When designing your brand-new kitchen, your mind will naturally be swimming with ideas and inspiration titbits you’ve seen in magazines, in-store and online.
One of the significant elements of a new kitchen that you should spend due time and consideration on is choosing the right materials for your key kitchen elements and the various options available. Continue reading for a comprehensive guide to choosing key kitchen elements and the different options available.
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Countertop Materials
Quartz and marble are the two most popular materials available for kitchen countertops at the moment. You will be spoilt for choice as there are over three thousand different colors and hues available. However, be wary of marble as a choice as it can be exceedingly expensive, can crack and taint relatively easily. Plus, marble is unsuitable for you to attempt to install yourself. Quartz is liable to staining, considerably heavy, and considerably more expensive.
By far the best choice for your brand-new kitchen countertops is granite, with one of its main selling points being the eco-friendly nature of the material as they last for the lifetime of the kitchen. Granite countertops also host a plethora of other benefits, including for the do-it-yourself enthusiasts being able to install them themselves. Each slab is entirely uniform and perfect to ensure a smooth and immaculate aesthetic finish and the fact that granite is completely unaffected by acid spills and burning hot temperatures.
Other advantages of choosing granite as the material for your countertop are that the overall appearance is that of a much more natural aesthetic than either marble or quartz; it can be cut and manipulated into literally any shape or size, and custom cut granite is incredibly easy to maintain.
Kitchen Cabinets
When designing your brand-new kitchen, the style, texture, color, and material of your kitchen cabinets is a very important decision. After all, when the work is complete, your cabinets will stand out as the main design feature of the entire room.
There are three fundamentally different types of kitchen cabinets; base cabinets, tall cabinets, and wall cabinets. Base cabinets, which also include kitchen islands, are fixed to the floor, whereas wall cabinets are entirely disconnected from the floor and mounted on the walls. Tall cabinets, otherwise called pantry cabinets, are built from the floor and reach right the way to the ceiling.
Some essential questions to ask yourself when researching the right kitchen cabinets for you and your home include, but are categorically not limited to:
- Are you struggling with storage in your current kitchen design?
- Do you want soft closing hinges for a touch of luxury?
- How much are you willing to spend on the kitchen cabinets alone?
- Are you designing an eco-friendly kitchen?
- Do you want frameless or framed kitchen cabinets?
- Do you require your washing machine to be in your kitchen?
Once you have the specific needs clearly set in your mind and, depending on the budget you have available, it is now time to consider which of the three types of cabinet suppliers you want to contact, all with different design models.
Stock cabinets are essentially whole cabinet sets that are purchased, as seen, from wholesale and large warehouse suppliers and are manufactured away from the store. Stock cabinets are the most affordable option of the three.
Semi-custom cabinets are the middle cabinet type in terms of affordability. Like stock cabinets, semi-custom cabinets are basically manufactured in bulk offsite, but small details and aesthetic alterations are possible depending on your specific needs and desires.
Bespoke, entirely customized cabinets are the most expensive yet afford you the luxury of planning everything from the exact measurements, the texture, and color and are always made by skilled carpenters and professionally installed in your home.
Kitchen Floorings
Kitchen floors take a great deal of wear and tear, especially if you have family pets and young children, especially in the winter months with adverse weather conditions.
Logically, therefore, your kitchen flooring needs to be durable, above all else, as well as seamlessly fitting in aesthetically with your kitchen cabinets and countertops.
Stone flooring is available in a wide array of different types and is one of the most popular choices for a modern kitchen. It is worth noting, however, that with stone flooring, each slab is naturally slightly different from the next. So, if you are looking for a sleek, smooth finish, stone may not be the best option for you.
If your main objective is to invest in a floor that requires virtually no maintenance, porcelain tiles are certainly worth looking into. Porcelain tiles are exceedingly hygienic and rarely chip or scratch, as well as being the perfect companion to underfloor heating. Solid wood flooring is aesthetically the proverbial king and makes for an absolutely beautiful finish to your entire kitchen. Plus, if you are designing an eco-friendly kitchen, choose cork, as the removal of cork from a tree results in the tree being healthier for longer.
