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brianb1973

Corner Cabinets: Functionality vs Architectural Details?

15 years ago

We are doing a remodel right now and have to finalize our kitchen design very soon, which I would classify as a medium sized kitchen (16x11 U shaped kitchen with a good sized island in the middle.) Not poor on storage but certainly not rich.

One thing I am struggling with is whether to use a corner cabinet in the one obvious corner. The pros of adding a corner cabinet are obvious - easy access to an otherwise dead corner that is hard to access.

To me the big negative of corner cabinets is more architectural. You are adding an angle in otherwise clean-angled kitchen. For example, you rarely see corner cabinets in kitchen design magazines. Granted, most of them skew larger than ours.

Does anyone have strong feelings in either direction (pro or con to the kitchen cabinet)?

Thanks in advance

Comments (8)

  • 15 years ago

    Use corner cabinets with a pie cut door rather than the 45 degree door.

  • 15 years ago

    We opted to skip a corner cab, and kept the space between the adj cabs as "dead" space in order to have a tray cab next to the range. We did have an access panel cut into the side of the tray cab, and had the plumber put the gas shut-off in the "dead" space right by the access panel opening.

  • 15 years ago

    Are you talking upper or lower? Lower cabs with angled doors give you very narrow spaces for access, while a pie cut with a super susan is very useful for small appliances or pots and pans. If you mean uppers, the angle won't make you want stab your eyes out if the lower cabinet has a right angle--it's not ideal but you really don't see it that much. An exception is if the angled upper is the last on the run; that doesn't look good to me. You need a regular upper on both sides of the angled one.

    If you do use the upper angled cab, make sure you understand what you want to put in it. I use mine for bowls of various sizes. It's not perfect but it's the only thing I have that will hold some of my bowls. If you think you can stuff small junk into the back of an angled upper and ever hope to retrieve it before pigs fly, forget about it.

  • 15 years ago

    If you're talking about a corner base cabinet . . . I love my pie cut door and super suan that Marcolo mentioned. I have two of them in a U shaped kitchen. I can fit a lot in each of them. Here's a photo that may be helpful.

    In my old kitchen I had an upper with an angled door. It was okay. We kept glasses and mugs in it. It wasn't ideal, but I thought it looked and functioned okay. Here are a couple of pictures of this corner cabinet (left side).

  • 15 years ago

    we have been round this debate a lot.

    For the upper corner, we chose a door that bi-folds out. Like all of my decisions, I am always doubtful we chose well. But I did see samples of this style several places and liked them.

    For the lowers, we couldn't do the pie-shaped lazy Susan. I do think those are the best option.

  • 15 years ago

    We chose to do a corner cabinet on the bottom that has a large pullout and a blind corner cabinet on the top. I know it will be a pain for the upper cabinet but this was a form over function thing for us.

    From Kitchen Progress July 4

    Upper blind corner

    From Kitchen Progress July 4

    We chose this type of corner with pullout so we can have a bank of drawers on the other side. And so far I love the pullout because it comes completely out.

    From Kitchen Progress July 4

  • 15 years ago

    My lower is the same as slush's...its a half round that pulls completely out. I wanted to have base drawers on both sides of my range and this allowed me to accomplish it. For the upper, I went with the angled cabinet. I debated this many times. My reason for the corner cabinet was that the 90Degree doors on my cabinets (shaker) looked too skinny and long. They didn't match the look of the rest of my kitchen (at least I didn't think so). The shelves in my corner cabinet are moveable and I plan on storing some crystal in there along with seasonal items. My KD had a lazy susan in the upper, but I had her remove it because the shelves were cheesy plastic and not very moveable. I figured I would rather have more shelves in the right locations inside the cabinet, than the susan.

    Heres a pic:

    {{!gwi}}