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Easy Reach Upper Cabinet

8 years ago

Hello, just stumbled on a 2 door easy reach cabinet. To date, only saw the typical double piano hinged door. Anyone have these? Assuming you need open/close in a specific order. Was thinking this may avoid sagging doors and doors banging into neighboring doors? Pros/Cons?

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Comments (7)

kirstyeg
8 years ago
My parents have them in their 1990 kitchen. It may be different now- but I recall the downside is that its a two-step, two hands effort to open it, which is annoying when you're already holding something. Also the doors only go back one way (e.g. right door then left door) and if you do it the wrong way the door whacks into the hardware.
AnnKH
8 years ago
I am not a fan of piano-hinge doors in general, but I have them on two easy-reach cabinets. It took a little tiny bit of gutting used to, to learn to open them without banging the adjacent cabinets, and close them with the hinge in the corner (DH still leaves it ajar now and again). Of course there's no way to put soft-close hinges on an easy-reach.

I think the advantages of a single door outweigh the disadvantages.
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The square footage of shelf space is greater with the angled corner. But for me, at least, the usable space is much, much greater with the easy-reach. First of all, I can see what's in there. Then, I can reach what I can see! With the angled cab, I could reach what was in the front, but had to move stuff to get to the back (or it just got lost). I'm short, so I could reach the second shelf - in the front. Anything further back required me to climb on a chair, or climb up on and counter. Now, I can reach everything on the two lowest shelves, and get to everything else with a stool. When I tore out my old cabinets, those angled cabs either had empty space, or held stuff I didn't remember I had - even though I did clean them out (and try to organize better) every couple of years. I probably could have made better us of the space in those cabs if I had put something else in them. The fact that you like them is just a perfect example of how there is no one solution for everyone.
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I had a lower easy reach corner cabinet in my previous home, and am putting one in my new kitchen. I have also have experience with an angled corner cabinet, and a lazy Susan, and much prefer the easy reach cabinet. Mine had a single hinged door, which worked fine. The only problem I had with the hinged door was that it butted up against my range(it was a tiny kitchen!). My cabinets were melamine, and I had a tendency to over stuff that cabinet so the door didn't shut perfectly. When it didn't shut perfectly, it was closer to the range than it should be, and the door ended up delaminating. It likely was a cheap cabinet to begin with. Because my range isn't close to the corner in my new kitchen, and because I won't need to stuff this one as I have more storage, I decided to go with it again. I think the key to being happy with this cabinet style is ensuring that the opening is wide enough to easily access items. The door never felt awkward to me, but then it wasn't full height. One thought is to stack a few easy reach cabinets so you don't have one large door?
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Matthew Rieger
Original Author
8 years ago
Does one door not have a handle ? All photos always show both doors opened.
beenzmail
8 years ago
We were hoping to do ours like this one. Yes, only one side has a handle. Here they have an indent to help open the other side. I like it better than the piano hinge. We will just put the things that are used less behind the second door.
hazelwags
8 years ago
We had one installed recently so the jury is still out. My initial thought is that I will only use the cabinet for less frequently used items. We selected this style cabinet so we could see everything and not have a blind area like in our old kitchen. I think holiday items and vases will ultimately reside there. And yes, only one door has a knob. The door with the knob is slow close. The other one is not.
texasgal47
8 years ago
I have a piano hinge base cabinet and am not a fan of them. Company invariably knocks the door into the adjacent cabinet, causing a scar on the finish. Handling it gently is a learned technique. Due to my dislike of piano hinges and overlap doors, I opted for a diagonal corner cabinet for the upper and lower in the other corner, with a Super Susan in both. These are a joy to operate and yield tons of storage. No regrets going against GW advice in my small kitchen. For me, this is one case of function over form.
beenzmail
8 years ago
Hazel, why is it worse to use than a standard cabinet? We were hoping to keep our glasses and mugs there so it will be used daily. We could do the blind corner, or keep the slanted that I have now. It holds a lot, but makes the kitchen look unbalanced. I don't want the piano hinge.

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