When imagining our dream kitchen, it is easy to get caught up in the idea of grand and elegant. While kitchens with a lot of charm are beautiful, that beauty comes at a cost. The more detail a kitchen has, the harder it is to take care of.
There is definitely something beautiful about simplicity as well. If you’re willing to sacrifice some of the details for a more carefree lifestyle, here are some tips to have a beautiful, but low maintenance, kitchen.
Simple door design
There are some really neat door styles out there, but not all doors are created equal. Unfortunately, the more detailed the door, the more surface area there is to clean. And especially when accidents happen in the kitchen, there will be more crevasses that food can get stuck in. The best way to keep your kitchen as low maintenance as possible, is to choose a simple door. Flat paneled for the modern lover, and shaker for someone just a bit more traditional.
While this will cost a bit more initially, choose to inset your doors, rather than have them sit on top. Flush cabinets create an easy wiping surface, which can cut cleaning time in half.
For the daily cook, it is recommended to wipe down cabinets daily for proper maintenance. For those who don’t cook often, dust still accumulates quickly. Twice a month is a fair estimate for the bare minimum cabinets should be cleaned. Make this task go by quicker with less to scrub!
Avoid the extra details
Corbels, crown molding and fancy hardware are all beautiful features in a kitchen, and are again, things that accumulate more dust. I can’t emphasize this enough, the simpler the better. There are other ways to add charm to a home without adding a bunch of add-ons to the kitchen. Kitchen cabinets collect a lot of grease and food particles, and unfortunately, crown molding actually makes it harder to clean the tops of your cabinets.
Don’t paint your cabinets
There are many reasons why painting your cabinets is a bad idea, but maintenance is on the top of the list. Paint is porous and can collect extra particles. Poor paint jobs have a tacky feel, which can collect even more dust than “well” painted cabinets. On top of this, paint can easily chip, and it fades, so fixing any damage that may happen will be extremely hard to do.
If you plan on refinishing your cabinets, consider a lacquer or stain.
Avoid glass front cabinet doors.
I know, I know, glass front cabinets are absolutely beautiful. But they require a lot of extra work! If you love the look, try to opt for open shelving instead. While there will still need to be dusting, for the few of up who don’t keep up on our weekly cleaning tasks, open shelving hides grease and grime much more than glass front cabinets. If you absolutely need to have glass front cabinets, try keeping them as far away from the cooking area as possible. The grease and food particles that ride from your stove take their final landing ground right on your cabinets. Glass doors show this much more quickly than regular cabinets.
Start a routine and stick to it
Once you have your beautiful new kitchen, you’ll probably take extremely good care of it for about the first year. Over time, the love and excitement begins to fade, and it is just another chore. Stay diligent and take care of your beautiful kitchen. A kitchen you take care of, will take care of you for many years to come.
