The kitchen is the most visited place in an apartment, a house. Here we prepare to eat and, in fact, eat. For this reason, the kitchen gets dirty quickly. One of the great solutions in terms of quick cleanliness in the kitchen is an apron. A kitchen apron is the area of the wall on which tiles, tiles, glass are laid - everything that can be quickly washed from pollution. Before you begin, you need to decide for yourself why you need a kitchen apron. What function will it perform in your kitchen?
Kitchen apron functionality
Consider the main functions performed by this important element of the interior. Firstly, it is a decorative feature. It is necessary that the kitchen apron decorates and harmoniously blends into the interior of the kitchen, sets off and emphasizes the beauty of the kitchen set or, on the contrary, draws all the attention to itself and stuns your guests with its brightness and beauty. Secondly, practicality. The apron should protect the wall between the upper and lower kitchen cabinets, as well as behind the sink and stove from the ingress of grease and water droplets, while it itself should be easily washed. Thirdly, the material from which the apron is made must be resistant to detergents, as well as mechanical stress, that is, to abrasion during cleaning.
Preferably, the kitchen apron meets these three requirements. To get the maximum benefit from it for the interior of the kitchen, it is important to position it correctly. Often people wonder whether it is possible to do without a kitchen apron. Perhaps your kitchen is fully finished with tiles or wall panels are installed in it, then the apron has an exclusively decorative function, and its installation depends only on your own preferences.
Suppose you are finally convinced of the need to install a kitchen apron in your kitchen. Then the matter remains small, it is necessary to choose the material from which your new interior item will be made, and also find out by which formula the apron width is calculated.
Everything ingenious is simple
The simplest and least costly solution is wall panels. Many furniture manufacturers offer customers a choice of wall panels of the same color as the countertops. You can purchase them with your kitchen set. These panels are nothing more than laminated particle boards, and they are only slightly thinner than the countertop. You can easily install such a wall panel yourself or it will be installed by the collectors of your kitchen. It has standard sizes. In this case, the width of the apron is calculated by the formula "Standard". With all the ease of installation, such an apron looks great and is unpretentious in use. Its color is usually chosen according to the color of the countertop. Such a kitchen set looks harmonious, perfectly matched and, of course, will not go unnoticed by your guests. So that the butt of the countertop with the wall panel does not get wet, dust and debris attracting domestic insects, it is closed with a special furniture corner. This corner can be absolutely any color.
Tile
To date, the most common apron made of tile. A wide range of tiles offered by manufacturers, a variety of textures and a huge palette of color solutions allows you to make your kitchen apron individual and unique. The only problem that arises when using a tile in a kitchen is that it is necessary to put an apron before installing a kitchen set. In this case, you should know what formula calculates its width. The standard apron width in the kitchen is 600 mm. It is better if its edges adjoin the borders of kitchen cabinets, but often this is practically difficult to achieve. Therefore, you need to lay tiles with a margin so that the cabinets somewhat cover the edges of the tile.
What is the formula to calculate the width of the apron
In the case of standard sizes of kitchen units, the tiles on the wall are laid at a height of 850 mm. In the place where the hood will be located, the tile should rise to the upper edge of the hanging cabinets, the height of the apron in this place can ultimately reach 120-150 cm, depending on the height of the hanging cabinets. The width of the apron in the kitchen in this place depends on the width of the hood selected by you, plus 5 cm on each side. Thus, with a hood width of 50 cm, the apron will be 60 cm wide, and with a hood width of 60 cm, respectively - 70 cm. When installing the washing machine in the kitchen, the apron should start slightly lower than usual, i.e. approximately 83 cm above floor, and its width in this case will be 62 cm.
Now, knowing by what formula the apron width is calculated, you can easily calculate the required number of tiles for it. When choosing a tile, it is necessary to consider that the textured tile is more difficult to care for. The size of the tile also affects its choice. Larger tiles are laid faster and easier, laying tiles with a size of 10 x 10 cm will cost more. The choice of color is yours, only your color preferences will play a role here. You can choose a tile to match the countertop, or you can, conversely, play in contrast. It all depends on you.
Other versions of kitchen aprons
An interesting solution would be laying a photographic tile, here any wide-format photograph or a repeating image can act as a picture. In this embodiment, the width of the kitchen apron is adjusted to fit the picture.
Another type of tile is gaining popularity - mirror, it, however, will require significant efforts in the care of the hostess.
An apron made of glass tiles or mosaics can be an equally interesting solution. In addition, designers offer various options for apron made of glass or triplex.
The choice of an apron is made
After you have considered many options for the execution of kitchen aprons, and also found out by which formula the apron width is calculated, you can safely get down to business. The result depends on your desire and skill. It may be difficult to cope with ceramic tiles, much less equip your kitchen with an apron of glass, photo tiles, mosaics, but there is always an alternative that is subject to even you. Ceramics or glass can be replaced with plastic. Installing a kitchen apron made of plastic requires less professionalism. At the worst, you can always invite a master who will perform installation work on the apron at a professional level.