Corner Cabinet Magic: 6 Genius Solutions | IKEA Kitchen Planner 

Yet another reason, of several, why I LOVE a classic galley kitchen.

I like the trick of leaving a fake skeleton in the empty corner space, so anyone who renovates the kitchen in the future will find it😊

I had 3 corner cabinets in my old kitchen, very small space. I wanted to get rid of all of them, wanted a corner pantry but my kitchen is too small, so I went with a galley style so no corners. Kept the flat tall pantry, wall oven/microwave and fridge at the far end so the space was opened up. Designed it myself and got the Ikea person to check, they installed it and I’m so happy, all drawers so really easy access for an old chook like me haha.

Thanks Mark! I hate corner cabinets and was just trying to figure out how to design this on the Ikea planner without inserting a corner cabinet. You say most people don't want to block of their corners. I say I would rather block it off than try digging through one to find something.

We have a U-shaped kitchen with one leg of the U acting as a separator or breakfast bar from the family room. Our dead corner occurred where the wall with the sink met the breakfast bar section. I didn't want to loose the corner storage and I dislike the turntables that are often installed in corner. So I had the contractor cut an opening on the back side of the breakfast bar, the side facing the family room. He framed it out and added a door that matched the rest of the cabinets. I access this storage from the family room side of the breakfast bar. It's a great place to store larger things like cake carriers, punch bowls, etc. If you have the space, this could probable be accomplished with two base cabinets... one facing the kitchen and the other facing the family room. We didn't have quite enough space for that but we found a way to make it work.

I love my corner cabinet in my kitchen; I have three large bins on a rotating arm for my garbage and recycling 😊

If the corner is adjacent to the sink unit, you might want to use a filler with a removable panel and then hide the gear for a five stage reverse osmosis water filtration system. That frees the under sink space where you would typically house that hardware. Consider making the unit slidable into the sink area for changing filters.

The continuous hunt for the perfect corner. I chose the swing out insert. It has a weight limit but seems to be perfect for what we use it for. Some of tbese others i also like

My kitchen was rather small. I redid it with IKEA, I used the corner cabinet with the lazy Susan. It worked out fantastically, lots of space for storage in it.

Sounds like a perfect pantry in the corner!

It was really helpful to see you show how different options could be done on the planner! Looking forward to the pantry video!

Great ideas. Draws straight to the corner on the left and a rollout work bench on the right. Some stored items are needed rarely. Like for Christmas or the holiday season. Or even a hidden safe for valuables.

Amazing tools and skill on your part, thank you!

Thank you for the corner base filler idea… I did not know these were a thing… for weeks I’ve been trying to figure out a solution for a corner area of my studio kitchen, this is perfect.

Oh my goodness, thank you for addressing old home weirdness like the pipe thing. My kitchen is a nightmare of windows, doors, floor vents, pipe and ductwork nonsense. It's so frustrating. But now I might be able to make use of the IKEA design tool to at least get ideas.

Minute 15…perfection - I’ve done 2 of my kitchen remods w/ikea planner…had a corner window on the first one & did exactly what you describe. It was awesome!! I still miss that little corner view over the yard while doing the dishes ; )

I did my IKEA kitchen over a year ago and blocked off my corner to put a microwave on one side and draws on the other. I do not regret having smaller draws instead of a deep hard to access cupboard. I also started thinking this way after watching your channel - another convert!

I recently had an IKEA kitchen installed and I went with a blocked off corner. I''m really liking having the extra drawers instead of the pull out thingy. Thank you Mark for giving me the inspiration to do it. My IKEA kitchen planner was totally on board with the idea too.

Great video! I have a really small kitchen and I think the big takeaway for me is to thing about actual usable storage space instead of thinking I must use the corner. Plus six ways to achieve a corner. Thanks!

Bonus option for a corner. Add a closet on the other side of the wall.

This time around, i had a walk in pantry at one end and a half wall to the dining room at the other end. So i simply put a standard cabinet in the corner and turned it 90° it so it opened into the pantry at one end and into the dining room at the other end. Presto! No pesky corner cabinet. No wasted space!

AMAZING video! ✨⭐✨ Love it. ❤ I once did put my stove in a diagonal corner and loved it.

😂😂😂fun saturday...love the 45 because when I am cooking and baking it allows a greater surface to place hot baking pans and such but I only have one in my kitchen by my stove, works well...good job👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻always a thumbs up😂😂😂😂wow...!!!!Really learned something new...

I have a corner unit with carousel and this my favorite kitchen storage solution. It’s so much easier to use than fixed shelves, and holds so much. Things don’t get “lost” in the back because there really isn’t a back.

Leave the space open with dummy doors and fill the space with a couple of small trolleys. You can pull trolleys in and out easily, for pantry-type storage or rarely used appliances they are great, they're very adaptable and accessible and you can change your mind at a later date. It's by far the best option.

This one was super helpful

13:58 This makes good sense. If you can add a door to the piece that you moved, then that space could be used to store a big sack of rice for bulk food purchases.

Excited to try redrawing using a corner pantry ….

Great video!

Done this on 2 kitchens Idesigned and had made. This allowed me to have wider drawers - have not missed corners at all and no more "head in a cupboard". Also I have 4 drawers instead of 3 - measure height of plates, pots etc. You can gain an extra drawer using wasted space above these plates etc.

At the top I had a corner cabinet and though at the top was a lot of space where I put holiday dishes at the very top. Again it was worth it. I had a lowboy for everyday dishes and silverware. with napkins and other in the dining area and just a 4 chair dining. I had an open living dining that the dining spilled a bit in the living room but it was not bad because the were the same. It worked for me in my 1000 foot condo.

I used the large corner cabinet that is supposed to have a lazy Susan in it. I got just the base. I have a gas cutoff pipe in this area and I needed access to it so I built my own shelves on just one side of the cabinet to work around this. The empty height of the other half where the pipe is lets me store tall cutting boards and baking sheets by standing them on end.

I did a crazy thing in my kitchen. The corner cabinet inner can go up or down. Like a trashcan pull out. With a smooth shock, it comes up pretty easily and pushes back down , seemingly fit with the rest of the counter

Thanks for considering pipes in wall!

I've got one more to add to the list (that might even save a little money): In our kitchen, we made a diagonal, similar to the diagonal cabinet you show, but with NO cabinet there. Our contractor built a couple of shelves that attach to the back and sides, with a base, too, of course. We bought a couple of big baskets that sit on the shelves plus we have access to the corners to store less used items. No wasted space! You just have to be OK with the open shelf look. You could probably get a matching door, but the installation gets quite a bit more involved.

Using drawers as base cabinets provides so much more useable space!

I had a lazy susan one in a full but very small kitchen. It was worth the money for storage.

We did the 45 degrees out from the wall option last year, we are very happy with how it turned out but it was by far the most challenging part of the kitchen install. Couple of points to note: You're left with quite a bit of space behind the cabinet that you need to do something with, The most obvious thing is to build a 45 degree wall. Our hob was on this unit so we needed the wall for the extraction hood Unless you build the wall and build it directly behind the cabinet, the counter top will not be wide enough to reach back so you may need to get creative ( we added 2 inches of tiles at the back fo make up the difference) The counter top install is a lot more challenging for a diyer. This occupied my brain for a good month before hand! We used cover panels as the spacers. We got two standard cover panels, cut them half , attached a piece either side of the 45 degree unit and one on 90 degree units. They are installed flush to the base cabinet. It looks nice and tidy now, and it achieves the space for the drawers, but your way might be easier I think the plan and reality of where the units need to be adjusted to be right might be different so i would definitely be very cautious if you're tight for space on your plan

Great video, not least for a good lesson in how to use the ikea kitchen planner! But you missed a cheeky one: (admittedly you can only do this in a new build or if you’re doing a bigger re-fit) you can lose the space in the kitchen and create a lower cabinet in the room next door, through the wall. The resulting cabinet, (in the room next door), would look flush to the wall; a little bit of space saving magic 😊

A tip from an ikea kitchen worker (Germany): You can put an 80 cm cabinet in the corner and just have the smallest door (20 cm) with a wide hinge to have better access. Or you pull it out a little more with a 40 cm door than you saved 20 cm in comparison to the big corner cabinet. You can also use the wall corner cabinets if there’s an obstacle in the corner and usually you don’t need filler it s enough to put a side cover on all four sides. Saves space and looks more neat!

i did the blocked off corner for my kitchen but am fully utilizing the blocked off space. I opened the wall so that i could access the area from an adjacent hallway. I ran all the phone, TV, cable, and networking wires coming up into that area from the crawlspace underneath. Relatively easy, if a little low and cramped, to change connections around over the years as equipment and providers have changed.

I put my cooker and hood at 45 degrees. I use the triangle behind it to store pots and pans, and there's extra space on either side for trivets to move pans off the heat.

Here is what I plan to do:. leave the corner space blocked and insert a 24"x 24"wine fridge in that space from the adjacent room, which is my dining room.Then I will have chilled drinks whenever I want

I don't think ikea designer know about the base corner fillers, I just found out about it Thanks to this, gotta order one now

Thank you. I have a spare room and I have about 100 or more books. needless to say I want to build in an L shaped bookcase with a magic corner and the window seat has to have the ability to fit my xl twin mattress and the botttom drawer has to be the extender to turn the twin into a double?? whatever size it is when you pull the second twin out. for when married couples come over to visit.

Two comments: if you have a corner filler cabinet you can put in there the water boiler … I had ones a kitchen in a small flat like that which was the best use of such space that I have seen. Currently I have a kitchen with a angled corner cabinet. Pay attention that you do not stand „often“ in front of it or the two neighbour cabinets otherwise you block the opening of three cabinets! In our case we have the cook top in the angle and the dishwasher next to it: this makes cooking as a couple an absolute nightmare as you always get into each others way! We are currently planning to redo this kitchen and will definitely not put a single appliance or sink in those three corner cabinets!

I would use that small corner space for cookie sheets and cutting boards to drop down vertically into slots, with a hinge top.

Here's my solution. I'm about halfway through my kitchen remodel as of this week. What I decided to do in the corner is put in a walk in closet there at a 45 degree angle similar to what Mark suggested. No lower or upper! Just a floor to ceiling closet with a double door opening. I'll have a TON of space now, and nothing was wasted. Full disclosure, the whole job is being done with a semi-custom cabinet company (called Decora), but obviously the closet was a custom request. So I'm guessing IKEA probably doesn't have a ready-made closet solution to choose from to pull this off. Does anyone know for sure?

❤ this! What are your thoughts on a stove /vent in front of a window? I'm not keen on putting it in the corner of a smallish kitchen for my remodel

Great information Mark. I think the cabinet on a 45 is really interesting but I have a problem. I'm short. If the base is angled how do shorties reach the corner cabinet above? I need counter space so I don't want to make the base narrow. Any ideas??

THANKS

I enjoy your videos. If you block out the lower cabinets in the corner, do you do the same on the uppers? It seems like it would look more uniform, but from an access perspective the upper seem not as bad as lower corners,

I know in addition to blocking off base corners you sometimes also block off upper cabinet corners. Is there some device that would install into that upper dead corner that could be pulled down for additional storage (I'm thinking of something that would be used for secretly storing valuables)? You have featured devices for the base corner that rise up on a mechanical lift and reveal extra storage but there must be something that pulls down for the upper corner.

for a corner unit with a lazy susan, the arc of the susan will only fill about 75% of the cabinet. Also they tend to be two layers. A drawer bank will give you 100% access to the cabinet and much denser (3-4 drawers for example). You could quite quickly get more effective storage by blocking off a corner evne though it might feel counter intuitive. For me a lazy susan or pullout is still convenient for appliances and less used items where the volume of a deep blind corner may be of benefit.

Hi, thank you super useful! Question, If the wall isn't at 90 degree, is there a way to do it in the Kitchen planner or should I build a custom corner cabinet?

2 more ways. If the corner is has a peninsula on 1 side (open), do the back side door. For your situation of the chase for pipes. Put that corner as 45 degree angle again, since that diagonal depth does not go fully back (where the chase is occupying space).

I had custom cabinets made, nothing fancy though. Couldn't really figure out what to do with the corner because of the weird measurements etc. So we just made it. I told him to leave it like it is. I actually really like it. Is it is a storage place for very large items. That also happen to be relatively light. it works great for what I need it for. No shelves, no Lazy Susan. Just a space for big items.

this was great, what about the cabinets above the corner? do people do open shelves or wrap around the corner somehow

You could also put a tall pantry cabinet in the corner and cover up that pipe, you would still have that triangle space back there but the box or pipe would be hidden. Put the other base cabinets against the other walls and cut the counter top to cover.

We decided on a new build. I told the builder no L shape kitchens and no barn doors. The plan we picked included an L shape. To go around that I had them push out the exterior wall to create a corner wall. This also added a little storage alcove in the garage. The house before had an L shape and the lazy Susan and cabinets drove me nuts. Too much dead space.

Put a door on the other side of the wall for cubbyhole storage. Or fit a short washer/dryer combo backed into the space from the other side.

Think you can create a 45° wall in the corner, to the ceiling or to countertop hight that helps positioning that regular cabinet at an angle and get filler pieces correctly alligned more easy. Method 7.

What's on the other side of the wall? It would depend heavily on what type of room adjoins the kitchen, its layout, and assuming you are not dealing with a supporting wall, but the dead space configuration could provide a small storage space for an adjoining room. Storage for a bathroom or laundry room. A bedroom or small office space could be equipped with drawers.

Interesting options, thanks for sharing. I'm new to looking at Ikea and contemplating using their boxes with third party doors and drawers; the limitation on corner bases is indeed a challenge. One thought I've had is to create a custom size blind cabinet by utilizing only one door and a filler or end panel over the 'open' space from the 'missing door' plus the perpendicular filler to offset the next cabinet around the corner. This would also allow you to deal with that pipe cover corner you showed and/or simply 'pull' the custom blind base from the actual corner in order to not leave the whole corner void or even to cover a custom run length with an extremely flexible option. On planner looks like would work. Do you see any 'gotchas'?

Nice

You should be able to adjust the countertop to close all those holes and join the diffent section into one joined countertop. Ofc this should be done as one of the last steps as this action results in the countertop becoming its own object, and not following the cabinets anymore. Once you get to know the pogram theres quite a few fun ways of designing - ex. you ca fill out the corner with a 80cm cabinet where half is blocked off in the corner, you can use a tall cabinet or a wall cabinet, you can make benches, bar areas and much more :D

The blind corner in my kitchen wasn't accessible and was fairly large as it went from the sink on the east wall to the stove on the north wall. It seemed like a waste of potential storage space in a house with very little storage. A kitchen remodel wasn't an option, but through the north wall was the laundry room, so I opened up that wall to gain access to that blind corner. It gave me a great spot to store my rolling pet food containers.

Using the blocked off corner method opens the idea of using that dead space with a cut in storage on the other side of the wall. Say you have a bathroom behind the wall, then just make a cabinet opening in the bathroom.

For the corner, with or without a pipe conduit in the corner, consider a less-deep bank of drawers on the 45°, and narrower width (eg 300mm/1'). I almost went with that, but came up with a different solution of partially obscuring 300mm of base cabinet (for sink) into the corner (so 'half a blind'). Currently have a traditional corner with a Susan which I think is inefficient overall.

When is/ was the class you mentioned just found your channel. do you do consults?? I have a weird kitchen with post tension slab so i can't move sink other designers haven't come up with much better then what i have want to put pantry under empty wasted stair space

My parents' 1979 kitchen had the door attached to the corner lazy susan, which was easier to use but left a small gap around the door which would not look good in light colors. The worst thing was the too small lip around the steel shelf.

We have a low window with 2 corners next to them in a galley kitchen. The apartment building is on a slant so the right corner will have a small sliver of space if we put a straight cabinet. How could we manage this? Maybe a seat storage that reaches up to the window sill and bring the cabinets to the wall with custom filler by the wall? Then we could add the pull-out extension to get full use of the cabinets.

When you open the door on the left and it rotates the circle shelves from the corner, do you actually lose the shelves that would normally be behind the door?

I used a regular base cabinet and tucked it in about half way. Used a smaller door and a filler piece on the outside corner for the door to rest against. The hidden part is only about a foot or so so access not really an issue

At least here in Sweden there is a 135 degree cabinet in the kitchen planner that does all the things you’re doing in your fourth method.

Hey Mark, when I did the Ikea kitchen design planner, there was an error warning that stated something along the lines of that base drawer in the corner 7:25 not being anchored. How do I solve this issue? Thank you for these videos! I especially appreciate this one.

At about 07:30, you could probably hold down your shift key while rotating that cabinet to constrain the rotation to 45 and 90 degree angles. Give it a try.

Did Mark ever address how to finish the countertops if you do a angled corner cabinet?

Can i ask: with the blank corner piece as discussed in the 5minute mark, is it possible to gain entry into that area if you need to? Even if it means taking out the drawers, etc? I have a gas meter in my kitchen that i would love to get out of the kitchen cabinets and into dead space. However, I'd obviously like to gain entry if I absolutely need to.

IKEA used to sell a small triangle piece you add to the bottom of the corner cabinet, and then they have wide swing hinges so you can attach a single door to the corner cabinet instead of 2 bifold doors. It’s easier than trying to do that yourself with fillers and dead space. Not sure if it’s no longer sold or its just not in the kitchen planner.

Ok, galley kitchen it is lol

The plan for my kitchen is this. I have a peninsula separating my kitchen from an eating area. We have a blind cabinet with shelves and lots of crawling inside of it. My plan is to replace the corner with a regular cabinet that opens into the eating area. The non blind portion of the blind cabinet will be replaced a row of drawers. Easy access to all the space. Storage for the eating area. No more crawling into the cabinet.

Do you have any actual ikea kitchens done with the 45 degree options? I can’t visualize this.

If you need to have the water heater tank in your kitchen, you can use the base corner filler and install the water heater tank in that corner.

What do you suggest if the kitchen is already complete, don’t want to use lazy Suzy and there’s a dishwasher to the right of the blind base cabinet.

It never occurred to me that it might be best to just waste the corner space in favor of more usable drawers. Our new kitchen will be large enough that I don't need to worry about utilizing every nook and cranny. In our current house, I spent a small fortune on a really cool corner pop-out. While it's super cool, and has the beautiful engineering, at the end of the day, it doesn't really hold that much. A set of drawers would have been much more useful.

Mark do you have a suggestion for the uppers, as their upper corner is out of stock with no end of that in site.

Thanks for the video. Quick question Mark and I'm kind of confused about choosing the blind corner cabinet. home depot designed me a BBC42R blind base cabinet. But the actual length of this cabinet is only 39" so the question is, if i am doing my design should i measure the actual size of the cabinet which is 39" or use the 42". also what i found on one of the brands says. "Please Note: This Cabinet Will Be 39” in Actual Length & Requires 42.5”- 49” of Space to Install" ? thanks

And what about a kitchen with corners that are not 90°? At my old house, the angles are about 110° or 80°... tricky to for ikea kitchen... but with a standing filler, it could work, I would have to get a custom made counter top, but it is necessary anyway... Thanks for the tips!

I’m thinking about stacking corner cabinets with lazy Susan What’s ur thoughts

I would call that pull out on the blind corner cabinet "half lazy susan". Bc. that's basically what it is. 😅

I normally use the corner to put the close-in boiler system (quooker or other brand), the water filtration system, or if necessary the carbon filters for recirculation ventilation. You otherwise just waste space under the sink or under your cooktop for this. Not an option in every kitchen, but in most, with careful planning.

Which IKEA benchtop can I use for #4?

I personally really like the blocked off corners as no other option will work in our tiny kitchen . My question to people who used this option, does Ikea provide you with some sort of brackets to go on the wall to support the countertop or do you build your own brackets out of wood and attach them to the walls since there is no cabinet to support it on the back at the corner?

I think I'm the only person who hates lazy susans and those pull out things. Also pull-out drawers. Why? Because they waste space. I'd rather use an acrylic or even wooden bin with a handle that I can pull out. As for pots and pans, I'd rather store them on the side. That way it would be easier to take out just the pot or pan you need, instead of taking out three to get to the one you need. Under my cooktop are two pull-outs for pots and pans. If I had shelves instead, I could have three rows and it would be easier to store cookware.

Sorry, I am not into kitchen planing right now and therefore the video is a little bit long to watch it in total. But what I have seen: you mention the blind corner and just use cabinets next to it. What I wanted to add, because I think you have not mentioned this: Besides better access, the total usable space is the same or better than using corner solutions. In a German forum somebody actually calculated the area of corner pullouts, carousel / lazy sue (I believe is the term in english?) and standard drawers (which can be bigger when using a blind corner) and the space - as I said - was same or better with the standard drawers. Of course this may differ in some settings, but usually the blind corner is the best option.

Another option is if you have a room on the other side of the wall that could use the space. Shelving for a corner entertainment center, bookshelf. If the other side of the wall is a closet, the space makes a good place for a safe.

You can also put cabinet against the wall and decide you have a gap in your countertop so that you can go in and open your cabinet.

I know it's not fashionable and I like things on islands but also like a hand sink in the corner like in the 80s but it's not a popular situation go but I like for small bathrooms corner sink units and Cornish hours and corner baths and corner sinks in kitchen to wash hand s

I have an existing corner cabinet and I started looking at adding a Lazy Susan but when I did the math I wasn't going to gain any shelf space. This was because the the Lazy Susan is round so you loose space normally store stuff in in the non corner portion as well as in the corner portion for the corners and and clearances that you need to allow the shelf to rotate and the space in the corner that add is limited for the same reason.