The angled corners use up more space and makes the kitchen look more closed in.

for the upper, look up EZ reach cabinets. it does have a hinged door tho. Take a look before nixing them. So much more access.

and for the lower, a number of people here have gone with drawers on either side of the corner - leaving the actual corner space dead. and some have used the actual corner drawers. There's a view of that in a p1 thread about the reveal of a kitchen done about 3 yrs ago. He did say it takes about 18" from either side to use them.

If your husband doesn't like the piano hinged doors, look into a blind corner upper corner. It's not that angled corners are not en vogue, it's that people are becoming more aware of more functional options. Angled corners are both extra-bulky and it's hard to use storage that shape effectively -- things get lost in the back.

See attached pics of my corner drawers. I like the idea and the functionality, but the cabinet itself is a little wonky. (The drawers aren't aligned well and they don't have adjustment options, there's a gap between the two faces on each drawer.) My GC and I spent the last two days adjusting cabinets and installing handle hardware and he fought with those drawers a lot and they're still not completely aligned. (I have the Belmont 1900 series, so they weren't cheap, either.)

(Although you can definitely tell in the close up, now that we've spent some time on them, they probably look fine from farther away. Both my GC and I are sort of perfectionists, which means both that we work well together and that there's no one to step in as the voice of reason when something is actually fine. Heh.)

They work great though and I probably would get them again vs. other options, but I'd take a closer look at quality. (One thing that no one really mentioned to me about buying material is that a component that's less expensive to purchase might end up being more expensive overall if it is significantly harder to install.)

I also like this idea, although I didn't have enough space for it:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/157837161913145771/

BTW, one idea I had seen when I was first planning my kitchen was to leave the corner as dead space in the kitchen and install a drawer or shelving niche in the space on the other side of the wall (in the room next to the kitchen). Obviously whether or not that would work would depend on the house layout.

I think I am one of the few that likes those huge corner uppers, but I have a lot of over sized bowls, baking pans, roasters, etc. that I use frequently. The space on the sides holds things I use only occasionally - vases, cookie press, box graters.

Are you talking about upper or lower cabs? I thought lower but after reading Jillius' comment, I thought maybe I had misunderstood.

Either way, there are several ways to deal with corners without messing with piano hinges.

This corner Susan's door is attached to the mechanism so that the door disappears into the cab when you open it. No hinge and no worry about the door hitting adjacent cabs.

warrandyte · More Info

You could go door-less for the upper corner and use it for display.

Historic Pueblo Revival · More Info

Old world elegance meets today's today's contemporary space requirements · More Info

The other option - and one that many of us on GW, including me, have opted for - is to void the corners in favor or wider base drawers on each side of the corner. You can also void the corner in upper cabs. IME, things get lost in blind corners.

Have you posted your lay-out and asked for help? We may have ideas you haven't considered that will help make the most of your small kitchen.

While voiding out a corner is an option sometimes, I don't recommend it for a small kitchen where every bit of storage counts. We had a corner susan like the one Lisa_A posted above in our old kitchen and we loved how all our pots & pans, colanders, and large serving pieces fit in it. Everything was always in front - just rotate until the item is in front. It's also great for small appliance storage if you have pots & pans stored elsewhere.

I really wanted one for my new kitchen (for small appliances), but it was changed to a "Pet Cabinet" and turned 90 degrees so it faced outside the kitchen where it now holds dog food, dog treats, extra collars, leashes, and miscellaneous pet stuff. (Flashlights & batteries are in the top drawer.) My small appliances are now taking up valuable space in my pantry. :-(

As others have said, people are now realizing that those diagonal cabinets are not only "black holes" when it comes to storage (like blind corner cabinets), but when it's also an upper, the cabinet is "in your face" if you're trying to work in the corner.

I am actually talking about both, upper and lower. I may put the layout online later. That is a good idea. Lisa, I have two lazy Susans like you show above in my full-time house. One is in my kitchen, but we have inset cabinets. The second is in my mudroom. The cabs are partial overlay there. They cabinet guy put a molding around the door. I like the way they work very much. However, I am not sure how the door will look on the outside. Do you know? I don't love the look of the molding that we have in our mudroom. My vacation house kitchen will have full overlay doors. Here is a pic of our mudroom lazy Susan. I don't like how molding is taller than the drawer next to it...thoughts on how to do this differently?

How small is small? My U-shaped kitchen is 10x10; I've seen smaller kitchens here, but also a lot that make mine look small. I improved my kitchen dramatically without any major changes to the footprint; I made much better use of the existing space. I do have a diagonal base cabinet (so I could put a drawer over a super susan), and I closed off the other corner with drawers on each side. Two years later, I think both decision were perfect for my kitchen.

I'd love to see a layout of your kitchen, with dimensions.

I think it is 10x12. I guess it isn't that small really, just relative to my full-time kitchen which is larger and more open. I will try to post a layout tonight. Thanks, Ann, good to know that a 10x10 kitchen can have a lot of good storage.

Like your husband, I'm also not a fan of hinged corner cabinets due to their awkwardness. My small kitchen also needed the additional storage of diagonal cabinets. I have a diagonal 36" corner base cabinet with a 27" diagonal corner wall cabinet above. The base has a built-in Super Susan. After market D-shaped wood Susans sit on the shelves of the wall cabinet. Two factors make this work well for me. First, mine is a single cook kitchen. Second, there is a lit glass cabinet and built-in appliances to help visually expand the space. If other cooks will be in your space, diagonal corner cabinets probably will not work as well since they do hem in the space a bit.

Texas, this is a multi cook kitchen b/c we all seem to be in there making breakfast at the same time. Thanks for your thoughts. We are going to do some glass cabinetry. I am going to work on a layout diagram and will post in a new thread tonight. Thanks, everyone! I was on Gardenweb a lot six years ago when we built our house. Love being back for this vacation house project.