I love lazy susans so much and find them so useful and efficient that I would make a corner in the kitchen for one if it didn't have it already. If it were my kitchen, that is definitely not the place I'd look to save a few bucks.

We did not put in a lazy susan. I really don't like them and it wasn't needed. What was needed was a space to put large and odd sized items. We have a piano hinge door and it has the "dreaded" half shelf in an L shape. What's in there? Dog food, crockpot, waffle maker, long bread trays, all kinds of stuff. While it needs occasional organizing it stays pretty neat consider the odd sized items in there. I hate half shelves anywhere else. For us it worked and it saved us $400 which 10% of the budget for cabinets.

annied- i have a lazy susan now and its not terrible but not my fav either
debrak2008- can you post a pic of that? i am having a hard time envisioning it. also your budget for cabs was$4k? what did you go with and are you happy?
andreak100-love those devices for blind corners, saw one similar at lowes and loved it but i had a hunch it was pricey. i also can't gain access to it if i block it off.

I have a U-shaped kitchen, with a super susan in one corner, and the second one closed off. I put drawers on each side of the empty corner, and I love them! The corner is similar to yours, between the sink and stove, and those drawers are priceless.

I have a 24"-wide 3-drawer stack which holds cooking utensils (next to the range), plastic containers, and baking stuff (flour, sugar, oatmeal, etc) and noodles. The other side of the corner is a 4-drawer stack about 18" wide, for utensils, bags and wraps, dish towels, and a tub in the bottom drawer for potatoes.

But the bottom line is about what you want to do with the space. If you need a place for small appliances, the LS might be best. I don't know if you would save much (or even spend more) by putting in drawers instead of a LS.

I could see either being useful in your kitchen - again, depending on what your needs are. I would carefully plan out what will go where, then decide which option makes the best use of the space.

Two other comments - put a full-depth cabinet over the fridge. That makes a great space for cookie sheets, cake pans, and trays. A 12"-deep cabinet above the fridge is almost completely useless - I always ended up putting things on top of the fridge, blocking the cabinet, and even if that space was clear, I needed a chair or stool to reach it.

Unless you'll be putting lazy susans on the shelves, the diagonal upper cabinet in the corner will become a black hole. Only the items in the front are visible and easy to reach - anything else will get lost. I had two of those in my old kitchen; now I have two Easy-Reach cabinets, which I love. Even a blind corner is more useful (IMHO) than a diagonal cavern.

I have one lazy susan and closed off the other corner b/c a LS or blind with the pull out unit wasn't going to fit the stuff I needed to fit. So now I have a nice 18" cab next to the stove and a 36" drawer on the other run.

However, in your plan, if you closed off the corner, you would NOT be able to but a 24" drawer stack next to the stove. You still have to count the 24" on either corner that make up the body of the LS - closing off the corner won't gain you any counter length, you just get to use the 12" on either run for a different type of cabinet. Does that make sense?

And you will need a couple inches of filler on each side of the corner to allow for door/drawer clearances. In your plan, you'd get a 9" cab next to the stove, then 3" filler. BUT, on the other side of the closed off corner you'd get filler, then a 33" drawer - so that would be very nice. And the perfect place to store your cookware.

You need to think about what you plan to store where, and then decide if the 9" next to the stove is something you would use at all. I had one in another house and I stored my sheet pans and cooling rack, so it got decent use. Others use it for step stools or woks. You could also put cutting boards there. And the large pot/pan drawer you would be gaining seems like a positive to me.

I think annkh has the corner drawers that are really cool. I like those too. There's a whole thread that has corner options somewhere. I have attached my susan corner and also a link to another way to have the doors built so that there is no piano hinge. I really like this alternative design.

Here is a link that might be useful: Another link to corner option

I haven't posted my finished reveal yet but here are some photos.

Yes, our budget was $4000 for cabinets. Total cost was $4200 due to 8.75% sales tax. We installed ourselves.

Breckenridge in cherry, Shenandoah from Lowes.

under construction.

Here are photos of the bottom corner. While this might not work for others it does work for us.

With door open. While might appear a little messy I can see everything in it and easy grap it.

I also agree you should do an easy reach upper.

I know some are sideways. Photobucket just being quirky tonight.

ardcp - Yes, as you suspected, the "fancy" units are pricey. We got lucky and I found a Hafele unit at an extremely good price.

Have you mapped out where things are going in your new kitchen? If you haven't yet, I suggest that as an extremely important step before you go any further. When I was planning my kitchen, I wound up changing around several things because I realized that I didn't have the *right* storage allocated in the right places for everything. It takes some time and effort, but you will be rewarded with a kitchen that has things located mostly in the right place, not a place that you finally found that the item will fit.

For me, having the corner unit was quite important - it will hold two crockpots, a vacuum sealer, a stockpot, etc...these were things that weren't necessarily fitting well in other storage areas for me.

annkh's suggestion about the deep storage cabinet over the fridge is an excellent one...those shallow ones are so far back that it's hard to use them...but the deep ones are very good for cookie sheets, etc...most people will place dividers in the cabinet to allow them to store upright - it's relatively inexpensive to put those in and a great help overall.

debrak208- i love those cabinets! i can't believe they were 4k! i actually like your bottom corner cab too. seems like a great place for pots and pans, bakeware, etc
kathyny76-thanks for explaining how the cabs would work. i was having a hard time figuring sizes out. so far no kd has suggested anything other than a lazy susan and i may be in the minority but i actually like the door that spins with the susan. i was concerned the new kind with the hinge door would smack into either the stove or cabinet. it seems like lots of people have a config like mine with no issues so i am overthinking this. btw i love your finished kitchen too!
andreak100- everytime i think i know what i will put where, i change my mind. right now the lazy susan next to the stove holds tupperware and cereal/bread. i want to put pots and pans there, i think. my lazy susan now is the old kind with the pole in the middle so the space is a little smaller than the newer ones.

debrak108- i forgot to ask, how are you liking the cabs so far? any ordering issues or tips?

Wanted to add that a KD (not the one from lowes) suggested that corner. He gave me some pots to play with and I practiced taking them in and out of the cabinet. That is what sold me that it would work.

Yes plan were you will put things but IMHO don't lock yourself in so tight you can't make changes.

This post was edited by debrak2008 on Sat, Jan 11, 14 at 21:13

You did ask me but I forgot to answer. We went into lowes with a detailed plan thanks to GW. What the KD did do, which I am greatful, was suggest pricing cherry wood. I went in wanting maple (assuming it would be cheaper) with a glaze to get a darker look as you could not get the dark stain in maple. I casually made the comment and the KD immediately jumped up, showed me the cherry, priced it and it was $500 cheaper. The KD knowing we were DIYers also suggested not buying shenandoah shelving (for open shelving not seen in photos) or shenandoah bead board which is around the island cabinet. He suggested we just buy beadboard and paint it black, So happy on that one, saved $. No issues and shenandoah was great about sending us two new doors for free when I said they had slight damage. Also upon ordering I called shenandoah and they send me a free drawer front I could use as a sample to pick out the granite and stuff. These are not highend custom cabinets but they take a lot of abuse from us and hold up well.

What are everyone's thoughts on the corner drawers vs. the shelf? I am stuck on that decision. I do have a lot of small appliances such as crock pot, food processor, etc⦠But I prefer the look of the drawers.

ardcp, the lazy susan with the doors rotating around with the turntables will have a pole in the middle. A super susan, with turntables supported by fixed shelves (no pole), has either a hinged door or two separate doors. I had the rotating door type, and for Tupperware it was fine (though very difficult to keep organized); the one that contained heavier things tended to get out of whack regularly. The weight on the shelves caused them to gradually slip down the pole, and I had to take everything off to readjust.

A super susan can support a lot more weight. Mine contains my mixer, crock pot, rice cooker, waffle iron, George Forman grill, and a couple of large colanders. These are all things we use a lot, so it's wonderful to have them in such a convenient location. I don't have any other place for those items.

I have a 9" cabinet that I use for cookie sheets and cutting boards.

Kathy is right - if you close off the corner, you do need to add some filler. Here's my closed off corner, with drawers on each side (and DH's favorite part of the new kitchen, the built-in cutting board). There's just enough room for the drawers to open without hitting the pull on the adjacent drawer.

We made dead two corners and went with drawers instead. We had a lazy Susan before near the range where we kept spices and oils. We replaced it with couple spice drawers right of the DW and a deeper drawer left of the range that holds oils, coffee, filters etc..

The corner near the fridge had doors that accessed the corner there and much that was stored there we never used. We moved the cookie sheets, cutting boards out from the lower shelf of that cabinet to a deep drawer we added right of the range which also holds serving platters which were stored up high in an upper cabinet. We gained more efficient use of space with the drawers in the corners.

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This post was edited by Quadesl on Sun, Jan 12, 14 at 10:47