If you’re planning to renovate your kitchen, you’re going to want to take some time thinking through your countertop choices. Countertops serve a valuable aesthetic purpose in the kitchen – as fashionable as a fine watch – while serving a critical role in keeping the kitchen safe and healthy.
Kitchen and Bath Design News, an industry publication, recently shared research showing that 55% of surveyed homeowners found a countertop’s sanitary benefits to be very or extremely important to them. Sanitary benefits include things like being easy to clean or with anti-microbial protection.
This spike in interest they account to the pandemic, but the fact is these benefits help control against lots of different health issues. Germs, viruses and bacteria can all live on surfaces and be transmitted from one person to another. The result: illness spreading through your family, which is no fun for anyone. Choosing countertops that can help stop the spread of germs makes sense for a lot of families.
And according to the research, even people who aren’t highly concerned with sanitary benefits still want the kitchen to be easy to clean. Quartz, solid surface, and laminate countertops all fit this category and are widely available in a variety of colors and price points.
How a Kitchen Designer Can Help You Choose the Right Countertops
One of the areas where a working with a kitchen designer really makes sense is when it comes to choosing countertops, because there are so many different options and manufacturers it’s very difficult to do any type of meaningful comparison without a little guidance.
Ask your kitchen designer questions about durability – you want to know how well the countertop in question will perform for you over the long term. You also want to know about maintenance. Does this type of countertop need to be sealed, and if so, how often? A question that’s very relevant right now: what does the delivery timeline look like for this particular product? The same pandemic that drove interest in anti-microbial countertops has slowed down supply lines around the world.
Finding the right countertop is a little like going on a treasure hunt. Some time and effort is required, but when you find a countertop that you love that works well for your lifestyle and fits your budget, it feels great.