subject: Kitchen Worktop Surfaces – Granite, Solid Wood and Laminate [print this page] Kitchen Worktop Surfaces Granite, Solid Wood and Laminate
Of all the rooms in a house that benefit from a stylish makeover, the kitchen has to be the most crucial one to get right. It's one of the few rooms in the house which has an active, day to day, practical use, and is also one of the few rooms seen frequently by visitors. These reasons alone mean that it's worth investing time and effort making the kitchen look good. The work surfaces of the kitchen are the lynchpin for the decoration of the room. On the whole, the cabinets will be wood or painted white, and any tiling can be designed to match, but the worktops are where a kitchen is created. This article aims to share a few tips on what to look for when choosing kitchen worktops.
The main thing to take into consideration is the material that is used to make the worktops. This falls into three broad categories granite, solid wood and laminate. There are pros and cons of each one, both in terms of style and in terms of practical use. Granite worktops are by far the best option, as they are very durable, and almost completely non-porous (i.e. juices and oils don't soak in), but for this reason they are more expensive. They also tend to be quite heavy, and so require a cabinet system capable of sustaining their weight. In terms of style, the colors available tend to be fairly limited, as it's quite hard to color stone beyond its natural setting. However, it does have a wonderful speckled effect naturally, and looks quite stunning in both wood and painted kitchens.
Wood worktops look far more rustic, and offer the option of cooking without the need for chopping boards. They are much easier to match with a painted kitchen, and a fully wooden kitchen creates a very cozy feeling to the room. The main drawback of wooden worktops is the effort that is required to keep them hygienic. Unless treated properly (and expensively), the wood tends to be porous, meaning that the chef has to keep on top of any spills as soon as they happen to stop the liquid permeating the wood.
Laminate worktops are much cheaper, as they tend to be a plastic coating over a thick layer of fibre-board. This makes them lightweight, and fairly easy to clean, though it's important to keep any hot items off them for fear of melting the plastic overcoat. Because it's a completely synthetic material, it can come in any color, pattern or texture, which makes it the easiest of the three options to accommodate into a kitchen design.
