So you have finally decided to refurbish your kitchen in Welwyn Garden City. Good for you. Many people today spend a lot more time in the kitchen than in days gone by when it was used solely for cooking, doing the washing up, and in many cases doing the laundry. Today, the kitchen is still used for all those purposes, but many families eat in the kitchen as well. If you have a table or freestanding counter in the centre of the kitchen it is easy to serve family meals there, and many kitchens now also have a TV on the wall, so there is no need to rush back to the living room after dinner.

Just how far you go with a kitchen refurb is dependent in most cases on your budget. If you want to strip everything out and start all over again from scratch, you can really spend a lot of money. Most people can’t afford that sort of undertaking, since you could very easily run through £25,000 and even more.

We at Marble & Granite would suggest you to plan around your budget and keep your spending to a reasonable amount. If, say, your dishwasher is getting past its’ best you can replace it without spending a fortune, but keep all the other appliances if they are performing well. There are a couple of things which can really make a great difference to the appearance of any kitchen, and those are the worktops and the cabinets. Those take up a lot of “eye space”, as does the floor. So you could include a new floor as well, if the money runs to it. One of the best floors for a kitchen is tile because it can handle all the spills, and when it comes to cleaning it only needs a damp mop over.

As for the kitchen cabinets, in most cases there are two choices. One is to rip them out and install new. However, there is a far less expensive way of dealing with the problem and that is simply to have new doors and drawer faces fitted. You don’t see the back, and in most cases the sides, of the cabinets but the doors and drawers are right at the front. You can easily have new ones made which will give you a completely new appearance to the kitchen for far less cost.

Much the same applies to the worktops themselves. Those are on top of the floor-standing cabinets and you can also make a huge difference to the look of the kitchen by changing them, along with any upstands.

When thinking about worktops, you also have to consider the practical features as well as the appearance. Obviously, they need to be strong, but they also have to have the right appeal. There are lots of different options, but today many people are choosing quartz worktops in Welwyn Garden City, and elsewhere as well.

Why quartz worktops? Well, they have many benefits for use in the kitchen. A lot of people think that quartz is a stone, and the answer is that it is and it isn’t! It is not a natural stone like marble or granite but is man-made. It consists of natural quartz aggregates which make up the bulk of the material, along with polymer resins and pigments.

The result is a stone-like material that is extremely hard-wearing and virtually stainproof which is a big advantage in a kitchen. It can come in many colours, and, unlike natural stone, is the same colour all the way through. So if you want a worktop that is, say, green, it will be exactly the same all over. If you have a green granite, for instance, it will be mottled and veined, which some people like. However, if you want all of the worktop to look exactly the same, then quartz is a good answer. You should note that you must not put hot pans straight off the stove on to quartz, because they can damage it, but that goes for other materials too. Likewise, you shouldn’t chop or cut on it, but use a chopping board. That aside, quartz is virtually indestructible and only needs a wipe over with a damp cloth. No other maintenance is needed at all.