"...corner susans...don't quite look like the rest of the kitchen..." Huh???? They looked just fine in our old kitchen w/partial overlay doors. Our lazy susan was the only thing in our kitchen that looked and performed as well at demo as it did at installation 13 years earlier. I wholeheartedly recommend corner susans. As to stuff falling off, if your cabinets are made so the back and side walls closely follow the contour of the round shelves, there are no problems. However, I don't know if all cabinetmakers, especially small custom shops, are able to (or willing to) make them that way. We had that kind (curved walls) in our old kitchen w/builder-grade cabinets...and that susan was great! It held all our pots & pans, colanders, cake & pie tins, and various serving pieces. Everything was in front...you simply rotated the susan, the doors rotated inside, and you stopped where the item you wanted was...and it was right in front of you...no digging around for things. Nothing ever fell off. The hardware worked smoothly the entire 13 years. No taking up aisle space in front of the cabinet when open. No door-banging b/c the door was attached to the susan (like Marcolo's picture). Be aware that if you store smaller items on a blind corner pullout and something falls off, you will have to crawl inside to retrieve the item b/f you will be able to close it. My KD strongly discourages blind corner cabinets b/c of all the complaints she's gotten from customers who insisted on them and then later regreted them. (I thought they looked "cool" the first time I saw them and asked about them. After she showed me how they work, told me about the pitfalls, and told me about all the complaints she's gotten, we decided not to get one.) Other good uses of corners: Drawers (Plllog's kitchen) Corner sink bases (b/c under sink storage is usually poor so you combine them to give you better storage everywhere else.) Installing a 27" or 30" cabinet and turning it 90 degrees to face the back side of the corner...but this only works if the back side is open, like in a peninsula. Yes, some people love their blind corner units, but, to me, they're a "last resort" option...only if absolutely nothing else works. YMMV

Thanks, that makes sense. I got to see the house for the first time this past weekend (yes, I bought a house I'd never seen). The hinges on the fridge are on that side because the fridge is truly stuffed into that corner against the wall. There's no room for the door to swing open on that side. If my wife wants to keep her french door fridge, we will have to come up with a different plan. That kitchen is tiny, and I'm a bit sick of poorly designed kitchens. Right now I'm inclined to tear everything out and start over. I'm still not sure about moving the hood vent and that wall to the right of the pantry houses the a/c so that stays. I do think I'll pull that pantry out and modify an existing wall in the hallway, the one on the other side of that wall that houses the a/c. That will be the new pantry. That'll give us a tiny bit more counter space in the kitchen. Thanks again, Cathy. You've been very helpful.

My mom had her mixer on a raisable stand like this in her 1969 custom built house. We used it regularly as kids and definitely made cooking fun. Never had any problems with it (no pinched fingers or mixer falling off although we were cautioned about both frequently). If I had another 6 feet of counter space available in my current kitchen I'd definitely allocate 2 feet of it for this -- but I don't. We don't have a trash pullout so that's a high priority addition as we are tired of bumping into the trash can. The more I think about it the more it seems like a heavy weight pullout at the bottom of the pantry makes the most sense. That way it will be out of the way most of the time but accessible when needed.

I have a similar issue with a corner cabinet. I have space for 44" but have an IKEA corner cabinet in a 47" that came with the house (we bought in October). The kitchen was in process of being remodeled and the kitchen was still in boxes. This is the only area we are having an issue with. If we use the 47" completely, it will offset my sink and window. Can't move those items. Would we be able to cut 3" off of the backside of the 47" cabinet and be ok? The door will have to be custom-made, I understand. It still leaves plenty of space in which to get into the cabinet. We also know we'd have to modify the large shelf that goes with it (again, 3" off of the back). My kitchen is slightly larger than the image above. Sink in same place and a 12" cabinet to the right that butts up against our refrigerator. This is our only problem child. The previous owners didn't leave us with anything other than the floorplan of what they were going to do. We're novices...at best. lol We currently have no cabinets in, the floors had to be completely redone and look amazing now. We had to put in some new outlets and redo the drywall. We're at the cabinet stage of our kitchen redo.