I opened a Yahoo Flicker Account to post my kitchen project pictures to for the future.
I posted two Drawings of the blind cabinets, one with door fully open, the other with the door fully closed. So you can see the freedom with which one can access anything in it. I will be prototyping it this week, small versions, and I already have several different options for the sliding doors. I am going for the simplest with reliability rather than the bullet proof one first. This way anyone can make it.
formatting link
Please let me know what you think. I have also added an email account to this, it's in the headers, just needs to be "cleaned" up to use.
FF cabinets? .. what would be the RO if you went with traditional doors, with a center stile wide enough to allow a conventional door to clear the adjacent hardware to the right?
If the drawing is indeed the actual space, would be tempted to go with something like this, instead of a sliding door for access to that corner space:
formatting link
With door closed:
formatting link
The RO required for that lazy susan was exactly 14 5/8".
I would be very reluctant, having a great deal of experience in kitchen cabinet design, fabrication and installation, to go the sliding door situation providing I could design in the above 14 5/8" RO.
Blind corner base cabinets are a bitch, no one likes them because of the obvious access issues. While there is no one magic bullet, and I've installed most of the alternatives, women seem to always prefer the Lazy Susan approach, particularly when buying a house, over the misery of no attempt at making the hidden space both useable and accessible in some manner besides a door of any type.
Just my tuppence ... as always, my opinion is worth what you paid for it. ;)
We had a blind base cabinet that was part of a peninsula dividing the kitchen from the dining room. So we had usable doors installed on both the kitchen and dining room sides (custom build). The blind cabinet just opens into the dining room housing the 'good' plates.
Actually all the cabinets (lower and upper) have doors opening to both rooms except the one blind one just accessible on the dining room side. The drawers open into the kitchen. There are false drawer face plates on the dining room side except the blind cabinet's drawer opens to the dining room side and holds the 'good' silverware used for holidays.
The arrangement works well and looks great. Simple nickle knobs and pulls along with hidden hinges compliment the setup.
Here are some pictures I edited tonight all with the door open, but showing under mount sliders for drawers. One with the slides withdrawn, the other two extended.
formatting link
Slides are not scaled so look on the short side. I found the slides tonight and put them in. The guys name who designed them are in my drawings here.
Yes, these are ff's
The door openings are and actual 21+ inches, uninhibited.
I did some research on corner cabinets and Blind Cabinets with many of the various options. Surprisingly most benefit very little as most all of them only gained a slight amount of extra space. 2/3 rds of total maximum space is usable. Some corner cabinets were only the original 50% just configured differently.
When looking at them from that perspective it flat out appeared to be money well wasted. LOL, and only if done like John described here as also accessible from the opposite side of the cabinet was the space not wasted. My Left cabinet in my original post is like he described, and accessible on both sides, and so part of it is accessible on each side.
Two cabinets are situated like this one, each a mirror image of the other.
My wife was actually enthusiastic about this idea, but a portion of me is leaning to abandoning the whole idea, and making the cabinet about slightly larger, sealing the rest off on both sides of the kitchen.
The sliding doors, however, really appear to make a lot of sense, especially given the ease of making them, as full inset in the ff. (I would still make a prototype before the actual cabinet. to be sure.)
But if you wouldn't mind taking another look I would appreciate it.
The sliders I know how I could mount them in my minds eye, but I will make a prototype for those also, since I have use for them in the pantry cabinet drawers as well.
A cabinet which has access from two sides, as the one you discuss above, is not a "blind" corner cabinet, and does exhibit the same access limitations as the cabinet under discussion.
The idea is not new, there are number of iterations of that concept.
From experience, you are likely going to find that it is has the same inelegant drawbacks as other solutions for this age old problem of blind corner cabinet access ... which all have two basic, important components:
... problematic installation issues: and clumsiness in actual use, particularly when loaded with the type of pots/pans that naturally migrate to that particular space.
Don't let me rain on your parade though, you should be encouraged to make it work for your particular situation and what you want to do.
My "BTDT" experience, countless times with this particular problem, is, as always, predicated primarily on cost/benefit and practicality, not necessarily your situation. ;)
Not to say I won't be glad to offer input on some of the issues as you progress in implementing.
You hit the nail on the head with your choice of words, "inelegant". I couldn't agree more when looking at it from the standpoint of the bottom line.
But since "talk is cheap" meaning drawing it up and my time involved, I am going to go ahead and finish the design with the shelves/drawers for both halves.
The hidden half will just be for things very infrequently used, but they will be out of sight, with the serviceable portion for every day things and also easy access. Also keeping the items out of the Garage. I'll post the link when done drawing.
I really have to thank you and Leon for pushing me on SketchUp. I'll also be working on alternatives in my minds eye while drawing the shelves. End result having a happy and satisfied wife.
Here are the drawings with the framework for the sliding shelves both inside and outside of the cabinet.
The drawers have a low side for easy loading and unloading, A low side flush with the shelves which exit the door opening, and also a low side for when the normal shelves are slid out and the blind shelves are slide across.
This would also serve for easy loading with the shelves behind the doors removed. Hoping this all makes sense to you and everyone Who looks at it.
I deleted two of the drawings without the framework for the shelves.
My Wife also liked your comment about inelegant, :), after her seeing these drawings, (I had to explain to her what she was looking at.) She still appears to want this style, with arched doors, Knowing that the back doors are for things used less often, like for holidays and such.
I put in wood colors for clarity, and the "spacer" for the door you can see is actually attached to the door, so it can do its function when the door is closed.
formatting link
I redid the Photo Flicker into a group, hope everything is easily seen. I figure I can always go with the build and revert if need be, at least in a dry assembly situation.
Any ones comments welcome. Personally I am not 100% committed to this, but pretty darn close.
I have not been chiming in at all but will offer this.
If you have not already thought of doing this, mount the slides and drawers in the cabinet before installation. Slides can be a Bitc_ to install after the fact.
I just asked my wife again, giving her the options we have all been discussing. She likes the drawings I last made, so that being the case I might as well build the FF and the carcase, but before I do, I'll make the framework for the slides, and make sure the slides all operate as intended, just faking the drawers with cardboard. I cannot see it failing, but I would like to be sure.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.