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Kitchen Countertops: Give Your Kitchen a Touch of Elegant Functionality

By: Eugene Makeev.

[ Posted On: 2009-01-26 ]

Living in New York entails exposing yourself to the everyday stresses of big city lifestyle. Your home should be your haven of comfort where big city stresses are eased. To continually serve as one, beautiful changes should be implemented. Your countertops account among the key essentials that make the heart of your New York home not only appealing but functional as well. When thinking of a good change in your kitchen, new countertops could do just the trick.

When choosing a kitchen countertop material, it is important to note that your choice would affect the aesthetic charm, resilience, durability, and operability. In the selection process, it is important to look beyond the cost and meticulously compare the benefits of one material over the other. To help you out on this, enumerated are some of the most popular materials used as countertops:

Natural Stone

Granite is among the most popular and most widely used stone for kitchen countertops. It comes in a range of natural colors which may be in matte finishes or polished. Being a player in the current kitchen remodeling trends, its texture and look is often found imitated by synthetic products. But though others may be fooled, what many of these alternatives fail to copy is the inherent durability, resistance to fire and scratches and low porosity making it easy to clean.

Marble looks luxurious but its recommended use is on islands and baking centers only. A more porous material, it can be stained easily and needs more maintenance.

Limestone, which comes in a limited set of color options, also exhibits high resistance on both impact and heat – making it a durable choice.

Laminate

Laminate is one of the most versatile when it comes to kitchen countertops design as it is available in a very wide variety of patterns, surfaces and colors. It can also superbly duplicate the look and texture of other materials. Among its advantages as countertops are they are inexpensive as well as highly resistant to stain, making them very easy to clean. A laminate finish, though, could not withstand too much heat and are not an ideal surface for cutting.

Engineered Stone or Quartz

Engineered stone is man-made quartz-composite kitchen countertop material. This comes in a much wider color selection and has an even pattern compared with natural stone. Other than not requiring any resealing, the product is said to be stronger than granite.

Tiles

Tiles are among the relatively inexpensive choice, which also gives homeowners an opportunity design their kitchen countertops in the most creative of ways. They come in a range of colors, sizes, textures, and patterns which can be laid diagonally, vertically or horizontally. The issues with tiles as countertops are that they require more maintenance since the grout is prone to mildew and they easily chip.

But whichever material you choose for your kitchen countertops, proper installation is crucial to add years to the project results and maximize the elegance and functionality of this important kitchen feature. To ensure success, hire a qualified kitchen contractor to do your countertops for you, saving you from all the stresses that the project entails.

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

About The Author: Eugene Makeev has been in the home improvement industry for a while. His skills and expertise, which have been polished through time, are now used to help New York home owners avoid the common pitfalls in replacing kitchen countertops by matching their needs with prescreened kitchen contractors. Feel free to use our kitchen calculator.

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