Creative upper corner cupboard storage ideas

11 years ago

Did a search, and nothing relevant came up, though did get distracted by many interesting posts...

We have a large upper 24" X 24" corner cupboard. I feel I could utilize the space more efficiently that I am. Hubby built a Super Susan for the 36" base corner, and says he can build some for the uppers...(but we have many many projects on the go)...so in the meantime...

I store my spices, teas, and spare vases in there. Presently, I am using small plastic turntables on the lower shelf, but am wondering what creative people use for the upper shelves? I have two more shelves, with the top one needing a stool to access...

Here's an old photo showing the shape, 24" X 24"

Thanks for any help and pics would be great if possible...

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (7)

Linda
11 years ago
My daughter took the door off of hers, and put a large decorative container or basket on each shelf. Then she could just lift the container off the higher shelves and bring it down to get out the items. Wouldn't work for vases, but I believe she stored smaller snack items in there. Sorry I don't have a picture, but it looked very nice and worked well.
deardre
11 years ago
I just recently read a post on here about retrofitting corner cabinets with lazy susans.
I've just ordered some d shaped trays for mine and will be using the post as a tutorial.
We briefly thought about making them ourselves, but after factoring time and all the labor to make them look professional, we chose to purchase them for about $40 a tray.

Here is a link that might be useful: Retrofit Susan
Related Discussions
Blind upper-corner cabinet -- any use?
Q
Comments (12)
Blind corner cabinets are a particular interest of mine for several reasons. I have written quite a few blogs about them, and I have a blind corner in the kitchen I desperately want to remodel. Because I'm a cabinetmaker, I can pretty much do whatever I wantÂwithin reason of course. And, in the end, I rather fear that I am not going to do much of anything with that corner. It will be much better than it was, but some parts of it are forever dead because we're not willing to expand the kitchen, and the space limitations we have greatly restrict our choices. I won't reproduce the arguments here, but I will say that I never did find a solution to the blind corners for base cabinets that I thought was any better than simply letting that blind corner go and simply installing drawer banks on the legs of the blind corners. Basically, it's a matter of simple math. You figure out how much space you'll get with various solutions and compare it to the space you would have with a dead corner and two drawer banks. However, I did find a number of solutions that worked well for upper cabinets, and I will incorporate something like that in our kitchen when I make it. The link below will take you to one of the ideas I liked best. I will definitely do some variation of this for the upper cabinets in our kitchen in that corner. There were also a number of other ideas I came across that that utilized the entire blind corner and did a wonderful job. I personally don't have a problem with simply boarding up a blind corner for base cabinets, but there are enough elegantÂand worthwhileÂsolutions for upper cabinets, that it seems a shame to end up with a dead corner where things go to die, which, sadly, is what I currently have in my kitchen! Here is a link that might be useful: Cabinet & Furniture Trends & Information
...See More
Creative Counter Top Storage - Fruit/veggies/bread
Q
Comments (20)
syllabus and bleigh - I am going to check out ikea - usually the stuff they have is in chrome or some other silver color which I do not have anywhere in my house at the moment, but I will take a look. Patser - that is one of the problems I have with the huge rack/basket I have now. I think it does leave bruises on things. busybee3 and southernfrenchie. I do love the idea of those hanging baskets. I would love to find some that are two tiered and shorter and hang them from under the cabinets. I could just see DH's face if I told him I wanted to hang that from the ceiling in our kitchen. :) I just don't think we have a good place for it. Hmmmm well maybe over the island sort of area. I will ask him what he thinks. oh and syllabus - I will link the item below. It is from a company named America Retold. I have fallen in love with half their stuff. Especially these.... Hopefully that thing I did order will be in soon and I can either decide I love it or rule it out and keep going on the search. I thought of about 4 other places I could use it if I love it so I am hoping it is not too small or to poorly made. Here is a link that might be useful: rack for syllabus
...See More
Ending with Upper Corner Cabinet
Q
Comments (42)
I no longer have mine. But doing the math - the cabinet box was 24", and the sides were 12". That makes the angled face just under 17". However, they were builder grade face frame, so the cabinet walls and face frame took up anywhere from 2 to 4", leaving 13 or 14" for the opening. I honestly don't think widening the opening by 3 or 4 inches would have helped a whole lot. The only items in an angled cabinet that are readily accessible are those right in front. Of course the same is true of a rectangular cabinet, but in the angled cab, you have the side corners and back that can hold stuff, but are impossible to reach without moving the items in the front. And because the angled corner cab is deeper than a standard wall cabinet, there is even more stuff lost in the back. If you're short, like me, it is impossible to reach things at the back, even on the bottom shelf. Sure, you get a lot of storage, but unless you have a lot of things that you use rarely, it's not very useful storage. When I cleaned out my angled uppers prior to renovation, I was embarrassed by how much crap was in them - things I had no idea I even had. Most things got tossed or donated - if I haven't used them for years (because I don't know they're there), I don't need them. In the 25 years we had those cabinets, I did clean them out periodically - and it was the same story every time. Stuff just gets lost in those back holes. I did a little sketch, and a little math. For the sake of simplicity, I'm ignoring the actual width of cabinet walls, and assuming the corner cabinet is 24" x 24", and adjacent cabinets are 12" deep. With an angled corner, I'm considering usable space to be that in front of the door - the square space outlined in green. But because that square is 17" deep, potentially only the first 12" are easily usable (shown by the dotted green line), cutting the usable area down from 576 square inches actual space to about 200 sq in usable space. Applying the same criteria to the easy reach, where the corner is considered less accessible, you have 432 sq in actual, and 288 sq in accessible. Obviously, YMMV in both scenarios, depending on what's in the cabinet. Another thing to consider - I put an extra shelf in one of my easy reach cabs, giving me more total usable area in that cab. While it's possible to do that with an angled cabinet, reducing the height makes the back and sides even darker and less convenient.
...See More
Upper Corner Storage Cab ideas for Small Kitchen, show me please
Q
Comments (1)
Katy, Do you have a layout diagram that you can post? There are some very gifted GW'ers here, both professional and non-professional, who have an excellent eye and superb ideas. Not knowing how small your small kitchen really is, I would be reluctant to give up that corner counter space. I do have a corner upper- love the extra deep storage it allows. We were originally going to have two upper cupboards go all the way to the counter. I love the look- was excited about storing my tea bags in little drawers... but long story short... the bottom part of the cupboards didn't arrive with our initial cabinet order, and we have since discovered that we are using that counter space. So, we are really glad for the 'mistake'. Never having had a really long run of useable counter space before, I didn't know how valuable it is. Now, two, and when kids are home, 3 or even 4 adults can work in kitchen comfortably. If the area is big enough for a MW- that might be a good spot- but I'd leave counter space under it.
...See More
bellsmom
11 years ago
Deardre,
I am SO pleased that my post was useful to you. I have wondered if posting it was just an ego-trip, or might be useful to others. I hope you will let us know how your project turns out.

Raehelen,
The link deardre posted is to my retrofit. FYI: my upper cabs are 15'' deep, and the door angles so that 24'' D-shaped shelves worked for me.

You will need to measure carefully to decide what is your best fit. Also, I urge you to consider the vertical space between shelves. So often a LOT of space is wasted when an additional shelf would be much more efficient. And with the susans, you don't need to be able to reach INTO the space--you just pluck items from the front!!

You might have to store seldom used stuff on the top two shelves and use a stool to access them, but that is found space, and I can reach every inch of the bottom two shelves from the floor. I sure could not do that pre-susans.

If I can be of any use to you, let me know.

Sandra

This post was edited by Bellsmom on Tue, Jan 15, 13 at 22:17
a2gemini
11 years ago
I love that retrofit - I hope to do that someday - but for now, I used Copco turntables in the top. I agree on the shelves - GC wanted to use only 3 shelves and I used all 4.
I also hid some extra thermos mugs in the corners...
Photobucket made some changes - hope this works!

Darn - I keep meaning to take a new picture without the little plastic item sticking up!
raehelen
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks Ladies,

I agree a proper-sized lazy susan is the best way to go, but am looking for temporary solutions in the meantime.

Am thinking I will try clear shoeboxes for now to try and avoid the endless searching in far corners for bags of spices...

Part of the solution may be to de-junk/ I mean de-clutter those shelves first! (a2gemini you have extremely neat cupboards!)
sara_the_brit_z6_ct
11 years ago
If you have access to an Ikea near you, they offer clear plastic bins, about the same size as shoeboxes. I use these to store stuff in both my corner cabinet, and on the highest shelves of other wall cabinets. Makes it much easier to keep track of things when you can see them, yet easy to pull the container down when needed.
CEFreeman
11 years ago
Just use those Glad containers in the meanwhile. Why pay a fortune for temporary?

I am going to have a closet with corner shelves. Remind me never, ever to make a square room again. Anyway, I think it's Bee who has the fabulous Susans in the corner of her corner shelves. I want to do that and was thinking of D Susans.

I'm going to check out the links. Thanks for great ideas!

Creative upper corner cupboard storage ideas

Comments (7)

Linda

deardre

Related Discussions

bellsmom

a2gemini

raehelen
Original Author

sara_the_brit_z6_ct

CEFreeman

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Creative upper corner cupboard storage ideas

Comments (7)

Linda

deardre

Related Discussions

bellsmom

a2gemini

raehelenOriginal Author

sara_the_brit_z6_ct

CEFreeman

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

raehelen
Original Author