When designing a kitchen it is absolutely essential to focus on measurements. For it to be functional and ergonomic, it is essential to respect certain guidelines.
Today we focus on the height of the wall units, which are indispensable cabinets in the kitchen for storing and containing everything needed for cooking. They can be in different materials: wood, glass or laminate, but it is in any case fundamental to evaluate the correct height to obtain an aesthetically pleasing kitchen. In fact, it is possible to completely distort a kitchen by changing only the height of the wall units and make it livelier by fixing them at different heights, for example.
Standard wall unit height
Evaluating the correct height of wall units is by no means easy. If you have a room with low ceilings, you will need to choose lower wall units and thus develop the kitchen width considerably. On the other hand, those with high ceilings can use much higher wall units. In any case, it is important to evaluate the room as a whole so as not to overfill a wall and create a suffocating effect. Neither is it obligatory to cover an entire wall with wall units, we can decide to put only a couple and for the rest of the surface area shelves or a shelf.
Kitchen companies offer different solutions to meet their customers’ needs. Scandola Mobili offers a very wide range of kitchen wall unit heights. Starting with the lowest kitchen wall units, suitable for those with low ceilings or those who like a more minimalist style, which are 24 cm, 36 cm or 48 cm high. Then we move on to those most commonly used in classic kitchens, which have a height of 60 cm or 72 cm, and finally to the maxi wall units with a height of 84 cm or 96 cm. Finally, some also offer wall units H. 108 cm to satisfy the most demanding in terms of storage. Obviously to create movement it is possible to play with juxtaposing wall units of different heights.
Height between wall units and worktop
A measure to always keep in mind is the height at which the kitchen wall units are fixed in relation to the worktop. This measurement needs further investigation.
As a rule, the height of wall units from the top or worktop is between 50 and 60 cm. However, this dimension must also be related to the depth of the base units. In fact, the deeper the base units are, the lower the kitchen wall units can be fixed to make the kitchen truly ergonomic.
Let’s take an example. With a standard kitchen depth of 60 cm, the ideal height for fixing the wall units is 54 cm because this is the height that allows good visibility of the worktop and ease of use of the cabinets. With this height and depth of the base units, however, it is not certain that you cannot occasionally bang your head in the wall cabinets. If, on the other hand, the base units are deeper, e.g. 65 cm, the wall cabinets can be hung at a height of 48 cm up to the extreme case where the base units are 80 cm deep, which allows the wall cabinets to be hung at a height of 42 cm.
However, special attention must be paid to the hood. By law it must be fixed at 65 cm from the hob, but in reality the hoods now on the market allow even closer fixing to allow better extraction of vapours. It is important to consult the instruction booklet to check the recommended fixing height.
The measurements of kitchen wall units
Kitchen wall units come in different sizes to suit everyone’s needs. With regard to width, as a rule, kitchen manufacturers offer modules in multiples of 15 cm, so standard wall units have the following widths: 15 cm, 30 cm, 45 cm, 60 cm, 90 cm and 120 cm.
Many companies, including Scandola Mobili, also offer two intermediate sizes 40 cm and 80 cm. Obviously the width of the wall units follows that of the base units. Sometimes to fill articulated spaces there is a need for made-to-measure wall units. Scandola Mobili offers this service thanks to just-in-time production that allows maximum production flexibility and adaptation to customer requirements.
The depth of wall units
The last fundamental dimension of wall units is their depth. It is normally around 35 cm for standard 60 cm kitchens. This is a convenient depth both for storage and to allow comfortable use of the worktop.
It can be useful to ask for deeper wall cabinets if, for example, you have deeper base units. Our advice, however, is never to exceed a difference of 24 cm between base unit depth and wall unit depth, otherwise it becomes really difficult to prepare food.
Depth of kitchen wall units
When we talk about kitchen wall cabinets we are actually referring to a very wide range of types. In fact, we must not stop to think only of classic kitchen cabinets with a wooden door or laminate panel. To customise and make the kitchen more original, we can choose from a vast number of alternative solutions.
For example, we can choose kitchen wall cabinets with a glass door and a wooden frame. A solution that leaves plenty of room for the kitchen design as a whole. The glass doors can also be made in the English style, i.e. with woodwork on the glass that makes the cabinets really elegant and refined. The photo below shows an example.
If we love the industrial style we can instead think of kitchen cabinets with aluminium doors, or open kitchen wall units with an iron frame and wooden shelves, like the examples in the photo below.
Finally, we can replace the wall units with a large shelf on which to store glass jars with pasta, flour, and rice, giving the house a fresh and unusual look.
Kitchen wall units: the different openings
When choosing kitchen wall cabinets, we do not often focus on deciding on the most appropriate opening. There are in fact four different types of opening, let us see them below:
- Hinged opening: this is the classic opening of kitchen wall units, where the door can be opened to the right or left as required;
- Sliding opening: the doors slide one on top of the other, it is a type of opening frequently used in industrial kitchens;
- Raised or vasistas opening: the door opens upwards, it is very convenient because you can work while keeping the cabinets open without risking banging your head;
- Packet opening: the door is split in half and when raised it folds upwards.
As you can easily guess, the vasistas and packet openings are the most comfortable from an ergonomic point of view, although the price is slightly higher.
In this short article we have collected everything about the standard height of kitchen wall units, if you still have any doubts please do not hesitate to contact us.