I forgot one thing-- My walls are only 8' high. I have options of 30" wall cabs, 33", 36", or 42". Should I stay all even 36", or should I mix it up a bit? I don't think I have quite enough room for crown with the 42"...

i wouldnt worry too much about having all the wall and base cabinets line up exactly.. if it happens to naturally work out that when the great..

i dont think a 12in wall is a waste of space at all.. i have 2 of them.. the reason for them is symmetry.. i wanted to center my undercab microwave and it required a 12in cab on the left and i thought it would look best to have the same 12in cab on the right.. we also have a 24in cab above the mirco so all the doors on that wall are the same size as well.. i think it looks nicer than random sized doors all over the place.. you will notice that the uppers and lowers dont line up exactly.. the uppers are a 24,12,24,12 and the lower is a 32,30,32.. see in picture.. below

we also picked our cabs on the wall in pick below to have the same sized doors.. as we thought it would look better than random.. we could have done any combination of 45 inches on that wall and settled on a 30 and 15.. which also have a similar door width to the corner cab..

hope this helps :-)

another pic that might be helpful...

we went taller on the corner cab 36" but left the one on either side equally short 30" again because of symmetry.. because of that beam you see.. we couldn't have taller cabs on all around.. its just in a terrible spot that we couldn't easily work around without what we thought would be an akward looking set of cabs.. with tall on one side shorter on the other.. thou you will see plenty of examples of varying height wall cabs that looks absolutely great..

i might end up building some sort of custom shelving or something up there at some point but we are happy with it as is for now..

A 36'' wide cabinet is going to be a lot more useful than a 24'' & a 12''. It ought to be cheaper and you'll gain a bit more space. Maybe do a 36'' wide one with glass doors? (I have a 9'' wide cabinet and it's a major PITA; IMO, a 12'' wide one would be only slightly less of a pain.)

And, no, it's not important for the upper cabs to line up with the base cabs, so don't worry about that.

I agree about the idea of vertical symmetry being a bit of a red herring - don't worry about it. In terms of 36 wall cabinets, how big is your space? Big cabs with big doors can feel clunky an overpowering in a small space. I prefer to stick around 15 in a door so 30 in a cab for uppers but it depends on the layout and what you like.

I think you should get the cabinet size that works out best for you and not worry about symmetry. Why not have someone from a cabinet place come out and measure. I had three different places come out and each place came up with different layouts. I think I am going with custom but I got alot of ideas from the other places. Even going to someplace like HD with measurements could help.

Okay I had trouble following your description with regard to the 12" wall cabinet, but I can comment on the symmetry of upper and lower cabinets. I worried about this too. I found that most of the time it made no difference at all and was completely unnecessary to match upper and lower cabinets. Symmetry is important among upper cabinets and among lower cabinets, but not between upper and lower. The only time it may matter is at a point where upper cabinets stop for example and the lower cabinets continue.

Do you have a picture or drawing of what you're talking about with the 12" cabinet?

- Jim

Full overlay & eurohinges that limit door swing are a couple of factors to consider re door sizes. I keep forgetting that because I've always had face frame w/ surface mount old school hinges or inset doors with really old school butt hinges.

When I was designing my kitchen and drawing the cabinets, I was trying so hard to make things line up, because it looked better on paper. But it was impossible so I just told the cabinet guy to do whatever he needed to. And to my surprise, everything looks perfect even though they don't line up. I did make sure that there was symmetry on each side of the sink and each side of the cooktop though.

Thanks for all of the great feedback so far! I will try to post a sketch of my layout tonight so you can get a better idea of what I'm talking about, especially on the one wall. But if it helps for now, picture a corner with a 36" super susan base and a 24" diagonal wall cab right above it. To the right of the super susan base would be a 24" drawer cabinet. To the right of the diagonal wall cabinet would be a 12" cabinet (possibly to hold alcoholic beverages) that would align with the edge of the super susan below, and then a 24" glass cabinet (to hold glasses with a wine bottle shelf below) that aligns exactly above the 24" drawer base.

The other option would be to have a 36" wall cabinet to the right of the diagonal wall cabinet. It wouldn't align directly above the drawer base to create the "wine/drink station" I was picturing, but it might look less "messy". I'd also want to have the doors be solid or figure out somewhere else to put the alcohol because I don't think I'd like the look of liquor bottles showing through glass doors...

To the left of the super susan would be an 18" trash can base and then a sink base below a window. To the left of the diagonal wall cabinet would be a 24" wall cabinet (nothing bigger would fit because of the window, and even if I have a 12" cabinet to the right of the diagonal, I think creating symmetry with another 12" cabinet to the left would take away unnecessary storage). I'm sorry if this is confusing to picture! I will attempt to post a sketch tonight.

Thank you and I'm definitely open to more ideas/opinions! Oh, and I believe the doors are considered either full or partial overlay...? They would butt together in the center. I've had people come measure, but they haven't thought of anything that creative and my space is not huge... I can't remember the exact dimensions but I'll check when I get home from work.

The corner that youÂre describing sounds similar to my kitchen. The link below shows my finished kitchen. It was important to me to have the upper cabinets on the sink wall be symmetrical. I also wanted the sink to be center on the window. The upper corner cabinets are 24", the two upper glass cabinets on either side of the sink are 21". The lower corner cabinet to the right of the DW is asymmetrical 33" X 36". We had to do this to accommodate the DW on the sink wall. YouÂll notice that the lower cabinets on the sink wall do not line up with the uppers perfectly. I think it looks fine!

On the stove wall we start with the 12" part of the lower corner cabinet then 15" drawers, Total: 27". YouÂll notice the cabinet above is also 27". The upper cabinet to the right of the MW is also 27" as is the lower set of drawers to the right of the stove, 27". Then the lower ss corner has 12" on the stove side with the 12" glass cabinet above.

My upper cabinet to the right of the refrig is 27". The cabinets below that cabinet are a set of 15" drawers and the 12" side of the lower corner SS = 27".

So, for me, some symmetrical is OK and some is not! Hope this help you visualize the situation. Hope I described it OK and I wasnÂt too confusing with my description. Why not post your layout? There are a lot of people here that are layout gurus!

Barb

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen