Worktop height and the gap to wall cabinets

The usual worktop height

Most fitted kitchens have their worktop 90 cm above the finished floor. In Israel carpenters mostly build to 90 cm, and some to 92 or 95 cm for tall cooks; European kitchens are around 90 cm too. Anything from 85 to 95 cm is common.

The best way to choose is to try: stand at a few worktops in a showroom, or at a table raised on books, and see where chopping feels easy on the back and shoulders.

What makes up the height

Quartz and porcelain worktops are 1.2 to 3 cm thick, and a thick front edge can reach 6 cm. A thicker worktop at the same height leaves a lower cabinet, or a lower plinth.

The gap to the wall cabinets

Wall cabinets usually start 60 cm above the worktop, at 150 cm from the floor; 50 to 70 cm is common. Less than 50 cm and the worktop's back is hard to use, and small appliances don't fit under them.

• A 72 cm wall cabinet starting at 150 cm ends at 222 cm, level with a standard tall cabinet.
• Taller wall cabinets, 90 cm or to the ceiling, give more storage; their top shelf needs a step to reach.
• Leave at least 1 cm between anything tall and the ceiling.

Over the cooktop

Above a cooktop the gap is bigger. A hood typically starts at least 65 cm above a gas cooktop and 50 cm above an induction one; the hood's installation manual has the final word. A cabinet right above a cooktop, with no hood, is too close to the heat.

In TruePlinth these heights are the kitchen's standards: set them once and every cabinet follows. It warns when wall cabinets come closer than 50 cm to the worktop, and when anything above a cooktop is lower than its hood needs.