Tips on Choosing a Countertop for Your Kitchen

Designing a home can be both fun and stressful. On one hand, planning your dream home is exciting. On the other, so much decision-making can be stressful. The key to surviving the process is to balance the two and let the joy you’ll feel when you finally walk in the front doors guide your decisions.

You can strike this balance by imagining what you’d like to experience when you walk through those doors. What colors do you want to see? What materials do you want to feel? Apply that imagination to each room in your house, including the kitchen, and you’ll be able to make the right decisions.

One decision you can make based on those imaginings is what countertop you’d like to have in your kitchen. There are lots of different countertops to choose from, so keep reading to learn how to choose a countertop for your dream kitchen.

Natural vs. Man-Made Materials

The best materials for kitchen countertops include granite, quartz, marble, wood, concrete, steel, and even glass. Such a long list of materials can be overwhelming, so start by narrowing down your options. Do you want a natural or man-made countertop? Granite, quartz, marble, and wood are all natural materials, so if you’re sure you want a natural countertop, those are some of your options. You can narrow down those options a little further by deciding if you want a stone or wood look. If you want to create a countertop from man-made materials, you can consider concrete, steel, and glass.

Desired Aesthetics

The desired aesthetics for your kitchen probably fuels your choice between natural and man-made materials. Each material creates a different visual effect, and you have to decide what visual effect you want when you’re choosing your countertop material and the other elements in your kitchen. If you’re planning for a more traditional aesthetic, you’ll probably want to choose wooden cabinets with a stone countertop. If you want something more contemporary, you might choose open shelving with a less traditional countertop, such as metal or glass. Choose your aesthetic, and then find the countertop material that best completes that vision.

Material Performance

You shouldn’t choose a certain countertop without considering how it will perform. The durability of the material and the amount of maintenance it requires are important factors in how well a material will perform in your kitchen and for how long. Granite is the most durable material we’ve listed, with stainless steel and marble being slightly less durable but still viable options. Other materials such as wood and glass can be durable, but they also require a lot of maintenance. If there’s a specific material you want to use for your countertops, first learn how durable it is and how much maintenance it requires before committing to that choice.

Ultimately, our best tip for choosing a kitchen countertop is to consider whether you want a natural or man-made material, how it fits with your planned aesthetic, and how it performs. Once you know what kind of material you want, how it complements your style, and how well it will perform, you’ll be able to continue planning your dream home.

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