Try Before You Buy: Think "Goldilocks" for Chair Heights

What do Goldilocks and kitchen seating have in common? Well, just like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, you’ll want to try the small, medium and big versions of seating as you design your new kitchen. If you are planning a kitchen snack bar – and that’s one of the most popular features Morris Black does - you need to consider the counter and seat height options. First, think purpose. Most countertop seating is for in-kitchen casual dining or relaxing, like reading the morning paper or browsing cookbooks. Typically, you will be choosing from three standard snack bar or table heights: 30”, 36” or 42”


The normal table height is 30” high, with chair height of 18”. If you opt to have an extended kitchen counter top as your snack bar, it will be 36” high. Since the bar height is 6” more than table height, you should increase the seat height 6” to 24” high. Similarly, if the bar is 42” high, you should have seats 30” high.

Who will be using these seats? For small children and the elderly, 30” high seats may not only be uncomfortable, but unsafe as well. At that height, most adult feet will not touch the floor, so you probably want seats with a foot ring or a foot rail on the bar itself.

24” high seats are easier to get on and off of than 30” high, of course. But some people find even this height uncomfortable. 18” table height seats are easiest to use and probably the most comfortable. I find that most clients, however, will not want a table height snack bar in the kitchen if it is in close proximity to a kitchen table of the same height. Varied seating heights are visually more interesting.

Like most design decisions, seat height is a matter of preference. Examples of each are at our Lehigh Valley or Pocono showrooms. Like Goldilocks, try all three heights, and see what you and your family like best.

Dan Lenner, CMKBD