Are there any good, budget friendly alternatives to the luxury surfaces consumers know and love? Showhome investigates
The home is the where the heart is, and sometimes the heart wants luxury, but luxury doesn’t come at an affordable price point.
The kitchen is a room which lends itself perfectly towards luxury, and out of all the rooms in the house, it’s where luxury is expected to be seen. Kitchens see such heavy footfall, not just from those who live in the house, but guests too. And on top of this, the kitchen has become a space for socialising and entertaining, so more time is spent in the kitchen than ever before. Because of this, homebuyers have a strong desire for a luxurious aesthetic inside the kitchen. The kitchen has a strong influence on potential homeowners’ opinions on a potential home, so ensuring a luxurious aesthetic ensures it has desirability.
Not only do homeowners want to purchase a new home with a luxurious kitchen, but they also often invest a lot of money into the kitchen space. Whether it be for appliances, or renovations, people take pride in their kitchens, so why shouldn’t it be a luxurious place to be?
Although, the luxury aesthetic can often break the bank and turn what would be an otherwise simple renovation into a large, expensive task. Marble countertops come top of the list of most expensive materials used for countertops. On average, marble worktops cost UK£315 per square metre, and that price is for some of the thinnest marble worktops available on the market currently. If looking at a thicker version of the countertop, the price for the same length of material can almost double. Thinner marble counters are less durable and resilient, so it is often recommended that a thicker slab should be used in the kitchen.
Trailing behind marble countertops in the list of most expensive surfaces are two other natural materials. Quartz and granite follow marble in the luxury surface countertop market. Both of these materials aren’t very far behind marble; the average price of granite surfaces is £100 per metre square, and £160 per metre square of quartz. These costs are just an estimate of the price of the raw material alone. With installation and labour costs, the price of replacing a regular countertop with a luxury surface can become more costly than originally accounted for.
As presented above, luxury countertops do not come at a low cost. But what types of countertops are available to bring the luxury aesthetic to the kitchen, for only a fraction of the cost? There are perfect middle ground options for this scenario, and even better, ones that look identical but don’t have to break the bank.
Overlays
Overlay countertops allow for luxury surfaces at an affordable price. Kitchen renovations can often come to a halt due to financial limitations, as full renovations of these spaces quickly become expensive when all the costs involved aren’t accounted for from the start. During kitchen renovations where people want a massive, complete transformation of their rooms, the surfaces, especially when wanting a luxury surface, are usually one of the most expensive facets of these room transformations.
Provided that existing countertop bases are even, strong and durable, worktop overlays can be installed on any kind of surface to refresh the aesthetics of a room. An overlay worktop is produced when concrete or another material, like granite, marble or wood, is placed to, or fitted, over a current countertop material to provide a fresh covering of a level surface that completely conceals the old countertop. Rather than using a solid block of the new material, only an overlay has to be produced, so the cost is exponentially less when opting for a luxury surface. The exact same material used to make solid, conventional countertops is used to make countertop overlays, although they are much thinner than the traditional countertop. The average thickness of overlay worktops is 6-8mm, but as they are placed over existing, sturdy countertops, they have the same level of hardiness as if it was made from a solid block…
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Anna Wood
Editor, Showhome
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