Choosing new worktops for your kitchen can be a complicated process. Whether you are redesigning the whole kitchen, throwing everything out, and starting from scratch, or perhaps just changing the worktops, there are lots and lots of different options.
Just to begin with, there are so many different materials that you could use. Tile, wood, laminates, stainless steel, solid surface material such as Corian, granite, marble, soapstone, quartz, quartzite, limestone, sintered stone, concrete (yes concrete!) – to name just a few! It can be hard to know where to begin.
In fact, today, more and more people are opting for natural stone for kitchen worktops, and this is partly because every slab of natural stone is different from the next – even if it is the same stone from the same quarry! This is because natural stones have formed naturally – as you might guess – over millions of years and under extreme heat and pressure, and they contain different minerals depending upon what else was present in the surface when the stone was formed.
Even with natural stone, there are choices, but many people today are opting for granite for a number of reasons. Not the least of these is that granite is rock hard. In fact, on the Mohs scale of hardness it comes in at a no. 7 and that is pretty tough. True, diamond is harder, but then you probably cannot afford diamond for your work surfaces!
You Are Very Unlikely To Damage Granite
What this means is that you are very unlikely to be able to damage a granite worktop in your kitchen. If you chop foods directly on to the surface – which you actually should not do – you stand a far greater chance of damaging your knife rather than the granite.
Granite worktops in Wood Green – or anywhere else – are also extremely heat resistant. When putting hot pans directly out of the oven or off the hob on many work surfaces, you can do some damage, but you are unlikely to damage granite. With that said, at Marble & Granite we always recommend using a trivet, whatever surface you have.
Granite is also a great material for backsplashes. So, if you pair your backsplash with the worktop, it will provide you with a seamless continuing appearance. Granite is also available in large slabs, so in a lot of kitchens there will be no need for seams.
Of course, you can use granite for your bathroom surfaces as well, and in both kitchen and bathroom they are best paired with an undermounted sink or basin. This is perfect in the kitchen because you can wipe off any spills directly into the sink without them being caught by the lip.
True, like many stones, granite is porous, so it needs to be treated with a sealant in order to be sure of avoiding any stains. However, all spills on any surface should be wiped off as soon as possible.
Granite is also available in a wide choice of different colours. There are blacks, greys, blues, greens, browns, reds, beige, and even white, and most have incredible veining and patterns, so you can choose whatever colour fits. What you can be certain of when choosing granite worktops is that your kitchen will be unique.
