How to design low-maintenance kitchen cabinets?
Beautiful kitchen cabinets with complex details can be challenging to keep clean, especially for those of us with busy lives. Crumbs, dirt, stains, and even splatters can land on any kitchen surface, but cabinets are frequently the worst damaged. Fortunately, there are useful strategies to reduce cabinet upkeep, and that begins with selecting the best cabinet layout. Here are some useful pointers from LeFreddo designer of the best Modular kitchen in Salem that you might wish to take into account when choosing new cabinets.
- Choose simple designs
A wide range of designs is available for kitchen cabinets. Cabinets in the traditional form have beveled layers that are layered. On the fronts of doors and drawers, this produces tiny grooves and corners that appear lovely but can attract oil and food splatter and are particularly difficult to clean.
Before making your final decision, think about how simple it will be to clean your new kitchen cabinets, especially the doors. Smooth, sturdy items like slab or Shaker doors are simple to clean with a cloth or sponge.
Other doors will be far more challenging if they have raised panels, carved trim, or beadboard inserts. Glass panels, lattice, and features resembling shutters can all appear to be quite appealing, but cleaning them would be a major hassle. Your cabinets may be easier to clean if you choose certain paint colors. Avoid creative methods like crackle paint and opt for satin or gloss finishes rather than matte.
- Choose cabinet doors with minimal details
Cleaning might be simple if you select a door style with few details. Raised panel door designs include crevices that attract dust and filth like a magnet. This problem is not present on slab door fronts, making wipe-down simple. There are alternative possibilities for classic kitchens, but these are unquestionably more suited to modern or contemporary kitchen designs. Shaker-style doors are a good middle ground since they have more detail than slab-front doors but fewer dust-gathering places than raised-front doors.
- Choose stained kitchen cabinets
Prefer stained cabinets to painted ones. This advice runs opposed to numerous widely used cabinet designs, including white and grey kitchen cabinets. Even though both grey and white cabinets are aesthetically pleasing and work well in many houses, if you’re searching for low-maintenance cabinets, you should pick a stained surface rather a painted one.
If there is a cut, dent, scrape, or stain on the cabinet surface, you can easily touch them thanks to one of stained kitchen cabinets’ major benefits. You can purchase touch-up kits from your cabinet dealer or from any home improvement retailer. Additionally, you can touch up painted cabinets, though it may be challenging to match the factory finish and your “handiwork” may be visible. Your painted cabinets will eventually require more frequent cleaning than your stained cabinets would.
- Avoid open shelving
Adding some flair to your kitchen with open shelves looks like a lovely idea. Decorative bowls and vibrant dishes that are on full display can improve the mood of your kitchen. However, open shelves might not be the best low-maintenance option for a few reasons:
As a result, you might need to wash a piece of dishware before using it because there is no barrier separating it from the grease, filth, and dust that is present throughout your kitchen. Second, keep an eye on your stacks and reposition them as necessary to prevent the things on display from appearing disorganized and out of place.
- Dirt and stains can be hidden by the right wood grain.
While it’s important to frequently clean your kitchen to keep it looking great and maintain good health, sometimes stains or grime on cabinets defiantly resist removal with your regular cleaning routine. Choose cabinets that conceal grime and stains rather than highlighting them like white or light-colored paint would if you want your kitchen to appear nicer for longer.
The ideal stain is a dark one, especially if your cabinets are constructed of wood with a distinctive grain pattern, like hickory or oak. Although maple is a common wood for kitchen cabinetry, because of its smoother appearance, stains and damage stand out more.
- Steer clear of glass doors
If you want kitchen cabinets that won’t need any upkeep, glass door fronts are not for you. Despite the fact that glass doors allow you to display your china or heirloom dinnerware, they are not advised if you desire a low-maintenance kitchen. More than a white-painted cabinet, glass doors will reveal every fingerprint, food stain, and grease spatter. To keep glass doors smear-free, you will need to wipe them frequently.
- Purchase quality cabinet hardware for your kitchen.
However, if you want fewer fingerprints and less wear and tear on your door fronts, door pulls and knobs are the way to go. Other older cabinet styles and some more contemporary looks offer cupboard doors without hardware. Avoid using stainless steel and chrome hardware since they tend to be more difficult to clean and attract fingerprints and wet marks. A well-matched color will enhance the look of your kitchen while cutting down on cleaning time.
- Reduce Moisture, Grease, and Dirt to Reduce Maintenance
Preventative steps to keep dirt, crumbs, grease, and moisture from accessing your cabinets have the biggest impact on how much maintenance and cleaning you need to undertake in your kitchen. This is particularly true for the sink cabinet, which may frequently get wet. Make sure that no wood is exposed to water since rot and mold issues, which are far more dangerous than cleaning up, may result.
To vent smoke and grease particles out of the kitchen before they can reach the cabinets, install a strong cooktop hood. Use a splatter screen or put a cover on your pots. Spills should be cleaned up as soon as possible to prevent stains.
You may spend more fun time cooking or eating with your family and friends instead of cleaning up messes by taking preventative measures and making the greatest low-maintenance kitchen cabinetry selections.