Kitchen Talk
August 24, 2007
Common mistakes in kitchen design

You might be surprised about some of the mistakes you can make or things you overlook when putting your kitchen together. In today’s kitchens, people no longer install a 12” deep cabinet over the refrigerator. It just does not make any sense at all! I heard excuses like “ I like to see it so” all the time, but here is the thing…{{more}}You are standing in front of a refrigerator that hangs out 33” from the wall and standing on average about 69” high, and above this refrigerator now is a cabinet 12” off the wall. The average person is 5’5” tall and she (most men don’t know where to find the kitchen in the house “ops”) has to now stretch first above the fridge, then over it just to open it, then to get inside the cabinet to get what’s ever in there. Of course “use a bench,” but as you get older a bench can be your worst enemy in the kitchen: “I’m falling and I can’t get up” sounds familiar? Don’t do that at all.

Another mistake you can make is trying to put that refrigerator into a built in cabinet that is not well designed for a refrigerator. Some refrigerators are designed in such a way that they breath through the front end so all the heat escapes through the front. Others are design to breathe through the rear. If you have your fridge built-in, be sure to know which one it is, because if it’s the latter, your cabinet maker would have to allocate a breathing space for it cause when air heats it rises and if it can’t get out, it would circulate around the appliance and then you would have just created the perfect environment to shorten the life of your appliance. Don’t do that at all.

Finally for this week, maintain a minimum of at least 30” clearance from the main entrance and exit to the kitchen. And keep it clear at all times!

Angelica and Rayan James Exclusive Kitchens
494 2579 / 532 6756
www.exclusivekitchensvc.com