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Design Ideas By Room
Kitchen
By: Summer Hirst |
Home décor projects are always fun but there are some difficult bits in all of them. For kitchen redesigning, I think it’s the corner cabinet space.
Straight kitchens are the easiest but most kitchens fall in an L-shape, which means there’s at least one corner to tackle.
Most designers and DIYers get stuck on the kitchen corner cabinet. If you, too, are redesigning your kitchen, the kitchen corners might be on your mind already. Let’s discuss some cool ideas to handle those corner-aches.
Pie Cut Lazy Susan
If you’re not into the blind corner kitchen cabinet ideas, there are alternatives. The Lazy Susan is probably the oldest trick in the book and most interior designers go with this idea. The pie-cut design has been popular for many ages and when you have to fetch something, just rotate the pies and you’ll be able to access the items stored in the back.
The swirling design is perfect for keeping anything that will be needed frequently. Since the pies will rotate, there’s nothing that will be stuck at the back.
Corner Drawers
If you’re tired of seeing the Lazy Susan design at every house you visit, you can change it up by getting corner pull outs intstead.
From the outside, it looks like any other cabinet in your kitchen, but rather than just swinging open, it pulls out and unfolds to give you easy access to anything you’re storing in it.
Blind Corners
Out of all the corner cabinet options, this is the simple no-brainer solution. When one door closes, another one opens – quite literally.
Kitchen cabinets keep going in a line. And as the counter hits the corner, the cabinets also go 90 degrees. Except there’s a small flaw. When you open one corner door, the other on its side won’t be accessible.
So one door has to be closed to open the other one. This is the classic problem of the kitchen corner cabinets. However, if you’re not bothered by closing one to open the other, you can go with this design.
Diagonal Corner Cabinet
Cut out the need for corner cabinets by giving your kitchen an ingenious look. Instead of going for the L-shape, avoid it completely by getting a diagonal cabinet in the kitchen.
You can also get a white-on-white look with the diagonal corner cabinets to make the kitchen look brighter. This look will not have clashing corner drawers and there will be no 90-degree corners in the kitchen.
Corner Sink
A sink in the corner won’t exactly be space-saving but if you have enough space and want to go for the looks, this just might be the thing for you.
Since there are no pull-out drawers with the sink, you don’t have to worry about the corner cabinet. This will be a good idea if you have a large kitchen.
And there will be extra counter space behind the sink where you can place some houseplants. Who said the sink can’t look pretty?
Swinging Pullouts
If you’re lazier than Lazy Susan, Swinging pullouts will be your thing. Why peek inside the cabinet to find the right utensil when they can fling out right in front of you?
You don’t even have to bend to use the swinging pullouts. Just open the door and pull out the shelves. While Lazy Susan keeps things inside and so it’s not properly lit, swinging pullouts come out in the open so you have enough light to see which utensils you need.
Opt For An Open Aesthetic
Opt out of dealing with an upper corner kitchen cabinet altogether by installing some floating shelves and creating a breakfast bar instead.
This kitchen is inviting, calming, and looks so spacious without upper cabinets.
Dead Space
While it’s always a good idea to optimally utilize the space, sometimes it’s just not possible, especially in old homes. If you’re redesigning an old home and aren’t finding any practical way to utilize the corner space, it’s best to leave it like that.
But hey, dead space doesn’t have to look bad. In the image here, the dead space is merged with the cabinets by painting it in the same color as the rest of the cabinet space. It looks beautiful.
Accordion Cabinet
As far as corner cabinet designs go, the accordion is one of the best. These double doors open like an accordion, providing you full access to the contents of the shelves behind. This is another great idea to take complete advantage of all the corner space.
All the shelves are easy to reach and the accordion doors look beautiful and can be opened easily. Accordion cabinets are pretty popular and are used not just in kitchens but also in other tight spaces such as bedrooms and storerooms.
Open Shelves
You can save money and get a different and unique look with open floating shelves. These shelves will be great for houseplants and cookie jars.
Also, if you have beautiful individual crockery pieces, they will look great here. Corner space can be easily and optimally utilized with wooden shelves that look good with any background.
Corner Pantry
Instead of wasting space or trying to cope with a small corner cabinet pantry, go big and just turn the entire corner into a pantry.
This idea only works for certain floor plans, but if you have the space, a big pantry is a great use of it.
Bring The Cabinet Down To The Countertop
In this kitchen, as the cabinets and counters come to a corner, the cabinet comes all the way down to the countertop for more storage space.
You have to sacrifice a little counter space for this design, but it’s definitely worth it.
Beverage Bar
Why waste your corner space in keeping general kitchen stuff when you can turn it into a beverage bar? A coffee machine, a wine rack, and some drinkware can turn a dull kitchen corner into something beautiful and useful.
Store Small Appliances
It’s not just the corner cabinets that can be difficult to figure out what to do with, the space between the upper and lower cabinets is also a little bit of a funky space because you can’t utilize it all for cooking since it reaches so far back.
Rather than leave it bare, fill it up with a small appliance like your toaster oven, Keurig, or crockpot. Whatever you use regularly enough to want on the countertop, but would otherwise take up too much space.
Crockery Corner
If you have a plain white kitchen, the crockery corner can also be the right place to add some colorful elements and to add accent to the place.
Show Off A Cookbook
That counter space can also be put to good use by displaying one of your favorite cookbooks on a cookbook stand. Especially if it’s one you like to use regularly.
The displayed cookbook in this photo fills up the corner space nicely and even enhances the overall look of the kitchen.
Double Doors
Plain old double doors will always be in. If accordion doesn’t suit your taste or budget, try the double door formula. When you hit a kitchen corner, install the shelves as they are, and use a double door cabinet on them.
This kitchen used the double door cabinets under the corner sink and they look fantastic. There’s nothing awkward about the space and everything is functional.
Display Your Stand Mixer
You didn’t spend all of that money on your gorgeous standing mixer just to store it away in a cabinet. Put it out on your counter!
The corner space is basically made to store your standing mixer, and there is usually a plug outlet somewhere nearby for you to easily use your mixer any time you want to whip up a batch of cookies.
Corner Appliances
Use the corner space for a stove, microwave, and other appliances. The stove is generally the central point of the kitchen. By building it into a corner, you’ll utilize the corner space efficiently and make it the focal point of your kitchen.
This is especially good for small houses where the kitchen might be limited to a small corner. By turning the corner into the main part of the kitchen, you utilize the maximum house area.
Add A Built-In Cookbook Case
The owner of this kitchen went for a really unique look with their layout, and it totally paid off. Not only are there no awkward corner cabinets to deal with, but it also has a bookcase for cookbooks!
If you’re not a fan of cookbooks, you could also store cutting boards, plates, or platters on these shelves and still have a gorgeous aesthetic.
Store Your Fruit & Veggies
You’ve got to store your fruit somewhere, right? It might as well be in that corner countertop space!
This particular fruit basket will work really well in a kitchen with tall cabinets because the two-tier design will fill up that corner space nicely. If you don’t have a ton of height in that space, a regular fruit bowl or basket will do just fine, too.
Make It Eye Catching
Even if you have a cramped up kitchen with cabinets running into dead ends, your kitchen can look exciting and beautiful if you use just the right accents, like a cool backsplash.
Despite how small it is, this kitchen feels spacious with the white backsplash and white cabinets along the back wall. The open shelving lends an even more airy feel to make the small space seem big.
Fill The Space With A Cake Stand
Cake stands are a fun, pretty way to fill up that counter space in the corner. They’re tall (especially with the class covering on them) but also decorative enough that they don’t need to have anything on them to be pretty.
But, it never hurts to stack some cookies, muffins, cupcakes, or a cake on the platform – it’s what it was made for, after all.
Meet Me At The Corner
Kitchen corners can always be tricky but there are so many things you can do to pep up the corner and make your kitchen look more stylish. There are several ways to creatively carve out the perfect space where one wall meets the other.
While these are the ideas I like the most, keep in mind that you can always enhance an idea by adding the right decorative elements to it. All it takes is a little creativity and you can turn an ordinary kitchen into a space that’s perfect for cooking, parties, and get-togethers with friends and family.
