Choosing the right material for a kitchen countertop is a matter of personal preference and usage needs. If you favor natural materials over artificial ones, but at the same time you would like your kitchen countertop to have certain performance features and benefits, you will be left with fewer options.
While there are pros and cons to various natural materials available on the market, when it comes to choosing a high-performance natural material, it is important to take several aspects into consideration.
The following should be taken into consideration:
Let’s take a look at which natural materials for kitchen countertops meet these requirements.
Sophisticated yet delicate, marble is a natural rock. However, it is vulnerable to stains and heat, and therefore requires special maintenance in order to prevent stains and deformation caused by heat and humidity.
Resistant to heat and water, it is available in many different colors and natural finishes. Granite is a heavy material that is not particularly elastic, which also requires a lot of maintenance to prevent stains from forming on the surface.
Resistant to stains and water, quartz countertops mostly consist of quartz and resins. The colors and finishes are artificially created, so there is no such thing as a completely natural material. It is also not particularly heat-resistant and scratches easily.
Wood is aesthetically pleasing, but not particularly resistant to heat and water, making it not very suitable for a high-performance kitchen countertop. In fact, it requires a great deal of maintenance and is difficult to repair when chipped.
Available in an extensive range of colors and finishes, this material is resistant to water, high temperatures, stains and scratches, and is also easy to clean.
Porcelain stoneware is made from natural raw materials, and therefore best meets the requirements described above.
Let’s delve into the features and advantages of porcelain stoneware, in particular the aesthetic and functional requirements that a kitchen countertop must meet.
Porcelain stoneware is a material consisting of clays and other raw materials, which is what makes it a natural material.
Porcelain stoneware has unique resistance properties.
It is water resistant and non-porous. It is therefore ideal for rooms such as kitchens, where all kinds of liquids are used: beverages, foods, surface hygiene products, and many other things.
It is not only easy to clean, but also does not stain or ruin if household cleaning products with chemical additives are used.
It is resistant to high temperatures, UV rays and scratches, more than any other material previously described.
In addition, porcelain stoneware is available in a wide range of colors and finishes, which include various effects such as marble, stone, cement, and many more. This offers plenty of freedom when it comes to a kitchen’s style and furniture.
Perhaps you are now wondering: are all porcelain stoneware kitchen countertops the same?
SapienStone surfaces are natural and eco-friendly materials made of porcelain stoneware; minerals are used to create the different shades of the SapienStone countertops, which create endless shades of color, resulting in various kinds of materials, much like in nature.
SapienStone surfaces are extremely performing and fully comply with the standards of resistance to:
They are available in many different colors and with textured effects (light wood, dark wood, marble, stone, etc.), which perfectly recreate the aesthetic features of natural materials, improving their strength and durability.
Ceramics, which have been used by humans since time immemorial, are not the result of a chemical and industrial process, but are made from natural elements (earth, water and fire); and SapienStone is a fully recyclable product precisely because of this composition.
If you are looking for a high-performance natural material for your kitchen design projects, please feel free to contact us for further information.
