Have you ever stopped and wondered why family and friends all tend to congregate in the kitchen?
What is it about kitchens that evoke a mysterious magnetic attraction? In years gone by, the household kitchen was designed for preparing and cooking meals. However, over the past few decades, this one particular room, more than any other has slowly morphed into the epicentre of the home. The average kitchen wears many hats—it’s where the family congregate after school, the place to raid the biscuit tin, a children’s art museum on the fridge and above all a place to socialise and enjoy good food with family and friends. The kitchen was immortalised as the place to be in the song released in 1980 by Jona Lewie …”you will always find him in the kitchen at parties.” Whoever ‘he’ was, he was enjoying himself in the place where everyone else wanted to be.
Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing our knowledge on what it takes to help create the ideal kitchen space for your home. We’ll cover all the elements that need to be looked at including colour, style, textures, appliances and materials. A feature that every kitchen has irrelevant of size, is a work surface, this may be more prominent in some kitchens than others. Kitchens with a long central island will almost certainly have more worksurface than those without the island however the right worksurface is important irrelevant of size.
There are a number of countertops worth considering on the market and if you’ve ever gone looking, you may well have been confused by the differences between what look like very similar products. So, we wanted to shed some light on your choices and why you might consider them.
Corian® Kitchen Countertops
We love working with Corian®. It’s a solid surface used in kitchen worktops, islands and prefabricated sinks and is fashioned from high-performance Corian® and available in a dazzling array of styles and colours. It’s non-porous, so stains cannot penetrate its surface. The manufacturers advise that with proper cleaning, Corian® also resists the growth of mould, mildew and bacteria and due to the seamless look of integrated Corian® kitchen worktops, sinks, and coved backsplashes, it also means there are no crevices to trap dirt and bacteria.
Quartz Kitchen Countertops
Quartz is attractive for its durability and its consistent colour characteristics. This type of work surface offers an impressive colour selection in white, black or grey hues and is becoming a popular and functional choice in modern kitchen design.
Granite Kitchen Countertops
Granite remains high on the list of trendy kitchen countertops for the 2019 kitchen. It’s often cited as the most durable natural material available and is known for resisting cracks and chips well. Trivets are a thing of the past in a kitchen with a granite work surface. Granite allows you to place hot pans directly on the countertop, you can cut right on the surface without damage, and spills wipe away easily.
Marble Kitchen Countertops
When we think of marble, most of us think of luxury and style, and although it exudes elegance, it’s a functional and stable material, it has a great aesthetical and colour selection, it responds well to temperature and mechanical damage; the only blip is when it comes to stains, this is where you need to be careful.
Metal Kitchen Countertops
Metals are all the rage in a 2019 kitchen. Trendy and fashionable it lends itself to more urban and modernistic design arrangements. The phrase may be ‘all that glitters is gold’, however who isn’t drawn to the shine of a metal surface? With new technologies and innovations, the age-old view that metal and rust go hand in hand is a thing of the past. Using a metal surface in a modern kitchen will take it to the next level.
Reclaimed Wooden Countertops
For those who have a more traditional and natural idea of design in mind, the beauty of natural wood will always top their list. Using wood as a surface in your kitchen is never a bad choice and many are using reclaimed wood as an option for a countertop. It’s sustainable and Nature-friendly, and environmentally a more sustainable resource that granite because wood is renewable and using reclaimed wood is even more so. Offering irresistible charm and warmth, it’s also a great choice for the planet.