Kitchen Design with Marble Countertops
Marble kitchen counters may be appealing for their unique beauty. There are many different types of countertops. However, marble kitchen countertops are the least recommended.
Kitchen countertops are the kitchen design’s workhorse. Their color and decorative style contribute to the kitchen’s overall strategy, but they also take a lot of punishment. When someone sits on a kitchen counter, they are exposed to spills, boiling pots, sharp utensils, and even the back buttons of trousers. Even when a homeowner is careful of their counters, a collapse or a piece of grit dragged across the counter under a plate can leave a mark. Therefore, it’s essential to consider the strength and upkeep, along with its price, beauty, and desirability.
The Characteristics of Marble Counters
Marble is a metamorphic stone comprised mainly of calcite. When limestone undergoes tremendous heat and pressure deep in the earth, it forms a hard, dense rock capable of high polish. The veins and colors of marble are produced by impurities surrounding the limestone at its transformation, and no two slabs of marble are ever the same.
Marble has been utilized as a construction material and artistic material for ages. Capable of being carved, drilled, polished, and cut, marble has been used in sculptures, tiles, counters, and walls in countries worldwide.
While marble is a hard stone, capable of being ground to polish, it is a softer, more porous stone than granite, another frequently used material on counters. Marble is easily cut or marked with sharp knives, stained by grease, and etched by acids like tomato juice or lemons. A marble counter will show the years of use that it receives by mellowing and developing a patina as time goes by.
Marble in Today’s Kitchen
Marble can make a beautiful statement in many kitchens with its beautiful veins and high polish. Popular with kitchen designers in show and spec homes and used in Europe for years, marble is often photographed in show kitchens and displayed in kitchen design ads. It can lead homeowners to consider a marble counter as part of their kitchen design.
Many homeowners may not consider that marble in a kitchen will rarely retain the high polish and unmarred surface it exhibits when first installed. While marble has been used widely in kitchens throughout Europe, there is an understanding of the marble age and patina. The stone is desired not for its polish and beauty but its use when baking and how it helps prepare the dough and other foods.
According to Bernard V.*, a countertop manufacturer, in a recent interview with Suite101, marble is not a recommended kitchen counter for anyone who wishes their kitchen to remain in the same condition in which it was installed. “I would get phone calls, months after installation, asking me to come back and refinish a dull spot or how to get rid of a stain. So I finally stopped selling marble for kitchens. I explain to homeowners that it will stain, no matter how careful they are, and I don’t think they believed me until it was too late.”
Marble counters are an excellent choice for bakers, cooks, and those who understand that over the years, the beauty of the material will lay not in a high gloss finish or subtle veining but the history of the kitchen. Every meal, visitor, and pot and knife will leave behind its impression. So choose a marble counter for its use and past to ensure its continued desirability in the kitchen design.
*Last name withheld at interviewees’ request