[Greenbuilding] undercabinet fluorescent fixtures

[Anne Judge]

On Aug 16, 2011, at 11:55 PM, JOHN SALMEN wrote:

>  Modern
> residential kitchens were essentially designed by some rich brat in the 30's
> so her staff would be more efficient??

My observation is that it's more like someone combined the pantries (storage and butler) and the kitchen (large working room with stove & work table etc.) into one room for more modest smaller houses.  You'll find modern-looking upper & lower cabinets in late 19th-C upper class butler's pantries.  Their upper cabinets did just what most of mine do, store dishes.  Don't knock it, I don't know where else I would want to keep them. 

The problem looks to me that that changed what was mostly a staging area into a functional work surface.  I think it worked pretty well, after raising the upper cabinet a bit & deepening the lower one, but it was a compromise.  I certainly would never give up my upper cabinets to make it marginally more ergonomic.

Do you still find that modern LED undercounter lights are still not a really useful working light?  I actually don't have under-cabinet lights and every so often look at them.

Anne