When I ask my clients what they most dislike about their kitchen, their answer usually is – corner cabinets. No surprise there!
Corners take up a lot of space and can be very hard to access. In this post you will find out 5 solutions to make your corner cabinet easily accessible and functional. The layout and functionality of a kitchen needs to be well thought through as it should make your daily life easier and more enjoyable.
A great part of achieving a perfect kitchen design is observation, knowledge and education. What I noticed in kitchen design is that there is always pro’s and con’s to a solution. It is about finding out what works for you and what serves you best in your kitchen to make your life easier.
I help you to find out what you need and what serves you best in your space. There is no one solution fits everyone approach to kitchen design. So many other factors need to be considered, e.g. your house, the size of your kitchen and most importantly your lifestyle.
1. Choosing a kitchen layout without corners
This seems the most obvious. What layouts are we talking about though? A galley kitchen for example or a one wall layout combined with an island bench. I would not say that the Galley kitchen is particularly popular these days as it is not the most obvious solution in an open plan area. However, it can work in an open plan living space if considered carefully. The one-wall with island bench is a much more popular approach and works very well in an open plan situation. Both layouts avoid corner cabinets as you can see in the sketches below.
2. Corner Drawers
What a great idea! It provides great storage and it is easy to access too. The company Blum has this great solution, the Space Corner in their product range. I’m absolutely loving their cabinet fit-outs as they are so functional really keeping the end-user in mind and are of great quality.
What to store in corner drawers? Corners are usually close to work and preparation spaces in the kitchen. There are different depths available so you can utilize those drawers for storing cooking utensils, spices, pantry items and bowls. The drawers are full extension drawers, so the full space can be utilized. The best when you pull them out you can see the full content of the drawer.
3. Lazy Susan
I called it Lazy Susan, as this is the most common phrase known by people for this solution. If you hear me talking about this corner solution, I refer to it as LeMans II. LeMans II is the name for this product by Haefele, a fantastic supplier of kitchen hardware and cabinet solutions. I only recommend quality products as this is what I and Designful Spaces stand for too.
Okay lets talk a little about this solution, how it works and what it provides. The two trays swivel out of the cabinet and the content is fully visible and accessible. You can store pots and bowls on these trays. The unit features solid support arms with a maximum weight load of 25kg per tray. A very convenient way of accessing your storage. You avoid having to kneel down for accessing your stored items in a traditional corner unit. Watch the video to see how the trays swivel out in front of the cabinet.
4. Circle Carousel
The fourth corner solution I would like to introduce you to is the Kesse Boehmer Revo 90 degree by Haefele. This solution does not require a bi-fold door either. We all know that bi-fold doors can be a little problematic as the door can start to sag down with age if the hinges are not of great quality. Anyway, that is a topic for another day.
The two front panels fold in and rotate inwards through the cabinet. The space is used perfectly. It provides you a great storage solution for pots and pans as the shelves maximum weight load each is up to 25kg. The diametre of the shelves is 810mm. This is a fabulous solution too as the space of the cabinet is isolated to the corner and does not interfere with the adjacent units.
5. Magic Corner
The Kesse Boehmer Magic Corner by Haefele is another hardware solution for blind corners. When opening the door of the blind corner, the shelving unit attached to the door pulls out in front of the cabinet and the back shelf moves out from the blind corner so it can be accessed reaching into the opening. This means that the back shelf does not come out in front of the cabinet unit. Both shelves do not hold as much load weight as the options mentioned above. The front shelves and the back shelves maximum load is approximately 7kg and 9kg respectively.
All in all, they are all great solutions and as mentioned at the start of the post it really comes down to your preferences, needs and lifestyle. With an extensive pre-design interview I establish the way you use your kitchen, the way you cook and use your storage. Based on this I can make appropriate recommendations suited for you.
If you would like to learn more or have any questions don’t hesitate to email me. It makes me happy when my email notifies me of new email deliveries 🙂
