As professional home cleaners, we get to admire alllll the beautiful kitchens. While some finishes are fun in a showroom, they can be a nightmare to maintain in real life. If you’re designing or remodeling your kitchen, here’s how to make sure it stays effortlessly clean.
Start with mid-tone cabinets.
Cabinet color makes a big difference in how often you notice smudges. Dark cabinets can highlight fingerprints, dust, and cooking oils, while white shows grime more quickly. Mid-toned shades offer a nice balance, helping your kitchen look cleaner between wipe-downs. If you’re feeling bold, consider a fun color like green—it’s both stylish and forgiving!
Opt for satin paint.
Walls take a lot of wear and tear in a busy kitchen, so choosing the right paint finish makes a big difference. While glossy finish shows every smudge, and flat paint is hard to clean, satin is the best of both worlds.
Natural stone countertops are fair game.
We’re all for granite or marble in the kitchen because mineral buildup isn’t a big issue. Plus, we’ll use a pH neutral cleaning product to ensure no damage is done. When choosing your stone, a subtly veined or speckled stone is especially forgiving and hides small messes between cleanings.
However, showers are a different story.
Off-topic but if you’re considering a full home reno, you should know! Hard water build up is inevitable unless you’re drying it after each use. So that’s why shower cleaners are acidic—to dissolve those stubborn minerals.
However, marble also contains minerals, primarily calcium carbonate, which reacts with acids. This means that regular shower cleaners can damage, discolor, and etch the stone. Actually, see it for yourself! While we can still get marble showers clean, it’s a manual, time-consuming process. A water softener and a daily squeegee can help, but if you’re looking for low-maintenance luxury, consider a full slab of quarts or porcelain tiles to achieve a similar stunning effect.
Choose a natural cleaning company who knows.
Another reason to go with a home cleaning company who is insured and knows their stuff. While high-end finish treatment seems like common knowledge in the cleaning industry, it’s really not!
Stainless steel over black faucets.
Both will show fingerprints, but stainless steel polishes up better and won’t show mineral buildup as badly. Plus, many modern stainless appliances come with fingerprint-resistant finishes for even less maintenance!
Really, be selective with dark colors.
Or be prepared to be cleaning them constantly! Whether it’s the cabinets, railings, faucets, or hardware, dark colors show everything. As far as trends go, we’re noticing lighter, brighter spaces on the rise anyways.
We love matte flooring.
When it comes to flooring, matte-finish hardwood or LVP (luxury vinyl plank) are so easy to keep looking clean. Glossy floors tend to show every footprint and smudge, while a mid-toned matte finish helps disguise dust and everyday wear. Additionally, tile can look great but the grout needs some extra TLC.
Have fun with the light fixtures.
Because why not?! Light fixtures don’t just add personality; they can also affect how often you need to dust. Glass or light-colored fixtures hold up better than matte black, which tends to highlight dust and fingerprints.
Let us know what you think!
