Photo courtesy of Danver Stainless Outdoor Kitchens
After committing to a Danver Stainless Outdoor Kitchen, there are several crucial design-related decisions you need to make before your home improvement project can become a reality. One of the more important choices is to determine if your high quality outdoor cabinetry will come as standard stainless steel cabinets or powder coated cabinets. Depending on your specific needs, powder coated stainless steel cabinets may be a better fit for your outdoor kitchen if your maintenance requirements, aesthetic goals, and weather conditions call for it.
Maintenance Concerns for Stainless Steel Outdoor Kitchen Cabinets & Powder Coated Danver Cabinets
One major way that stainless steel cabinets and powder coated stainless steel cabinets differ is with their required maintenance. Plain stainless steel is prone to showing fingerprints and streaks, which is not the case with powder coated steel. Powder coated Danver cabinets and their Brown Jordan counterparts are maintained with infrequent (as little as once per season) wipe downs with cloth and water.
The purpose of adding a powder coat to stainless steel, in addition to an added aesthetic appeal, is to render them virtually maintenance free. However, if you don’t mind the extra upkeep and enjoy the look of unfinished stainless steel, powder coating is likely unnecessary or even undesirable for your outdoor kitchen.
Durability Concerns
Powder coating also offers another level of protection to your stainless steel cabinets, which are going to be exposed to the elements and potentially extreme weather changes throughout the year.
Powder coating can cut down on the occurrence of fingerprints but also more detrimental issues such as pock marking or rust, which affect the integrity of the stainless steel itself. Stainless steel is an extremely durable material, and cabinets often do come with lifetime warranties, but these problems can eventually crop up. This becomes especially likely if the stainless steel is consistently exposed to wet conditions. If durability is of particular concern, powder coating is one way to postpone and/or skirt this issue.
As for the durability of the powder coating itself, it often comes with a seven-year limited warranty. In many ways, a powder coating is like a car finish in that normal, everyday use is not going to scratch or damage the surface. Many powder coatings are even rated for UV protection and outdoor use, so inclement weather isn’t going to pose significant problems.
Aesthetic Concerns
Outdoor kitchens have come a long way in a short amount of time. In terms of color, style, and design, cabinets and countertops for the outside are just as advanced and high quality and products for any indoor kitchen.
Because the quality and looks have become comparable, it also means that homeowners looking to create outdoor spaces can now match outside design concepts with established design or color schemes from the inside living spaces.
Powder coating assists in that by virtue of the diverse options available. A multitude of colors can be applied as well as textures. Whether a wood grain, copper patina, or smooth color suits your existing home, your outdoor kitchen doesn’t need to be a design anomaly within the home.
A Growing Trend
As outdoor kitchens become more commonplace, trends surrounding those kitchens continue to shift and change. Powder coating is no exception. Roughly 85 percent of today's stainless steel cabinets are powder coated, and that number is only likely to increase. This uptick in popularity is often attributed to the protective element of powder coating, the decrease in required maintenance, and the diversity of color, pattern, and texture options.