Taller Dutch Stretching Doors, Beds

Dutch contractors are building homes with higher doors, and the military is stretching the size of its beds to 6 feet 7 inches because the people here are growing taller.

Doorways in thousands of Dutch homes built this year will be 4 inches higher than before, Fons van Meijgaarden, a 6-foot-1 spokesman for a house-building cooperative, said Thursday.

The new door height will be 6 feet 11 inches, and the cooperative is also considering raising kitchen counters.

“Since the war the people have been growing and growing,” Van Meijgaarden said.

The changes “will be a continuing story starting with the doors and ending with the whole house,” he said.