Every house features a living room or family room, but truly, it’s the kitchen where most of the foot traffic accumulates. Whether you have a family with a few kids, a few pets or you like to host weekend galas, having a kitchen that’s adequate to from resisting high traffic is the key to keeping future costs tied in with repairs, cleaning house or replacements.

From the paint on the walls to the flooring materials, there are ways you may addition the durability and wonderful thing about your kitchen. First, let’s consider the flooring options.

High Traffic Kitchens – Flooring
There’s a wide range of quality flooring products that you can set up to increase the beauty of your kitchen, but whenever you require the floor to be able to stand firm punishment, a few alternatives are best than others.

As starters, Pergo and natural hardwood are two great flooring options, but whenever you’ve a large family, specifically younger children, then I don’t recommend it. In the kitchen, there’s a high probability that water, juice or other liquid will be spilled occasionally. While these flooring products claim to be able to withstand moisture, extra time, the boards will begin to buckle and warp. Additionally, hardwood scratches easily and needs refinished often to maintain its gorgeous look.

Linoleum and vinyl works well in many kitchens. They’re inexpensive, easy to clean and a snap to install but they too can suffer depreciation from overmuch traffic and heavy appliance or chair movement.

Ceramic or stone tile is frequently a good choice, but because of the spill factor, you’ll have to use a non-porous tile or one that doesn’t have nook and cranny. While tile does look and last exceptionally well, it can be an expensive option, so shop wisely.

Other kitchen flooring options include stained concrete, Travertine, granite and other stone-based materials.

High Traffic Kitchens – Walls

Besides the flooring, the other victim of high traffic through the kitchen is the walls. When children or pets are in the vicinity, the walls can easily become scuffed, scratched and downright filthy, not to mention the accumulation of cooking grease!

While these reasons may seem as though they make the most sense for semi-gloss paint being the go-to choice for paint in the kitchen, the real reason for this type of paint is that it works best at keeping moisture from seeping into the walls. Back before kitchens had modern exhaust fans, steam emitted from canning and cooking would result in water-logged plaster, which is a breeding ground for mold and bacteria. By applying the semi-gloss paint, the moisture would not be able to penetrate and clean up could be a breeze.

Nowadays, kitchens can be painted with whatever type of paint, even matte or flat. This is possible because of improved ventilation and the fact that not every inch of the wall has to be exposed; a tiled backsplash being one example.

That being said, even so, it can be very hard to keep walls painted with matte or flat paint clean from dirty fingers. Whenever messy kids are a concern, then semi-gloss still prevails supreme as the option for kitchen wall paint.