Our new cabinets are not in yet, but I considered the same questions. I have had a angled corner cabinet for the last 30 years. It sure has held a lot, but things in the back were always lost, espcially above the bottom shelf. I also disliked how much it made the counter feel covered.

So perhaps in a "grass is greener on the other side" move I have the 90 degree type in my cabinets that are ordered (which are 13" uppers.)

I spent a lot of time playing with both a hinged door and overlapping doors. At first I was going to go with the overlapping doors, but after playing with them and thinking of having something in my hands I wanted to put away and needing two hands to open the left then right, I decided to go with the hinged. My decision was also in part based on worrying that my DH would close them in the wrong order and bang them up some. And the lower corner cabinet is hinged for the Super Susan.

Time will tell how I like it.

Hope this helps.

What style is your kitchen? I don't think the angled cabinets look right in a contemporary design, but the angled ones would look OK with any style kitchen.

In my current kitchen, I have an angled upper cabinet and a 90 degree cabinet with hinged doors on the bottom. I agree that the angled upper makes the corner dark, but I also "lose" things in the back of the upper cabinet. For those reasons, and because my style is more contemporary with clean lines, I'm going with 90 degree uppers in my new design.

The bottom cabinet with the hinge is OK, but I don't have a lazy susan or anything and only keep things I rarely use in there. Its great for large items, as long as they fit through the opening which doesn't seem very wide to me. Things get lost in there too since its dark and deep. My KD showed me be a cabinet that uses a swing out lazy susan type of fitting that allows you to have a 90 degree bottom corner and still use the dead space, but it requires a fairly wide door on one side.

Are you doing custom cabinets? I'm assuming you are since you are getting 14" deep uppers.

"Standard" upper corner cabinets take up 24" of wall space in each direction - but if you're doing custom cabinets, he should be able to make it larger. If you do one that is more like 26 or 27" wide, the opening will be larger on the diagonal, even with 14" deep uppers.

If you decide to do the option with two hinged doors in opposite directions - make sure you talk to him about how far those doors will open - I would want them to be able to go almost flat against the cabinets next to them.

In general, we go with a diagonal door 90 percent of the time - usually it looks a little nicer, and you don't have to worry about those silly EZReach hinges. One reason it looks nicer is that you have a good 18" wide door rather than two skinny 12" wide doors.

It's definitely a matter of opinion of which looks nicer, because I think the 90 degree doors look far better. I don't like the way the diagonal style comes over the counter, and on base cabs, takes up floor space, making the kitchen seem smaller, and only accomplishing making a deep corner all that much deeper. The 90 degree doors offer wider access to a cabinet that isn't as deep and cavelike, as others have already said. To me the diagonal doored cabinets look big and awkward, especially in layouts in which they don't have a cabinet next to them on each side.

We had the 90-degree door with the center hinge in our last house and I never found it to be a problem, as I just knew what to expect from it and how to operate it. We had another corner cabinet (base cab) that was at an odd angle and had to have your 2nd option...the 2 doors in which one overlaps the other in the center. This is OK, too, as long as you (and family members) always remember which one closes first and don't end up doing it twice every time. ;-) Also, you have to open and close 2 doors instead of one a lot of the time...So it depends on whether that bothers you or not.

Thanks everyone - very helpful. I'm pretty sure that I will go with the 90 degree version based on your comments (I was leaning that way anyway). I am getting custom cabs, but I don't want this cabinet any larger than it needs to be, so I don't want to extend it down the walls more than 24". I think I'll stick with the hinged doors, too, rather than the overlapping.

Thanks again!