STYLE AND DURABILITY – THE MICROCEMENT KITCHEN

12-07-2023

THE DIRECTSTONE GUIDE TO MICROCEMENT KITCHEN DESIGN

We love our kitchens, and with good cause! It’s the perfect space for eating, socialising, gossiping, chilling and – of course – cooking. The kitchen has always been the ‘heart of the home’ but the 21st century kitchen has evolved into a multipurpose space where family, friends and loved ones share a part of our lives. So how can a microcement kitchen help you celebrate the best bits of your life with others?

The DirectStone team are leading the way with the use of microcement on kitchen floors, walls, and worktops. This easy-to-install surface creates stunning results, whatever kind of space you want your kitchen to be. We would recommend it to anyone wanting to make the most of a small kitchen or looking for an elegant minimalist aesthetic. Read on to find out more about microcement and its many applications in a contemporary kitchen.

WHY CHOOSE A MICROCEMENT KITCHEN?

It’s one of the most versatile surface coatings available, which means that microcement can be used on kitchen walls, kitchen floors, and kitchen worktops. The smooth, continuous finish it presents, with no joints or grouting to break up the eyeline, offers an enhanced sense of space and light, even to the smallest kitchen.

Looking for a particular colour palette for your kitchen? Microcement is unrivalled in the choice of colours and hues available to clients; it can be colour matched or colour intensified to achieve exactly the effect you’re looking for. Best of all, Forcrete microcement has integral waterproofing, which means the protection against spills is there on application. The sealers we add are used to strengthen the surface and offer protection from stains.

THE BENEFITS OF OPTING FOR MICROCEMENT

This new trend in kitchen design offers beautiful styling potential, but it’s also a practical choice for homes and commercial buildings, here’s why:

A Microcement Kitchen Requires Minimal Preparation. Microcement can be applied directly onto most existing surfaces, such as tiles, ceramics, or existing concrete flooring.
Colour Your Kitchen With Microcement. Choose from a fantastic range, DirectStone can colour match RAL, Pantone, NCS and high-end paint manufacturers.
Microcement Kitchens Are Practical. No need for specialist cleaning products, microcement is durable, heat-resistant, and requires very little maintenance.
Forcrete Microcement is Waterproof Through and Through. Every layer in the Forcrete system is fully waterproofed before the sealers are applied.
Ideal for Use With underfloor Heating. Electric or piped underfloor heating works excellently with microcement flooring, thanks to its thermal conductivity.

MICROCEMENT KITCHEN WALLS

Ideally, your kitchen walls should look great, offer long-term durability, and be easy to keep clean; after all these are the surfaces that are most likely to suffer from food spills, humidity, sticky fingers, and greasy deposits.

Microcement has it covered when it comes to kitchen walls. There are no grouting joints where dirt and dust can collect, spills can easily be wiped away using everyday cleaning products, and humidity isn’t a problem where the coating has waterproofing baked in at every level.

MICROCEMENT KITCHEN FLOORS

Want a polished concrete finish without the stresses of laying a concrete slab? The DirectStone flooring specialists are able to create a finish startlingly close to the glossy shimmer of polished concrete flooring. And we do that by building up multiple layers, by hand, to a finished thickness of only 3-4mm. Despite its thin profile, microcement performs extremely well when tested for impact and damage.

Kitchen floors need cleaning most days, but a microcement kitchen floor makes the job easier. There are no joints to deal with, you simply sweep the surface and then mop using everyday kitchen cleaners. With this simple regime, your kitchen will look good for years.

MICROCEMENT WORKTOPS

The resistance to heat and abrasion are not the only reasons why microcement kitchen worktops are fast becoming popular. They’re also hygienic and couldn’t be easier to keep clean. The coating is thin, light and can be matched to floors or walls for a continuous styling throughout.

The choice of colour for microcement kitchen worktops is vast. White and grey tend to be favourite choices because of the luminosity they offer to the space, especially in kitchens with plenty of natural light.

5 STYLES OF KITCHEN, USING MICROCEMENT

Whist this coating is a product of the urban aesthetic that’s defined the last two decades, microcement can be used for a variety of different kitchen styles. Here are 5 ways the DirectStone team has seen microcement work well:

Nordic Microcement Kitchen. This is extremely popular at present, and the luminous whites and greys of microcement are an excellent foundation.
Minimalist Microcement Kitchen. Minimalist design is all about spaces that celebrate line, light and beautiful materials – which is what microcement is so good at.
Urban Industrial Kitchens. Spaces dominated by continuous microcement surfaces coated in grey or black, and offset by steel or glass.
Eclectic Microcement Kitchen. If you enjoy distraction more than a clean line, microcement gives you the perfect foundation on which to build.
Country Style Kitchen. The rustic environment celebrates warmth and homeliness, which is where the rich palette of microcement colours comes into its own.

WHAT ARE THE DRAWBACKS OF MICROCEMENT?

Every flooring has a mixture of pros and cons, but thankfully the drawbacks associated with microcement are few and easily overcome. We would recommend using professional installers as the coating needs to be hand trowelled and this requires specialist skills and experience. The DirectStone team will normally take between 4-7 days for a microcement kitchen installation, dependent on the complexity of the project.

Despite its durability, it’s perfectly normal for microcement to develop hairline cracks over time. There’s no need to repair these are they have no impact on the waterproofing qualities of the coating. You may also find that microcement is cold underfoot; this can be remedied by treating yourself to underfloor heating for your kitchen.

ABOUT DIRECTSTONE

We are a long-established family-run business with a reputation for hand-finished, diamond-polished concrete flooring as well as microcement kitchens, bathrooms, interior flooring and walls in both commercial and residential buildings. We are approved Forcrete microcement installers and are delighted to add this superb coating to our range of flooring options for home improvement projects, renovations, refurbishments, or new builds.