As to impacting the "air space" for working at the counters, I don't really notice the difference b/w the counters below the 15" deep cabs and the counters that have the 12" deep cabinets above.

I did use 15" uppers on the hutch in our breakfast room and it's just enough to put one more row of glassware in the narrow cabinets. We pulled the bases out 3" from the wall to make them 27" and I like the balance of that -- especially since the uppers come down to the counter on the sides.

Mine are 15" uppers, all of them, above 24" lowers and we have no issue with loss of work space. We love them and I'd never have less deep cabinets again.

I get that 15 inch uppers is great for large serving platters, etc, but if you put other things in there, e.g., food items (baking soda, flour, vinegar, etc), how in the world can you find them in the cavern of such a deeper cabinet? I think it would be too hard to reach an upper pull-out, so is there any other way to organize such deep uppers? Or just make sure I only use them for plates/platters/bowls/glasses/mugs? Things that are big enough that I won't lose them...

An advantage of deeper uppers if you're short is that the items in the front of the cabinets are 3" closer to you and should be easier to reach. The items in back, while 15" back, are no farther away than standard 12" deep cabinets.

Only 4 of my 8 upper cabs are 15" deep - I wish they all were that deep!

Will you have a reach-in, step-in, or walk-in pantry? Pantry cabinets? (Personally, I think pantry cabinets are too deep at 24"....but 15" is fine.)

My step-in pantry has 12" & 15" deep shelves...they're fine as well. My old pantry had 18" deep wire shelves - those were too deep & a nightmare b/c of the spaces b/w the wire - difficult to put narrow things in straight and if anything spilled it went all the way down...getting all over the shelves and items on those shelves below the spill.

- Small platters (things I might use for just my family; i.e., a platter to hold a roasted chicken) lay flat in a top-cabinet. I have to use a stool to reach them, but that's okay -- they're kind of an every-two-or-three-weeks item.
- Large platters and serving pieces (oh, I have a ton of them) are stored in the lower level of my buffet in the dining room. These are used infrequently, so I don't mind walking into the next room to get them.

In my kitchen I'm planning, however, I'm planning a nice bit spot in the plantry for my larger platters and serving pieces. I'm going to have my platters standing on their side rather than stacked as they are now -- that'll mean I don't have to lift out half a dozen heavy bowls to get to the platter I want.

The point: If this is your only reason for "going deeper", and if you have a choice, I'd store these items elsewhere rather than go with specialized cabinets.

On the top shelves, which I have narrowly spaced, I have larger items like casseroles and platters stored unstacked which I can easily locate since they pretty much fill the shelf from front to back and are therefore easily visible.

I guess if you stored spices, for instance, it would be a problem. But the answer to that is to plan some other, appropriately designed space for canned goods and spices. 12'' deep cabs would be equally as difficult as 15'' for such.

And I guess the solution is to only use uppers for bowls, pans, platters, etc, and nothing little!

Thanks all.

I just have the regular 24" lowers.

Here's a link to a thread I posted a while back on retrofitting super susans in a CORNER 15'' wall cab.
Notice that although the corner cab is 27'' deep from front edge to back corner and 32'' diagonally from corner to corner, EVERYTHING is easily accessible and there is very little waste space. Although I store mostly dishes here, it would work just as well for bottles and cans and spices which would also be easily visible and accessible.

I urge you to add susans to corner cabs, both wall and base. AND I urge you to carefully design the largest possible susan to fit your shelves. So often cabinet installers just stick in a standard size that can waste huge amounts of space.

I will post pics of the way I configure shelves in the regular wall cabs as soon as I finish the current retrofit which involves adding two more shelves to the most used cabinet. It may take me a week to get the new shelves cut, edges stained, and then installed.

Would love to see your other pictures later when you get to them, too!

Pullouts are tricky on shelving that is approaching eye level or just above. I am not sure that they would increase visibility unless they were meshed bottomed and you could look through from the bottom. Of course they allow you to peer in at the sides when you pull them out.
If they are below eye level, you could see down on the area and that would be helpful.

Here is the cabinet I am reorganizing. It is above the DW and slightly to the right. Daily dishes go straight from DW to this cab. The photo was taken at eye level.

1. 2 full depth shelves
2. 2 adjustable helper shelves that are about 4 inches shallower than the cabinet.

Advantages of helper shelves:
Only identical items are stacked. I never have to move something off a stack to get to what is below it.
Disadvantages of the helper shelves:
the legs in the center get in the way of items stored beneath them.
they could hold almost twice as much if they were full depth.

Well Duh! solution:
Cut two more shelves, finish the front edge with matching paint or iron-on edging tape, and adjust all four shelves for most efficient height (minimum waste above each stack.)

Notice that only like items are stacked. In addition, with the new full depth shelves taller stacks of smaller items like the saucers can be shortened into two stacks, one in front of the other. The grabit bowls will fit in two stacks one in front of the other.

Notice that seeing to the back of the cabinet is not an issue if identical items are placed in rows.

Probably a whole lot more than you wanted to see here, but I will post a pic of the same items stored on four shelves instead of two shelves and two helper shelves when I get it done. I am curious to see if it will hold as much more as I think it will.

Or I could do 4 platters on 4 shelves.