When you are considering a kitchen refit there are a lot of things to think about, not the least of which is your budget. If money is not an issue, then you can obviously do whatever you want. However, for 99% of the population money is an issue and therefore has to be taken into account: it is very easy indeed to spend £25,000 on refitting a kitchen. That means that you need to sit down and think long and hard about what you want to do with it.

For instance, do you want to entertain family and friends to dinner in the kitchen? In days gone by there was a lot more entertaining done in the home than there is today and when you invited guests over for a meal it was eaten in the dining room. In fact, all meals were eaten in the dining room, whether or not you had guests present.

Today, things have changed, and it is quite usual for people to have friends round for dinner and spend all the time in the kitchen. Indeed, some people have extended their kitchens for precisely that purpose, since many kitchens in older properties were relatively small and used solely for cooking, washing up, and doing the washing. Meals were eaten in the dining room and afterwards everyone adjourned to the living room – or lounge as it was known.

You may want to change some of your appliances, but this can add to the cost, and if they are functioning as they should then this is one way you can save money. If you don’t want white appliances on show in the kitchen, then it is a relatively simple matter to have some doors produced to match your kitchen cabinets and hide them behind the doors. Open when you need to use them, and the rest of the time the doors harmonise with the rest of your kitchen décor. This is not going to cost a fortune and can make a very big difference to the appearance of the room.

Another thing that can make a difference is the kitchen floor. All kitchens have quite a lot of floor space and you can make a big difference by changing the floor. Many people today are switching to tile or stone floors which can make an impact on the appearance and at the same time are very easy to keep clean. Even if foods get spilled on the floor, a quick mop over will have them clean and sparkling again.

Tile, of course, come in an almost never-ending choice of designs and patterns but they do have the issue of grout between the tiles which can get dirty. Stone kitchen floors can add a real look of elegance. Natural stones such as marble and granite come in an amazing number of different patterns and colours depending upon the various different minerals that were present when the stone was formed. What’s more, when you have natural stone floors, no two pieces of marble or granite are ever the same, so a stone floor is always unique.

Another major consideration when refitting your kitchen is the worktops. Here again there are many choices, but more and more people today are choosing natural stone for the worktops as well as the floor.

You might well choose to have granite worktops in Ealing, if that is where you live, and if you use granite for the floor as well, then the worktops and floor will complement each other. You can choose slabs of similar colour.

Granite is actually a great stone for a worktop because it is an extremely hard stone, and it is all but impervious to heat, scratches, and cuts. Having said that, you should never chop foods directly on a worktop, but use a chopping board. It does need sealing, because it is slightly porous, but once sealed it is so easy to keep clean. A simple wipe over with a damp cloth, together with a little washing up liquid if grease has been spilled, will keep it looking brand new and sparkling for years and years to come.