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Designing The Kitchen Space

The choice between marble and granite for a kitchen countertop is often decided by the design of the kitchen. Pure as well as light colored marble makes a kitchen appear bigger while the darker colored granite slabs makes the kitchen appear smaller but a lot more formal. Both marble and granite countertops are great for any kitchen. As both these natural stones are very hard they are very durable and can take considerable traffic. In addition both these stones are available in a wide variety of colors and designs. Making a choice between a marble counter top and granite one is a very difficult choice as both these materials are so beautiful and elegant.

That's why a lot of homeowners are now basing their decision for kitchen countertop on the design of the kitchen. There are basically four different designs of kitchen and kitchen countertops. All these designs make use of the "kitchen triangle principal." The first layout for a kitchen countertop is the simple or corridor, layout. This kitchen countertop stretches along one wall and usually contains the sink. The second kitchen countertop in this design holds the stove and refrigerator.

This is a very common design of a kitchen countertop in apartments and condos. The second type of kitchen countertop design is the "L-shaped" kitchen countertop. In this design, the two kitchen countertops sit perpendicular to each other, and the sink, stove, and refrigerator form a triangle. The advantage of this kitchen countertop design is that most of the food preparation will take place in a corner freeing up a lot of space for traffic in other parts of the kitchen. The third kitchen countertop layout is probably the most common. It is used in apartments and homes which have small kitchen spaces. The kitchen countertop is in a U-shape. This frees up a lot of valuable space around the kitchen countertop. The sink, stove, and refrigerator will each sit on one leg of the U.

 The island layout of kitchen countertop is used in homes where space is not at a premium. Often, an L-shaped or U-shaped countertop will sit along one wall, with the island in the center for additional food preparation. Sometimes, even the cooking range will be with the island at the center of the kitchen. The design and style of kitchen countertop depends on the space available and the preference of the individual. Granite and marble kitchen countertops are used in all the designs. However, a marble kitchen countertop is usually preferred for a small kitchen as it gives the impression of additional space.