Accessible Elegance: a Modern Kitchen

We often don't associate the word "elegant" with "accessible" but this 3,000 square foot rambler home proves that accessible design can indeed be elegant.

In this home, design and installation focused on the “cereal test” proposed by the humorous homeowners who both use wheelchairs: would cabinet placement and height allow for easy retrieval of a cereal bowl, spoon, milk, and the cereal box with two wheelchairs moving about in the space without colliding with open doors or each other?

With that challenge in mind, our design team at Puustelli USA designed an upper and lower cabinetry unit for the back wall using flat panel doors to create a streamlined modern look that wouldn’t look odd or out of place despite the lower than usual height placement: now the upper cabinet “garage door hinge” doors (that open upward) can easily be reached from a wheelchair.

We also installed a sturdy pull-out cutting board drawer at waist-height near the stove (eliminating the need to balance a cutting board on one’s lap during food prep) and placed two custom paneled dish-drawers by Fisher Paykel to flank the sink (removing a hazardous door on the floor and facilitating easy loading/unloading).

In addition, the kitchen island was installed close enough to the wall-unit stove for safe placement of hot items on the heat-proof ceramic countertop, and a practical lower cabinetry banquet unit with countertop space round out the custom cabinet installations completed in 2021.