The convenience and practicality of your kitchen is a mirror image of appropriately selected materials, furniture, and lighting. The height and size of all objects filling the kitchen space are essential. Convenience and well-being during cooking largely depend on the height of the desktop where a housewife often spends several hours a day.
Standing and working close to the stove, the sink or the cutting surface often feel tension in the muscles of the hands, back and neck, and if the height of the kitchen furniture does not meet the ergonomic requirements, staying in the kitchen can become extremely tiring and even harmful for your health.
In this article, we’ll explain what and how you should consider when choosing the height of the kitchen desktop and how to combine its parameters with the rest of the kitchen furniture so that the cooking process becomes as pleasant and comfortable as possible.
How to Select Desktop Height
Perhaps you have noticed how inconvenient the standard size of furniture installed in kitchens 10-15 years ago. In most cases, this is a kitchen equipment consisting of the lower row of cabinets with a height of not more than 85 cm and a top that is often installed or too high or too low, creating a dose of inconvenience when working in the kitchen.
Basic Criteria
To minimize the inconveniences and to make the cooking process a more comfortable occupation, when ordering kitchen furniture, you must carefully calculate their dimensions: height, width, depth. This is not at all difficult since the main criterion should be the growth of the one who most often uses the kitchen, the hostess.
The height of the hob nowadays, consistent with the average growth of men and women, should be at least 85 cm and an average of 85 to 92 cm.
For height, a height of 160 cm, its height should be between 85 and 87 cm and if the height is 170 cm or more, a height of 88-90 cm should be sufficient.
The last category is for people over 180 cm high, with the floor surface between 90 and 92 cm.
One more thing
Speaking of the height of the work surface, it should be noted that its depth, the distance from the wall to the edge of the hob also does not have to follow certain principles of ergonomics in order to be as comfortable as possible. You should also be sure that the hanging cabinets are located at a certain height and are no deeper than necessary.
Here are some more details:
– The depth of the hob depends mainly on the size of the room, the width of the path that formed between the furniture and the dimensions of the dining room. For example, in a spacious kitchen, the depth (breadth) of the hob is most often 50-60 cm. A plate of such depth is ideal for spreading the dough, for small appliances, preparation for serving, and so on. If the kitchen is small or narrow, the hob should not exceed 40-50 cm, so there is more room for free movement between the furniture.
– Typically, hanging storage cabinets, spices, teas and other things that need to be within the reach of the easy reach area are placed above the work surfaces. It should be noted that the distance between these cabinets and the desktop is also important. The distance between them cannot be less than 40 cm and the optimum is considered to be 60 cm. Hang the cabinets in such a way that the hostess can easily reach the first shelf of the upper cabinets.
– To make the kitchen even more comfortable, you should know that the depth of the top cabinets should not be more than half the depth of the desktop. For example, if the desktop surface has a size of 60 cm, hanging cabinets above it should have a depth of 30 to 35 cm.
