Counter Top Options for YOUR Condominium or Home
Counter top options are transforming many kitchens today. Whether you own a condominium or home, you will delight in your choices.
Whether you are selling or renting your condo or home you will find that buyers and tenants alike find the kitchen to be a very important part of the home thus it could sway them to rent or buy it. Don’t under estimate the power of a nicely appointed kitchen or bath.
Even if you don't plan to sell or rent and plan to keep the home, you will delight in the counter top options available to you. Good counter top choices will improve the future value of your home.
Many new counter top options are coming into the market. Some have existed for years, but we have not fully considered them before now.
Condominium Owners as well as home owners take heed that even a kitchen counter top replacement can attract buyers and tenants. When they see unique or elegant nicely done kitchen counter tops your guests will delight, tenants will return and buyers will make offers.
Counter Top Material Options
Wood for instance is exceptional as a counter top. Using a variety of materials and textures will bring interest to your kitchen and make it very inviting. It is easily maintained by cleaning and then maintained by oiling. Wood can also be refurbished and potentially last a lifetime.
Stainless steel is also a good option. It’s easy to clean, is non-porous, withstands heat and cold, and also lasts a lifetime. Stainless is expensive, noisy, you can not cut on it and it is expensive.
Stone is another great choice as a counter top option. It is advisable to use a sealer on stone for maintenance. One caution is that it may discolor and hold stains even with a sealer. However, you can use it confidently in areas such as a serving or wet bar top that will not be used as a prep site. Although - careful with the red wine.
Soapstone in general is dark grey and is smooth to the touch. It is seen in modern homes as a sink and counter top material and is often seen in historic homes.
Granite is a good but expensive choice. It holds up to heat and it’s possible to use a knife on it too if you don’t mind if your knife gets dull. It can be very elegant and even masculine and classy. It is a great counter top choice as it is very durable. The growth in popularity of granite as a counter top option may actually bring the price down somewhat.
Marble is beautiful, but it is very expensive. Not only is it high maintenance, but it scratches and stains very easily. Not a very good counter top option for the kitchen.
Ceramic tile is a counter top option as well, but is best used as a backsplash or on the wall behind a stove. The grout joints are hard to keep clean and may harbor unwanted germs. It is a good choice for the do it yourselfer who wants to step up from plain Jane kitchen tops. The best tile to use is porcelain and even granite tiles are available.
Engineered Stone and Solid Surface Counter Top Choices such as Silestone and Zodiaq to name a couple are composed of quartz particles and comes in a larger range of colors than granite. It’s very attractive and easy to maintain and resists scratches, but is quite expensive.
Corian is easy to clean, non-porous, stains don’t penetrate the surface. It also resists the growth of mold, mildew and bacteria. In addition it is scratch and heat resistant. Corian is often referred to as a solid surface countertop.
Concrete is also popular, but for many is cost prohibitive. If you have unusual shapes in your kitchen it may be a good choice as it is custom made to order. It is heat resistant, but is porous. Kitchen counter top sealer is a must. Cracking is possible and while it is somewhat exotic looking, it can also look industrial.
Laminates have been around forever it seems. They have been great in the past and the past is where they should stay. There are far too many choices to jazz up your kitchen counter top and buyers and tenants know it. Don’t let them pass your home or condominium by just because you felt you could save a few dollars.
Counter top edge styles
From wood trimmed to routed edges to smooth rounded edges, there is plenty of variety. If you have a large budget, then consider learning more about counter top edge styles otherwise spend the bulk of your budget on the counter top material and go with the edge that is within your budget after choosing the tops.
New thinking is that counter tops should be different heights depending on the job before you. We’ll cover that when we go over kitchen cabinets.
Just know that you have choices and lots of them. You don’t need to have the same style and or color cabinets and counter tops throughout your kitchen any more!
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