Your kitchen is one of the most important rooms of your home and plays a huge role in your family’s health. According to Kitchen Infinity, the kitchen is the most popular room to remodel in a home. As you work to improve the functionality of your home’s kitchen, you may want to incorporate your desire to live a greener lifestyle into the process. Consequently, there are plenty of updates you can make to your kitchen to achieve this goal. Here are a few key renovation tips to try.
Update Counters
Since the kitchen’s primary purpose is related to preparing and serving food, your kitchen counters are a critical component. What kind of kitchen counter material do you currently have? Different counter materials have different maintenance requirements.
According to Kitchens.com, marble and other stones should be resealed every six months. In addition to refinishing or resurfacing your counters, you can replace them with more eco-friendly alternatives. According to Extra Space Storage, quartz is a particularly eco-friendly counter material made from a natural material that’s long-lasting and recyclable. It’s also easier to clean than some materials.
Consider Sustainable Flooring
Similarly to kitchen counters, flooring can come in a wide variety of styles and materials. When it comes to being eco-friendly, the most important factors are its ability to be recycled, its typical lifespan, its maintenance requirements, and its manufacturing components. Some flooring materials are easier to maintain or less harmful to the environment than others.
Sustainable flooring options include recycled cork, tiles, bamboo, other sustainably sourced hardwood, and linoleum. Linoleum is one of the most cost-effective options, according to The Spruce, as the price for it typically ranges from $2 to $5 per square foot. As an option made from oxidized linseed oil from flax plants, is easily renewable and widely available. This material can also last for over 20 years when it’s maintained properly.
Upgrade Windows
In many homes, windows provide an opening for heat transfer to occur between your home’s interior and exterior. According to House Digest, switching your windows to Energy Star-certified windows can reduce household energy bills by around 12% and lower greenhouse gas emissions. With your home’s heat transfer under better control, your HVAC system can expend less energy keeping your home within the conditions you set.
Modern windows carry even more benefits than just optimizing heat transfer. Certain options can come with blinds within the windows. This removes the possibility of exposing your family to dust or allergens typical window blinds would collect.
Cabinet Renovations
As popular as renovating a home kitchen is, renovating the cabinets may be an option that’s especially favored. According to Cabinets by C&F, a study by official United States sources found that most homeowners who updated their kitchens went with custom or semi-custom cabinet designs. If you’re considering opting for more sustainable cabinets, then you have a few ways of doing so. You can choose different materials like solid wood, reclaimed wood, bamboo, recycled wood, or FSC-certified wood. According to ElementalGreen, cabinets built with these materials don’t use formaldehyde, which off-gases into the air long after the glue has already dried.
When it comes to protecting your family’s health, renovating your kitchen is one of the most effective ways to do so. Updating your kitchen provides several health benefits. In addition to benefiting your physical health, it’s also important to your mental health for you to feel fulfilled by your home’s design and comfort. Your kitchen will be more appealing for you to prepare food in. Don’t stop here, and keep doing research to find the kitchen updates that work best for you.
