Of course, we all want to have a kitchen that looks like one emerging straight from a decor magazine! However, beauty comes with a price. And no, by ‘price’ we don’t mean ‘money’ here. We mean that the most gorgeous kitchens also tend to be the hardest to clean.
While luxury is great on its own, compromising usability for luxury is just downright foolish. The best thing to do, therefore, is to find a middle ground between luxury and usability when designing a kitchen.
In this article, we focus on how to design your kitchen sink, countertop, backsplash and flooring in a way that maximises cleaning efficiency while not compromising style.
Sink
Sinks that appear too fancy tend to attract a lot of messes. The sinks that look snow white, for example, can quickly become yellowish without proper care. If the ability to clean your sink easily is important to you, try installing an integrated sink. Those are easy to take care of. Additionally, such a sink allows you to clean your countertop quickly since you can wipe all the mess right into it!
Countertop
Without a doubt, designer tiles look fantastic when used as countertop material! But designer tiles are notorious for being hard to clean. To have maximum cleaning efficiency, install either a countertop made of stainless steel or one made of quartz. You can set your eyes on laminate or Corian, too.
Backsplash
Everyone loves backsplashes that look vibrant with beautiful wallpapers. The backsplashes that feature complex textures are loved even more. However, the love disappears when the cleaning time arrives. If you even remotely care about making your life comfortable, resist the temptation to have a fancy backsplash. Make use of simple tile backsplash, instead. Other useful materials you can use are quartz, stone slab, and back-painted glass.
Flooring
If you stand in a shopping mall and ask people whether they love hardwood floors or not, nearly everyone will scream ‘Yes.’ But, hardwood is a bad material for kitchen use. You do not want to spend half of your life trying to remove pet food spills from the kitchen floor, do you? Act smart and use vinyl flooring, or something similar. Anything that does not demand heavy maintenance is good.
Most people design their kitchen first, and then complain about it being oh-so-tough to clean later. Don’t be one of them. Be someone who does the mental work first, and enjoys the rewards later!