36" is kind of a standard height for the finished kitchen cabinets including the countertop. Bath cabinets are often lower, but I'm going with 36" in the bathrooms, too.

Thanks for your replies.

What is kitchen and bath cabinets depths do you recommend?

Regards, O

I really dislike the 36" bath cabinets. I'm 5'1" and they're just tolerable for toothbrushing and facewashing (but unusable when pregnant). We will have to have a stool in the kids' bathroom until they're in junior high school.

I'd at least get a 30" in a kid bath, and 30 in the master if you are shorter. (Wash your face in the kitchen sink and see if that works.)

We built our own. I find our 36" vanity heights too tall, also. I'd opt for 33" or 34" if I was doing it again. Our vanities are 24" deep like any other cabinets.

We have different heights of cabinets in our kitchen at heights I like best for the different areas. The run of cabinets with our main sink are 36", baking counter is 33", and our island and the rangetop and adjacent cabinets are at 34 1/2". I prefer to knead, roll, chop, and sir into pots at a lower ht than 36".

I agree that 30" sucks for us shorties. I'm only 5 ft tall and I miss the short styles of yore :-(

Nono! 36 sucks for shorties! 30 OK. I'm so happy the previous owners of my house left the 50s vanity in the master bath. But they redid the kid bath all fancypants adult style.

But do think of the kids. Our kid bath is the one guests use. And all our guests get banged shins from the stool. And don't get me started on the matching extra tall potties which aren't bad even for short adults (and great for puking in) but it takes TWO stepstools for my 3-year old...stool city! And no, not THAT kind of stool. Well, yeah, that too...

I just renovated my master bath and made the vanity 33" tall. The guest bathroom has a 36" tall vanity and that is just a tad tall for me. I'm 5'3" and I'm comfortable with a 33" or 34" tall vanity. They are both 21 inches deep. (with a 1 inch granite overhang)

Ours is at the upper range - 38" counters in the kitchen and I've read posts on here from people who have gone 39".

We have a built-in toekick pullout stool for those who need it.

I went with 36" height on the vanity and love it. Now the standard feels really weird and I wouldn't go back at all.

We have 36" vanities in the master here in the rental. I don't mind them at all (I'm 5' tall).

In our kitchen, we have a run of cabinets with a 27" deep counter (bumped out for the range). The sink is inset a bit (3) to get you out of the corner. Hard to explain...here's a pic without counters:
{{!gwi}}

The rest are 24" deep (standard).

Many vanities are 22" deep, we bumped ours out to 27" on the sink portion and 24" on the rest. We kept our son's vanity at 30" tall.

Some folks in Japan did a study for the optimum height for a work counter. Their conclusion was that the optimum range is half the person's height, plus 5 to 10 centimeters (= 2 to 4 inches).

For me, that's around 40 inches. For my eldest son (6'5"), around 42" or so. For my daughter (6'), around 39". (Yah, we're not too short around here.)

40" certainly seems about right for me; 36" is *way* too low, and makes my back hurt.

There was a study done in the U.S. in around the 1900 timeframe that concluded that 36" counters were too low for the typically 5'2" woman of that day. This would be somewhat higher than what was concluded by the above Japanese study. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any information about that earlier study.

I once owned a home that had custom built cabinets in the kitchen for the original owner in the 30's. She was 5' tall so when we purchased, I thought the lower counters were going to be sheer joy...built for someone my size (32"). I HATED HATED HATED those lower counters. While they might be great if you're rolling out dough, they sucked for anything else.

Solar...or families should intermingle...between the two family DNA's (in mine, dh is 5'7" and I'm 5' and ya'll are giants) we could probably produce a normal sized human :oP heh heh

We have 36" in kitchen but I would have happily gone to 38". I find that my arms fall more comfortably for chopping at that height. You can probably get adjustable legs so you can use standard stock cabinets.

The key to kitchen counter height is what you are going to be doing on it (in addition to your own height). For prep work and baking you need lower counters. Remember to take into account that the counters will bring up the height. With our granite, our counters are almost 37" and I find it way too high (I'm 5'7") for chopping (our cutting boards bring it up another inch) and kneading dough.

I would like to hear how homeowners increased their range so that it would be flush with the countertop when making taller than stadard countertops. I have this problem with my current range, and have designed "risers" made of travertine floor tile scrap, but I am not happy with the look. My range legs extend enough for leveling only. I am considering purchasing a LaCanche, and they advised me that the range is designed to be 36" and only adjusted for leveling as well.

I'm 5'1" tall y kitchen and bath cabinets are a standard 36" high and 24" deep. I don't find it problematic for anything that I want or need to do, but I've had to cope with being less than average height all of my life, so i guess that I don't think anything of it.

I like a taller base in the kitchen (5'1") but if I try to wash my face in a sink that high, I make a mess!

With kitchens of course, remember appliances can get tricky if you deviate from the standard too much.

gabeach -- I was in a friend's kitchen the other day who has a 48" Viking and her contractor built a platform for the range to sit on -- I think raised it to 38" or 39". I would never have noticed it had it not been pointed out to me.