, and whether to open it up if you can. While galley kitchens do offer a lot of convenient functionality and maximize on storage space and isolate the kitchen mess – open space concepts make it a part of the house with the need to integrate the design into the rest of the house. This is where often such elements as kitchen islands come into place. Some kitchen countertop materials have come in prefabricated slabs and have limited width, while natural stone allows for wider countertop with that could be cut out of it.
Kitchen Countertops – Materials
When it comes to materials that are available for kitchen countertops the opportunities are endless – natural stone, wood, porcelain, engineered stone, polished concrete, and even glass…While certain materials look definitely impressive from the design point, they might not end up being that practical.
If you look, for example at wood that suddenly became quite popular – the presence of in the area where there is a lot of water and spills happening does not seem practical, no matter what the finish is. Even with some types of natural stone – such as marble – the porous structure leads to easy scratching and staining. When you choose the material for your kitchen countertop it is important to evaluate all its features and qualities along with design benefits.
Kitchen countertops are one of the most important components of your kitchen, and when it comes to choosing the new one it is important to evaluate all the features – to make sure it will serve you long and well.
The information is provided by Marble Treasure, the experts in custom kitchen countertops manufacturing and installation.
