We've all heard the saying, if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. That's hard to do, though; we spend 80 percent of our waking time at home in the kitchen. Check out these tips for updating your kitchen with the best ideas and products for cabinets, countertops and sinks.Upgrades in the Kitchen
The kitchen is the most expensive room in the house because of everything it has in it: plumbing, cabinets, countertops, floors, lots of electrical and appliances. Typically cabinets are the biggest-ticket component, but they don't always function as well as they could. Let's face it: Empty boxes, no matter how beautiful they are, don't provide the convenience we'd like in our kitchens.
The answer: Upgrade them with accessories that make them work for you. For example, pull-out shelves in base cabinets let you reach anything in the cabinet without having to get on your hands and knees.
Another upgrade is adding heavy-duty hardware. The basic slides that come with many cabinets are too easy to damage, and once that happens, the drawer won't close easily or the door won't hang straight.
Countertops are another place where form and function can meet, whether you choose synthetic materials or natural stone. Granite is very hot right now, but it's not as durable as you'd think. It's porous, so you have to seal it a couple of times a year.
Solid-surface materials, such as DuPont Corian, are very versatile. If it gets damaged, you can renew the finish.
A combination of natural and synthetic are the engineered quartz products, such as Zodiaq. They have the look of granite, but they gives you that hard finish and different edge details. Zodiaq comes with a ten-year warranty on labor and materials. It's priced about the same as natural stone, but the performance is 100 times better.
