I have a 39" uppers flanking each side of the sink. The wall is symmetrical with the sink and kitchen window in the middle.
My kitchen is big and I personally think these cabinets are a little larger than I like. They are also 42" uppers in length.
I think you should post a line drawing of the wall so that the posters on this site can make alternate suggestions.

In a stock or semi custom line, a 45" cabinet is usually 3 15" doors. A 42" cabinet is usually 2 21" doors. A 45" cabinet wouldn't be two 22 1/2" doors unless you were going custom. And, there are other solutions to the issue, especially if you're going custom. But, we'd need to see a layout and an elevation of the wall before offering more suggestions.

I have a 46" wide cabinet over my dishwasher. Two doors. I should be smacking my head all the time, now that I think about it but I don't, and neither does my spouse. I like that cabinet!

My upper and lower cabinets don't have much correspondence to one another (except cooktop wall, since the cooktop is centered and has drawers under it) (although I only have 2 walls so I guess that's half of them).

It might look awful. I don't know. But it's very functional.

Thanks for your responses. I was estimating the 22.5" doors on the 45" cabinet just for the purposes of trying to maintain a somewhat symmetrical look above the dishwasher. I'm trying to figure out how to post an image of the layout without having a photobucket (or the like) account. I could attach a .pdf file with the elevation if someone could provide some direction on how to do it!? The Help page is not very helpful.

Check out Buehl's "Read Me" thread. She has photo posting instructions listed. You need a flickr or photobucket-type account.

Here is a link that might be useful: Read Me thread with photo posting instructions

I think I've managed to post an elevation picture below:

That looks funny.

I think it's more because the others are glass and then you have a big screen TV over your dishwasher. Hmmm. Not sure what's best here. But not this!

I can't answer your question, but I do have two 42" w x 42" h cabinets in my laundry room. They each have two doors. It might give you an idea of what this size cabinet looks like.

The link below is to a thread on the decorating forum that has photos. Look at my original post and then there are a couple more photos at the bottom of the thread.

(PS. I love these cabinets for where they are. It's easy to see everything in them, and they hold A LOT!)

Here is a link that might be useful: thread about my laundry room with pics...

You need to take into consideration the shelf sag factor if they are going to span the entire length in one go.

I forget the maximum length before sag becomes a factor but I think it is something like 24 inches. Anything wider than that, then alternative supports need to be factored in.

Pepper

If you did the 45" could you put glass in those doors? For me it would look better. Also the corner cabinet, I don't know if this would make any difference...but if you used an "L" shaped (both legs equal) cabinet there, would the size be different, to maybe give you a few more inches. So maybe you could have 2 24" and more options.

I'm interested in what you end up with as my new layout will be similar to yours.

it does look "off" -- the bigger doors at least need to be equal - my eyes would constantly drift to the pair and think "off" when one was a few inches bigger than the other...

what does it look like with equal doors?

even that might be too big looking with in comparison with the other doors in your kitchen... can you fool the eye - even the doors are larger, have double panels in them to mimic 2 smaller doors?

I will say in my current kitchen, I have a single 24 in door... and yes, it gets in my face a lot.... and I often leave that door open (spices behind next to stove)... and then I run into it while moving around.

my single door 21 in cabs are a bit annoying in the same respect, but not nearly as much...

Is it too late to get rid of the corner cabinet? We have the same corner cab at the beach and i can't reach past the first row of glasses that are stored in it. Then you could have 3 18" doors going straight across the wall, forming an L with another 18" door on the adjacent run. Even though you'll be leaving the corner empty, you'll have more functional storage space and your uppers will look more balanced.

I don't think it makes sense to let the dishwasher drive the size of the upper cabinet doors. Since the bottom cabinet run is going to be asymmetrical due to the D/W and sink, work to make the uppers more pleasingly symmetrical, a la cheri12. The current plan definitely doesn't accomplish that yet.

Pepper's right that you need to watch out for sag on a large two-door cabinet. I have one of those on my about-to-be-ripped-out kitchen and the doors have been sagging for years. The innards will also need extra support, as noted above.

With the cabinet I was suggesting there is no dead corner. Unfortunately it might not help. I just looked up Aristokraft cabinets (you would have to check the brand you are using) and both cabinets take up the same wall space. Though as cheri127 said forming an "L" may help make it more functional and look more balanced.

Thanks for all the input so far. I've been back and forth with the KD so many times I think she thinks I'm probably crazy at this point. I am going to meet with her again this afternoon and discuss more options including those suggested here. Small kitchen with limited wall space and ridiculous dimensions = not good!

Well, this is a run that is sandwiched in between walls, so you'll need to make sure it has a filler there, and there's not an overhead layout with the dimensions and location of the window, so I may be suggesting something that won't work....but....

What I'd do is have a 1" filler start off that run to the left, then a 24" drawer cabinet, then a 33" sink base cabinet, then the DW and then eliminate that skinny pullout that won't be much use and then (not sure how much space is left) a small filler and the corner cabinet. That would leave you with the uppers being 24" (glass, two door), window, 24" (glass, two door), whatever size is left, and corner cabinet (not glass). That would give you visual symmetry around the sink area, and if you achieve that, then you don't really have to worry about the "leftovers". Your eye will only focus on the sink area.

I had a similar dilemma with my baking center. Mine is up on the wall but no doors yet. So I made cardboard doors and decided what worked best was two sets of bifold doors. I only need to open "one" door, but it looks like two when closed, and when folded open, it only sticks out a bit over 10". It should give me the best of both, but I have not made them yet.

As to shelf sag, I have 3/4" plywood shelves, and shelf pins in the middle position too.

Why not get a 30" next to a 15" shortens the span and keeps the symmatry. that would be much easier to use than a 24 and 21 upper.