Thanks, all! I just love my kitchen, even still. The only thing I'd change about it (besides what I wrote about today!) would be adding granite instead of laminate. But the entire kitchen was done on a budget ($10,000, Kraftmaid cabs), and I paid for it all myself. I had a really good job at the time and didn't want to go into debt, and this was the absolute best I could do. I actually did think of putting up a triangular wall shelf; in fact, we tried to install one last year. But on the right-hand side of that corner, there's a pipe coming down from the bathroom, which is directly above the kitchen. So where the shelf hit on the right side, we couldn't drill into it, obviously. So that idea was lost. Now I have two Ansel Adams prints framed in black with white mats in the space. Looks great, but like I said, I need more space. We have two small kids since the remodel, meaning more food, more everything! I just hate to remove that light fixture, but it might be necessary. I got it from Rejuvenation, and just love it. Wouldn't glass shelves be dangerous? As in, if I put my china there, wouldn't it have a good chance of sliding off? Is that a stupid question? LOL! My son is two and runs through my house like an elephant, causing lots of vibrations. (We have all hardwood floors). So, I need to make an appointment at Home Depot to see what options are even available in my cabinet style. I did call, and they told me a hinged corner cabinet would be $291. Thank you for suggesting maybe a shorter cabinet...that way, I could do the crown molding and it wouldn't interfere with the light. My cabinets are tall (42" I think), and if I got the smaller option (30", right?) that would solve it! I had not thought of that and it's a great idea! All your ideas are great! Thank you for them. I have some thinking, planning, and saving of money to do. :) Please don't look too closely at my tile work. I did it all by myself, and probably should have used white grout. It's so uneven in many spots and my biggest pet peeve about the kitchen. I've thought about scraping it out and starting over, but heard it's very hard to do! BTW, my tile is just regular Daltile, Rittenhouse Square, I believe. It was the cheapest option at the time for the look I wanted. Beth

Hi may_flowers and jams, thanks for your suggestions! jams, I think I'm with you. Although I might still keep small containers in the kitchen and larger ones in the mudroom. may_flowers, thanks so much for your suggestion on the tile. The beauty of the photocopy is that I can try it both ways! I did try the tile on the sink wall but it looked somehow a little off to me, especially because I have a big switch and stuff there. And the Moroccan tile looks a little nicer next to the warmth of the wood. The rest of the BS is plain glossy white 4x8" 'subway.' Although I like the tile a lot, I don't want to run it throughout as it starts to have a wallpaper look that isn't what I'm going for. This post was edited by robotropolis on Mon, Feb 24, 14 at 13:17

Thank you all for continuing to help me. I totally understand the clearances for 90 degree corners. But for 45 degree corners ... when I look at my peninsula angles I don't see how the doors could bump into each other any more than a straight run. Door hardware is knobs for the doors and typical cup pulls for drawers. However, those parts of the doors/drawers would never be near each other when opened at a 45 degree angle, unlike actual 90 degree corners. The KD does not seem to be very knowledgeable. When I questioned her during the design phase because it didn't make sense to me then either, she just said fillers are required on all corners on two sides and they can't be cut down because cabs come in 3" sizes. There was no distinction made between a 90 or 45 corner. At the very most it seems one 3" on one side would have been the most needed, such as gr8day (thx for the pic) and Shannonz's. Here is an example of one of the pics I found online w/no fillers it appears on 45 corners. It seems like this would work fine, unless I'm missing something here. Again, we paid a lot of money to these people and I feel like it lowers the aesthetic look of the cabinets, not to mention if I could have had 3" larger cabinets on one or both sides of the two 45 degree angles.

If your cabinets have standard ply walls, then the interior space of a 36" cabinet is reduced by 1 1/2 inches (2 x standard 3/4" ply), leaving 34 1/2 inches interior space. If you have standard cabinets on each side of your cooktop, then each side has 1 1/2" of supporting structure (2 x the 3/4 inches). So the cabinet wall needs to be routed out by 1/8 inch on each side to the horizontal depth required down the sides of the cooktop (which may be only the lip of the cooktop or could be the 4+ inches of the depth of the cooktop below the top). Hopefully the install specs show that. Seems to me that your custom cabinet maker should be able to do that precise routing more easily and better than an installer (if different from the cabinet maker) or the countertop installer. That leaves plenty of side support for your cooktop and countertop (1 1/2 inches minus 1/8 inch = 1 3/8 inches supporting structure on each side). So I don't see why you can't stay with a 36 inch cabinet. I suspect that sjhockeyfan had a skilled tradesperson who did it that way for her.