Times have changed in the 21st century in many ways, and no more so than in the average kitchen. Back in the day, in the 1970’s and 80’s, it was a regular thing to invite friends and family to your home for a dinner party.

Guests arrived at, say, 7.00 pm and went into the sitting room where the host would serve drinks such as sherry, gin and tonic, vodka and tonic, maybe a beer or two. Meanwhile the lady of the house was out in the kitchen up to her neck in cooking. Keeping this and that warm while heating a soup that was probably prepared much earlier in the day from organic vegetables and meats that would be the starting point of the meal.

It was almost a competition in some households to serve a meal that was intended to be “better” than the one that people had eaten at one of the other guests’ homes the previous weekend!

Dinner would be served at perhaps 7.30 pm and was always in the dining room. Everyone ate their meals in the dining room in those days. Breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner – all eaten in the dining room. That is why it was called the dining room, after all. That is what the room was for: dining.

However, all that has changed. Today, the dining room is often used as a games room for the kids to play their computer games or may have been turned into an extra bedroom for an elderly relative who can no longer fend for themselves. We don’t use it for eating meals anymore.

That all takes place in the kitchen. Some years ago, a home would only have one TV, but today it may have several. One of the first things that happened when a TV became commonplace and more affordable was that the lady of the house wanted a TV in the kitchen. And why not? She could watch EastEnders or Corrie while preparing the evening meal instead of being stuck in the kitchen alone while the rest of the family watched it in the living room.

Suddenly, there was a TV in the kitchen which somehow developed into other family members sitting around the kitchen table while mum was doing the cooking, and everyone watched the programmes in there. It wasn’t long before the dinner was served at the kitchen table as well, and hence the demise of the dining room.

Taking that one step further, people started to entertain guests to dinner around the kitchen table as well, and today it is the norm. In fact, in many homes people have been enlarging their kitchens either by knocking down the wall between kitchen and dining room or by building an extension into the garden.

You Need Your Kitchen To Look The Bees’ Knees

Of course, when you entertain guests in the kitchen you want it to look the bees’ knees. And that means that many families have been revamping their kitchen to bring it up to date and be a room where you can entertain without feeling embarrassed about the way that it looks.

If you are updating your kitchen in Kingston, as many people are, you obviously have to keep within budget – unless money is no issue. That means that you need to concentrate on the things that are going to make the best impression, and the two main things that catch the eye are the worktops and the cabinetry. This is because in the average kitchen the worktops take up a fair amount of space, as do the cabinets.

When it comes to worktops, there are a lot of materials from which you can choose, but these days many people are choosing some form of stone. This can either be natural stone such as marble or granite, or it can be a man-made stone such as installing quartz worktops in Kingston.

When it comes to worktops, quartz has a lot going for it. It is available in a wide range of colours and patterns and one big advantage is that it is completely non-porous, unlike natural stones. It is also tough as old boots, which is a big benefit for something like a worktop which does receive a lot of constant usage.

You can have your quartz worktops in a polished finish, or you can have them in a more discreet matt or textured finish. Either way, along with your choice of dinner recipes, they will certainly impress your guests.