8 Clever Features of Your Stone Kitchen Worktop

When you imagine a stone worktop, you may envisage a wide sweeping expanse of glistening and tactile granite. Or maybe a sleek and shining marble. You will then probably consider how wonderfully durable natural stone is once sealed. Often, however, the functional features that can be integrated within a stone worktop are an afterthought. However, when you understand the practical uses this material can enable, it is clear that choosing a stone worktop should not just be about the beautiful look and super strength. 

Diminutive Breakfast Bar

If a kitchen island is too much of a squeeze in your kitchen, don’t lose heart! Your kitchen design can utilise different stone levels to include a mini breakfast bar that works for any size of the kitchen. As stone is such a strong and durable material, it works perfectly for smaller alterations, such as a corner breakfast bar adjoined to your worktop.

Revolutionise Food Prep

Consider the impact that a multi-sink arrangement will have on your daily life. Perhaps integrated into your kitchen island, or alongside a cooking area, a preparation sink will sit snugly into your granite or quartz worktop. A perfectly fitted wooden chopping board that sits over part of your preparation sink brings a sleek line to your stone surface. When you have chosen your stone because of it’s practical durability, it is clear that functionality is important. So this is a wise move for busy kitchens!

Integrated Draining Boards

Whether your preference is granite, stone or marble, a stone worktop will not degrade from water contact in the same way as other materials do. This makes it an ideal material in which to integrate a bevelled draining board. Perhaps you like the idea of quartz of dekton, which does not even require sealing. The day to day maintenance of these worktop materials is minimal. Simply absorb pools of water with a cloth: no need to scrub and use heavy duty cleaning products. It’ll look seamless too!

Worktop Masking

Functionality is something that should not be compromised in your kitchen. The structure of your stone worktop, however, can work perfectly to mask that functionality (or mess!) on the worktop. If your kitchen island or breakfast bar faces an eating area, a stone worktop can be lowered, raised or screened to keep the inner workings of your kitchen hidden from guests. 

Hidden Plug Sockets

Working especially well within a kitchen island, a small cut out in your stone worktop can accommodate a pop-up plug socket. Cunningly concealed until you need to use them, they provide power where a row of wall plugs would be impractical or unsightly. As they only occupy a small amount of worktop space, you don’t have to worry about items sitting in the way of wall mounted plug sockets. The worktop space, therefore, becomes more accessible and practical. 

Cook’s Herb Garden

For a part of your kitchen worktop or island that gets the sun, why not integrate a herb garden in the surface? Stone is an ideal material to accommodate smaller and more irregular cut out spaces due to its strength. So a small integrated herb garden is a great way to store fresh herbs for the keen cook. It will sit as an attractive flash of greenery as an added aesthetic extra!

Trough Sink

Sitting somewhere between a preparation sink and a feature cut out, a trough sink offers many different uses to your main sink. For the entertainer, this small area is ideal for chilling wine or fizz. For the artist or a family, it can fulfil the function of a utility room if you have no dedicated space. Not as large as a full prep sink, your stone worktop can accommodate a more bespoke cut out to fit your kitchen perfectly to your lifestyle.

Waste Space

Keeping the bin out of sight is obviously desirable when refitting or redesigning a kitchen space. When our waste management nowadays is an increasingly more intricate affair, many designs feature separate under cupboard waste spaces for refuse, recycling and food waste. Your stone worktop can provide, by means of a cut out, easy access to sweep food waste into the correct bin.