When it comes to refurbishing your kitchen, there are a whole heap of things to take into account. To begin with, you really do need to set a budget, unless money is no object of course, but for most of us ordinary mortals it is vital. The thing is that it is so easy to get carried away unless you do have a budget and stick to it. This may mean that you cannot, after all, throw away the cooker and buy a new one, but have to make do with the existing one for a few more years.

Now it is understood that you do want your kitchen to look great, especially as these days more and more people entertain family and friends to dinner in the kitchen. Apart from the cabinetry which can make quite an impact, two things which stand out in a kitchen are the floor and the worktops because they are both in the horizontal plain and catch the eye. Of course, many people use tile for the kitchen floor, and this is always a good idea because you can spill things on it and they can simply be mopped up. You do have to be careful not to drop heavy cast iron pans on tile though, because obviously it can crack. In fact, when tiling a floor, you should always ensure that you have a few left over for spares.

When it comes to the worktops, you have many different choices, and it can be hard to make up your mind. Today, you can get different types of natural stone, you can have imitation stone, there is wood, Corian, laminate, cement, stainless steel, and more.

You need to think about how you use your kitchen. If you eat out a lot (not that you do just at the moment, but we are talking “normal” here), and simply heat up something form Iceland the rest of the time, then something like marble would look great. However, if you are a budding Jamie Oliver chucking spices and sauces around that wouldn’t be so great because it is easily stained unless properly sealed. Even so, marble is a soft stone.

Another natural stone is granite, and this is a lot tougher. Granite worktops in Knightsbridge would be a great choice because being natural stone, every slab is different, so your kitchen will be unique. Granite is also available in a range of different colours, depending upon the minerals present when the stone was first formed. Many slabs of granite have incredible veining and patterns within them too. They are available in blacks, greys, blues, reds, browns, greens, whites, ivories, and more, and we have quite a selection at Marble & Granite.

Granite is one of the hardest rocks on the planet, scoring a 7 on the Moh’s scale of hardness. Even so, you should not place hot pans on it. This is because overheating a small area could possibly cause a crack. It can also chip on the edge if you drop a heavy pan on it, but then so will most other stones.

However, granite worktops are perfect for preparing food on because they cannot hold bacteria. Having said that, you shouldn’t cut directly on granite because you are likely to blunt the knife.

Despite the fact that granite is such a hard rock, it is actually porous. This means that it needs to be sealed with an appropriate sealant. You read all sorts of different tales about how often granite needs sealing, but today a top quality sealant will last for up to ten years.