Posted by Derek
Your kitchen worktops get put through their paces. Relentless food preparation, spillages, dropping heavy pots on them, sitting roasting hot casserole dishes, chucking car keys after a long day at work. The list goes on. They are part of the kitchen that takes the most amount of abuse.
So, when choosing a kitchen worktop, there are certain factors that you want your chosen worktop to rate very highly on so that it doesn't end up stained, scratched and looking in poor condition.
From an aesthetic perspective, you must also think carefully about your worktop. This is the key to tying the kitchen's various design elements into one stylish-looking room.
For the best results, you're looking for a worktop that is durable, stylish, practical, easy to maintain and comes in various styles and colours to suit your specific needs.
And thankfully, it just so happens there's a material that aces every one of these tests.
Ceramic.
A durable worktop is an excellent choice for two reasons.
For a start, who would want to choose a worktop that starts to deteriorate and fall apart after a few short years? No one. As mentioned, your worktop is the workhorse of your kitchen, taking all sorts of potentially damaging treatments. Ceramics is a rigid material that will last long, even in the busiest kitchens.
Secondly, supposing you go for a weaker alternative and, after a few years, your worktop is covered in scratch marks, stains, and burns, what will you want to do? Replace it, of course, which is an expensive and disruptive process. Choosing a ceramic worktop means you don't have to consider such a scenario, saving you significant sums of money in the long run.
For many years, ceramic has been used to create beautifully ornate tiles for kitchens and bathrooms. Thanks to developments in manufacturing processes, people have been making visually stunning worktops from ceramic.
Ceramic worktops lend an air of luxury to any kitchen with a smooth, easy-on-eye appearance. Simultaneously, it is versatile enough to work wonders in any kitchen style; ceramic works particularly well in sleek, modern kitchens where the material's elegance is accentuated.
Ceramic worktops boast a seriously enviable CV for resisting damage from things.
Think drawing a sharp knife down your ceramic worktop will scratch it? It won't. Think placing a roasting hot dish on your ceramic worktop will burn it? It won't. Think acidic food will stain your ceramic worktop? It won't. Ok, fine, my ceramic worktop will be tough. But surely, it can't resist an open flame fired directly at its surface? It will.
Ceramics combine elements such as clay, water and powder, shape them into the desired arrangement, and then 'firing' them in an oven at scorching temperatures. This process results in a material with incredible strength, allowing it to resist scratches, heat and chemical damage.
In contrast to many natural stone worktops, such as slate, another significant characteristic of ceramic is that it's entirely non-porous. This means neither water nor other liquid can permeate its surface and cause unsightly staining.
Making a mess is to be expected in kitchens, especially if you enjoy doing lots of cooking and baking or introducing your little ones to preparing meals. Naturally, this will result in many different foods, drinks and oils spilt on your worktop.
Thankfully, the same features of ceramic that make it challenging also make it easy to look after.
Ceramics' non-porous surface means all those potentially harmful substances sit right on the top of the surface rather than seeping down into the material itself. This makes it super easy to wipe away all the mess, leaving a squeaky clean and undamaged worktop.
When wiping down your ceramic worktop, nothing more than a damp cloth is required. Add a small amount of pH-neutral washing-up liquid to your cloth for more stubborn spillages. Many manufacturers also advise avoiding harsh chemical cleaners, which often contain high acid concentrations. This isn't required for your ceramic worktop.
As ceramic worktops are human-made, an astonishing variety of colours, styles, and finishes have been developed, allowing you to choose a ceramic that fits your exact taste and design requirements.
A good thick kitchen worktop will look best for a farmhouse in the country with a Belfast sink and sturdy furniture.
For an ultra-modern, city centre apartment with high gloss cabinets and a glass table, a sleek, minimalist kitchen worktop would work wonders.
Thankfully, ceramic worktops cater for both, with super-slim 20mm worktops available for the city centre flat and 30mm worktops for the farmhouse, with some middle-of-the-range thicknesses available.
In terms of colour, there is even more variety. If your kitchen is already quite dark, perhaps a lighter colour worktop is required to add that splash of colour and vibrance. Equally, a darker tone may provide welcome contrast with white or cream cabinets if your kitchen is light.
But, there will be a colour of ceramic to suit your needs.
You can choose naturally inspired colours, such as black, grey, white, stone or concrete. Alternatively, some shades are more similar to metals, such as copper, silver and rust.
You can also achieve a stone effect with colours like marble, slate and granite. Finally, some bolder options have bright tones, including orange, green and blue.
You can also customise exactly how your ceramic worktop will look by applying different finishes. The traditional satin finish provides a matt effect with a nice even texture throughout the worktop. A silk finish essentially upgrades the satin finish to achieve a far softer material to the touch and has a shinier appearance.
You can go for a different look for the river-washed effect, which gives you a more rustic, aged look with an element of roughness to the finish. This finish is especially suited to marble or stone effect ceramics.
Finally, a polished finish takes elements of silk and river-washed finishes and combines them. A polished finish gives you the depth of character of a river-washed finish but adds a silky shine to provide you with a genuinely luxurious-looking worktop.
It is no exaggeration to say that ceramic worktops are in a class of their own. They tick all the right boxes in practicality and have the style and variety to look fantastic in any kitchen.
If you want a kitchen worktop that will look and perform just as well in twenty years as the day it's installed, look no further than a ceramic kitchen worktop.
HiF Kitchens using our years of experience are able to offer our customers the best kitchen, appliances, worktops and consumables in Fife, Scotland.
We work with PWS, Burbidge, Blanco, Indesit, Siemens and Hotpoint to provide our customers the very best service.
