Let me see if I'm visualizing this correctly. As you face the long wall and stand at the 90 degree corner, the short wall is at your left hip, and the dw is at your right? The amount of space you need depends on how wide you are :) but 24 inches sounds fine in a small kitchen. Will it be necessary to open the base cabinets on the short wall while emptying the dw? That may be a problem.

Thank you for your response, idrive! Yes, you've described the situation correctly. I'm not very wide, so it's true that I might get away with less, although my 5 year old son may complain in 10 year's time! Yes, I would be opening the base cabinets on the short wall while emptying the dw, but they will be drawers. I think it might be easier to open a drawer than a door on a cabinet. Most of the time, I'll be putting pots/pans away in the front part of the drawer. I was actually hoping to go less than 24 inches. Would that just be crazy?

Thanks again!
Rose

If you're going to be opening drawers right in the corner while standing in front the DW, you need not only room to stand but also the depth (assuming FE) of the drawer. 2ft doesn't sound like enough for something like 21" drawer.

I have DW next to LS corner base, I don't open that base often (I have done it, standing in front of open DW door that sticks out about 27" and stretched!). Next to the LS I have an 18" base with my silverware drawer and that is great to reach while standing with DW open since it slides right over the open DW drawer - if it were a stack of drawers I could probably open the top 2-3 drawers the same way (depending on depth and if the top rack was slid out). But the face of that cabinet is only 1ft away from the edge of the DW and the edge of the drawer is about 2" over the edge of the (open) DW door so I don't have to stretch.

I can stand in the 1ft (actualkly with overhang it's more like 11") b/t my corner and the edge of the DW to put glasses to my left, and dishes in front of me (over the DW). But I have skinny calves, and I do have to say that I have barked my shins walking around the open DW door.

Depending on what you have in the upper cabinets (no heavy stuff you'll be unloading from DW and putting away), I'd say 18 inches would work. But you'd really have to mock up the drawers.

Sorry I don't have a better pic of that area of my kitchen.

Sorry I should have said the silverware drawer opens over the open DW *door*. You'd have to stand in front of the open *door* and then pull the dish *drawer(s)* out while standing to the side. Since the dishes (at least plates) and pots are going to be in the bottom of the DW, unless the edge of the DW was at least as far away as the depth of the drawer, you'd have to open the DW, put them on the counter, then open the drawer and put them away. Seems like a lot of wasted motion. So I'd say you need 24" for a standard-depth FE drawer to be open while you're pulling stuff out of the DW unless you're never unloading that side of the bottom rack while the DW is open, then you could get by with less (half that?). Note that all the while, you're standing in front of the open DW door so anything you want to put in drawer side close to the corner, you're going to have to stretch about 24"-27".

My dishes are in upper cabinet over DW (facing the same way), my pots and pans are just to the other side of the sink which is a few steps (3ft) but if you could put your drawers on the same leg of the L as the DW it would be much easier than what you describe.

I just like my silverware drawer where it is, anything else (glasses, coffee cups) the drawer would be in the way of the top rack or vice versa while I'm trying to unload. So they're in upper cabinets (BTW, the 24" cabinet on the short wall right next to the corner cabinet is where I keep my glasses, it can be a pain opening that big door while I'm squeezed into the 11" space right in front of it). The dishes over the DW (same leg) are a breeze to put away.

Our old kitchen had 22" between the d/w and the counter around the corner on the other leg of the L. I'm not real big and that was plenty of room for putting dishes in upper cabinets but definitely not enough room for unloading anything into a drawer. We are currently renting a condo that only has 12" of space and I can still adequately unload the d/w into wall cabinets but I'm the family shrimp and no one else finds that to be enough space although 22" was enough for everyone in the old house even 6' plus and over 200 lb. DH. HTH.

In our old kitchen, we had the same setup as AJsMama and it worked for us. While we are tall, we're not that wide (not skinny, though). We actually didn't think about it and it wasn't one of the things we set out to change.

Our lazy susan was the type w/the door attached to the shelves so when we put pots & pans away we just rotated the door into the cabinet and had access to the shelves.

We had a 24" cabinet perpendicular to the DW (in the short leg of the "L") that had flat/silverware that also opened over the top of the open DW and bottom rack...our utensil holders in the DW were on the bottom rack so it worked great!

Our dishes were in a 36" upper cabinet above the silverware drawer, our glasses/cups/mugs in a 36" cabinet above the DW, and our Tupperware containers were in the corner upper cabinet.

This setup was actually quite efficient...everything was within a half-step or less from the DW! We'd pull out the bottom rack, unload the dishes & silverware while standing either b/w the DW & cabinet or standing in front of the DW...you could reach everything except the lazy susan & corner upper cabinet from the front of the DW. Then, pull out the top DW rack and unload the glasses & dishes there...all while standing on one place for the majority of the time! (My DH occasionally complains how things are more spread out now that we have more room and I've put things in zones...works great for me, but my DH has to take a few extra steps when unloading the DW!)

Ideally, I'd say to have 24" b/w the DW & the other leg, but 12" will work!

Here's a pic of our old kitchen w/the lazy susan, etc.:
{{!gwi}}

One more thing to consider is the type of DW you'll have. My setup is very similar to the ones ajsmama and buehl showed--i.e., only a lazy susan next to the DW--but I have a drawer DW. That means that it's my hips that need to fit in that space, not my calves. I can fit in there fine, but neither my DH nor my mom can.

Thanks, everyone, for your input! I purchased a Miele DW with cutlery tray, and I'm hoping just put the whole tray with clean cutlery into the drawer. I may have to close the dishwasher to do this, but I'm gaining time by not having to unload each piece. I'll keep you posted!