The kitchen is truly the heart of every home. It is the place where everyone in the family gathers in the morning for breakfast – where the day’s routine is outlined, newspapers are read, coffee is poured, and lunches are prepared. In the evening, the family kitchen is the gathering place again, where all reunite at the end of the day. Dinner is served, stories are shared, and all are allowed to unwind and discuss the events of the day. So, with all the functions that the kitchen performs throughout the day, it comes as no surprise that there’s typically a mess to clean up in the kitchen before the lights are turned out and the house nods off sleep. And, if you have granite, quartz, or marble countertops in your kitchen, cleaning and polishing them to preserve their beauty and function is a routine part of your day or week.
Even though the family kitchen is often seen as a room with more functional qualities than anything else, the typical kitchen has evolved over the decades from simply a place where the ice box and the stove were kept to a welcoming gathering place where family and friends are invited to relax, share a meal, and converse. As such, the kitchen has seen its fair share of design changes over the decades.
The typical mid-century modern kitchen (c. 1950s) was a separate, closed-off room in the house that featured very little in the way of amenities or even counter space. The workspace in the kitchen was often defined by the stovetop area and the availability of a small food-prep space next to the sink. If there was a table in the kitchen, it was usually small and utilized for informal meals. Back then, the kitchen was rarely a place where you would receive guests to your home. During a dinner party, the workspace and the table in the kitchen were used to plate and stage dishes before they were brought to the formal dining table for serving.
Flash forward to modern times. The kitchen in a new home is often designed as part of a new trend in open architecture (or open floor plan) where the kitchen shares the same walls or space as the dining area and the family (or living) space. In the modern kitchen, the cabinetry, countertops, hardware, appliances, and stand-alone island are all separate design elements, and each is selected and treated with high visibility in mind. And, in the modern kitchen, many are turning to granite, quartz, or marble for their countertops and workspaces due to its durability and natural luster.
For those who have granite, quartz, or marble in their kitchens, it should be known that cleaning and polishing preserves their beauty. Stone cleaner and stone polish bring beauty to your countertops by removing soil and stains from stone surfaces. Some stone cleaners, such as those from Rock Doctor, are specifically designed to safely clean stone counter-tops, tables, and work spaces. Stone polish should be fast-drying and non-abrasive to enhance the beautiful colors inherent to natural stone products. Again, the Rock Doctor stone polish protects and enhances without harmful chemicals, helping you make the most of your countertops, as well as preserving your kitchen as a welcoming area of your home.
This article was brought to you by Rock Doctor, which offers a line of specially-formulated Granite & Quartz Cleaner, Granite & Quartz Polish, and Granite & Stone Sealer aerosol products. Rock Doctor products can be purchased through a number of fine retail stores, including Wal-Mart, Lowe’s Home Improvement, Bed Bath & Beyond, Ace Hardware, Do it Best Hardware, Hy-Vee, and Wegmans.