Themes and color schemes may be important considerations for kitchen designers, but they’re by no means the only considerations. Great kitchens must also be functional to use and comfortable to work in.

Indeed, professional designers make many comfort concessions. Consider these examples:

• For people who can’t or don’t want to do a lot of bending over, elevate the dishwasher to make loading and unloading easier.
  
• For exceptionally short people, a stacked double oven configuration may render the upper oven virtually unusable. In this case, place the ovens side by side, preferably at eye level so the owner can make use of both.
  
• Make changes to a kitchen to meet the needs of physically-challenged customers. For example, fit a kitchen sink to accommodate someone working from a wheelchair.

Typical comfort changes, however, are far less complicated. Vary the height and/or depth of cabinets, counter tops and even kitchen islands. Do this mainly to create visual interest and to maximize work areas.

Comfort can also be more of an esthetic issue than a physical consideration. Because the kitchen has now become the gathering place in the home, people want it to feel as livable as it is workable.
The trend toward more of a furniture look in cabinetry goes a long way toward making a kitchen look less kitcheny and more like a room in which to live.

In the future, more formal dining areas may be on the way out, while more informal eating areas, like counters and nooks, will gain in popularity. Think of adding a fireplace in the kitchen along with comfortable seating, and you will have created a very desirable kitchen where family members and guests alike will want to congregate. TPW