Ergonomic kitchen design
Tall people often complain about how painful it can be to cook in a standard kitchen, requiring them to stoop, hunch, and contort in order to do anything. When you are remodeling your kitchen, it can be tempting to rip everything out and install kitchen design for tall people. Unfortunately, your spouse or another member of the household may not be thrilled with these changes. What’s worse, future buyers may pass on your home in favor of a home in which they will not have to remodel the kitchen.
Although it may sound impossible, there are ways to make tall members of the household, short members of the household, and prospective buyers happy:
Countertops
Working on a counter that is either too high or too low can be physically painful, awkward, and downright annoying. While very tall or very short parents often have children with similar statures, their spouse, mother-in-law, or anyone else living in the house may find it equally difficult to work on modified counters.
While tall people may often hear about NBA players modifying their counter height, changing the standard counter height may affect the resale value of a home. Better Homes and Gardens notes that, in order to accommodate everyone—future buyers included, people should either make their countertops easy to have adjusted in the future or, in a mixed-height household, should use varying counter heights.
Microwave and Oven Placement
Although it can be annoying for tall people to reach for food in a too-low microwave or to bend over to cook, it is not unsafe. If everyone in the household is tall, go ahead and raise them to where they are most comfortable, but if there is anyone in the household who is short, keep the microwave and oven where they are. Handling hot food at strange angles over one’s head can be hazardous.
Cabinets
Low cabinets can be awkward for tall people, but high cabinets can be equally difficult for short people. Whether or not you are tall, building cabinets that extend all the way up to the ceiling is best, especially when you are able to correct the mistakes of the previous owners in a kitchen renovation. Leaving any space above a cabinet not only makes for a great place to collect dust, but can add clutter to a kitchen, which is noticeable even to people of average height. One option that can satisfy people of every height is the decision to install pull-down shelves. Things are at the appropriate height for tall people, but they can easily be brought to the appropriate height for the shorter members of the household.
By talking to your contractor about all of the options in ergonomic kitchen design, you can work together to design a kitchen for tall people and for short people. That way, no one will have to sacrifice their happiness, their back, or their knees. It may sound impossible, but with good kitchen design, everyone can cook in the same kitchen.