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reveriereptile

DW placement causing wasted cabinet space.

reveriereptile
10 years ago

My husband and me are in the process of building our house. Our kitchen will be U-shaped with one side being a peninsula. I'm trying to figure out a way to avoid this wasted space in the corner.

Our dishwasher will be next to the sink and the side of the DW is next to the corner. That corner is being wasted. It is the corner with the peninsula so I could probably put a door on the side with the stools but that would be a pain to use.

I was sort of wondering if I put the DW into that corner if it would give me any extra cabinet space or change the whole size of the cabinet depth?

I don't like having wasted space. Our other corner will have pull out drawers instead of a lazy Susan.

I attached a picture. Our fridge will be bigger than what is in the picture. We plan on a decent sized side by side. From the wall to the side of the fridge is 11'4".

Comments (11)

  • annkh_nd
    10 years ago

    I think a super susan provides more storage than corner drawers, but ultimately it depends on what you want to store there. I have small appliances in my SS, and it's wonderful.

    Space that's accessible from the opposite side isn't wasted. You just been to put things there that are large, and/or that you don't use often. I would use it for stock pots, roasting pans, punch bowl - anything that takes up a lot of room. It's not that far out of the way.

    When you finalize your sink cabinet and window placement, make sure there is enough room for the DW to open without hitting the adjacent cabinet hardware. You'll need about a 3" spacer between the DW and the corner.

    As long as you're in the design phase, I suggest drawers instead of doors in base cabinets. You also have enough room to make all of your counters and uppers deeper - 27" and 15",respectively. With uppers only on two sides, I think you'll appreciate the extra depth.

    Are you planning on upper cabinets to the ceiling? If so, add extra shelves to the uppers, for even more storage space. And put a full-depth cabinet over the fridge. Many people use that space for tray storage; I put pull-outs over my fridge, for bulky lightweight items - cereal boxes, paper towels and napkins, etc.

    Have fun with your build!

  • CEFreeman
    10 years ago

    I would never cram anything I have to open into a corner. It'll be a PIA to open, it and its neighbor will get banged up and I would spend a lot of time swearing at myself and my stupid choice. Just me.

    This includes pull-out drawers in a corner. And please let me clarify, because you've combined 2 terms. Are you putting drawers or pull-outs in that corner? I cannot imagine the PIA pull-outs would be, dealing with a door, then the pull-out. Drawers in a corner would be a big enough drag... I strongly suggest you consider the wasted space next to the drawers and reconsider some kind of Susan.

    I would also suggest considering a cabinet accessible on the other side. Annkh has some great suggestions. If you've read anything here, you'll see the overwhelming happiness of those who use drawers instead of reach-in bases. The extra depth is a serious bonus.

    You have a nice big kitchen happening. Plan it wisely. Have you done any reading here regarding efficiency? Your picture doesn't offer much/any detail. The folks here are amazing with their very efficient ideas.

  • suzanne_sl
    10 years ago

    I agree with Ann that using that space as a cupboard accessed from the other side of the peninsula could be very handy. We all have space hogs like turkey roasters, punch bowls, and canning stuff that only gets used seasonally and that could be a good space to store it in.

    I'm trying to visualize how you'd put a DW into a corner space. My first reaction is that it's not an efficient use of space and it's inconvenient to the sink, but maybe I'm missing something. Have you ever seen a DW installed in a corner?

  • robo (z6a)
    10 years ago

    It's just a guess from your drawing but I think a corner DW door, when open, would likely impinge on the sink (similar to the relationship between a corner sink and dishwasher on the straight).

    Because of the way fitting a square into a corner works, you'd lose a large triangle of space on either side of the angled dishwasher, so you wouldn't come out ahead when it came to storage.

    This was what I did in a similar situation, which is a corner solution arlosmom used in her kitchen - pullouts in the back of the blind corner. However if I had the access, I would instead have put drawers on the back of the peninsula.

    The link below discusses just about everything you did or didn't want to know about corner cabinets :)

    Here is a link that might be useful: Corner cabinet space calculations

    This post was edited by robotropolis on Fri, Mar 7, 14 at 11:05

  • reveriereptile
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks for the replies. After thinking about it accessing the corner from the other side for large items might not be a bad idea. We will be having a crock pot that needs put some place.

    Thanks also for the space I need between the corner and DW, annkh.

    I'll attach some pictures of what I had in mind for my kitchen storage to make it more helpful. I live on pinterest looking for ideas.

  • reveriereptile
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    This is also a picture of the kitchen from a house that I designed ours from. Ours will have sheetrock on the ceiling. From the first time I seen the picture I fell in love. It was an average kitchen and not one of those magazine photos that could be done. I loved the peninsula and all the uses I could have for it.

  • reveriereptile
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    This is the back view of our house. We haven't done much to it since due to the winter and we are trying to pay as much out of pocket as possible while raising a 11 month old.

    The front of the house will have 4 two story fluted columns and a balcony. The back end will have 4 sets of sliding glass doors and 4 large windows above them. We plan on putting corner windows in later next to the others to make it even across since the doors will stick out pass the windows.

    Sorry the image went side ways.

  • CEFreeman
    10 years ago

    Please reconsider the pull-outs (doors covering drawers, essentially) in any type of corner. Talk about pinning yourself in!

    Although I'm a serious advocate of drawers everywhere (and have put my money where my function lies) I also think in a corner, without those special, diagonal drawers, you'd again be crammed in.

    What's the aversion to a lazy susan? You can still put slim drawers on the other side for table linens, etc., even a deep bottom drawer for a crock pot!

    Oh - and I've lived with a DW in a corner. I'd rather do my dishes in the tub than fuss with that. In the same house, I also had the fridge on one wall, then running right up at a 90 degree angle, a drawer stack. We had to push the fridge door in (bending in the metal door a bit) to open the drawers. Then to close them.

    No good comes from 90 degree angles without some space. If you choose to do this, make SURE, CERTAIN, ABSOLUTELY positive you don't forget a 3" spacer on either side of the angle or nothing will open at all. The doors will run into each other, even with one in a close position. Don't trust your installer to remember this.

    I don't feel strongly about this at all.

  • suzanne_sl
    10 years ago

    Something that strikes me about your model kitchen (smacks me between the eyes actually) is all the dangling cords at the front inside corner of the peninsula. Noooo! Be sure to design your kitchen so those corded things are elsewhere, or at least their cords are.

    Are you planning to take your cabinets to the ceiling? Those extra inches from the top of the cabinet to the ceiling will be much more useful for storage than catching dust bunnies. Also, be sure to make your over-fridge cabinet full depth. Look how much more useful it is

  • reveriereptile
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    After advice and looking at other posts I'll definitely be putting the cabinets to the ceiling. I never thought of it before and I do like not having the hidden dust area up there. Better to bring them up and put shelves under the cabinets if I didn't make the whole cabinet taller. How much space do you leave above the cabinet if you want to add some trim to the top? Should I have it 2" from the top? I wouldn't mind having a tiny bit of trim.

    I'll definitely do the full over the fridge storage.

    I decided to go with the access on the other side of the peninsula for the corner near the DW. The reason I thought about drawers for at least the other corner is from past experience growing up at my parents and now my in-laws is the lazy susan that has the turn table in it usually has stuff fall off around the sides and gets dirt up under the table. I did just start looking into the blind storage. Never heard of it before but it looks useful.

    One thing I was wondering is it useful to have the kickboard drawers at the very bottom of the base cabinets?

    This post was edited by reveriereptile on Fri, Mar 7, 14 at 12:17

  • reveriereptile
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I don't plan on using those type of lights in the first photo. I'll go more like this photo. I just liked the overall shape of the first picture and the peninsula.

    This post was edited by reveriereptile on Fri, Mar 7, 14 at 13:51

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