Space-Saving and Stylish Corner Storage Cabinet Ideas
Make the most of your unused or awkward corners with these awesome corner storage cabinet ideas
Everyone knows about it but no one wants to talk about it. The dead corner kitchen cabinet has haunted homeowners for decades. While the rest of your home has evolved, innovation has left kitchen design behind when it comes to cabinet space.
You don’t have to accept this fate. Say goodbye to dark and unused corner cabinet space. These corner storage ideas will inspire you to start utilizing unused corners throughout your house. Start with the corners in your kitchen, then move on to your dining, living, and bathrooms.
Increase the available storage in your home with these corner cabinet ideas.
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1. Clever Corner Storage Cabinet Ideas for Kitchen Blind Corners
The kitchen corner cabinet is the most commonly faced wasted space. The traditional way of dealing with this issue was to create a blind cabinet. This has you crawling around and contorting as you blindly reach into the dark depths of this cabinet.
Modern trends involve using a variety of hardware to either improve the storage capacity or make it easier to access the space. You’ll see a kitchen corner with a lazy susan cabinet or you may see one with blind corner pullouts.
The best thing to do is to consider several blind corner cabinet solutions before you install your cabinets. You can then compare different kitchen storage ideas and find the one that will work the best for your storage needs and the layout of your kitchen.
Modern trends involve using a variety of hardware to either improve the storage capacity or make it easier to access the space. You’ll see a kitchen corner with a lazy susan cabinet or you may see one with blind corner pullouts.
The best thing to do is to consider several blind corner cabinet solutions before you install your cabinets. You can then compare different kitchen storage ideas and find the one that will work the best for your storage needs and the layout of your kitchen.
Lazy Susan
A Lazy Susan is a flat, round shelf that spins around a central pole. There will be a quarter taken out that aligns with the cabinet door so you can close it. When you open the door, you spin the Lazy Susan to access everything in the cabinet.
Blind Pullouts
These look like standard cabinet doors from the outside. But once the door opens, the shelves carefully pull out to allow you access to the deepest part of them.
Corner Drawer
These drawers look like two drawer fronts meeting in the corner. But when you pull them out, you realize they’re one piece. The drawer then glides out diagonally from the corner.
These corner cabinets can complement the rest of your kitchen cabinet design nicely, while also providing a lot of storage.
2. Stylish and Practical Shelving Designs
One popular trend is to take out your kitchen cabinets entirely and replace them with open shelving. This can potentially increase your kitchen storage if done correctly. The advantages of open shelves throughout your kitchen are the increased light and ease of access.
If you aren’t ready to commit to this trend, you can embrace it by placing open shelves in a natural corner. These are typically floating shelves that you’ll mount directly to the wall or the outside edge of your cabinets. You have total freedom in how many shelves you mount and how large they are.
Another option is to find an open shelf corner unit that doesn’t require you to mount anything to the wall. The open shelves allow you to quickly access anything on them. This makes it perfect for the kitchen or bathroom.
Most of these shelves belong in an inside corner, but you could also have them wrapped around an outward-pointing corner. This works well on a wall that has a prominent corner edge in a larger room. The corner shelf ties the space together by wrapping it from one side of the wall to the other.
3. Elegant Corner Cupboards
If you want to use a corner that isn’t in your kitchen, then you’ll want to look at corner cabinet ideas that focus on replacing furniture. This could be a cupboard, china cabinet, or curio cabinet. These cabinets are free-standing pieces of furniture that typically have a combination of solid doors, drawers, glass doors, and open shelving. This type of cabinet is perfect if you have a collection of belongings you’d like to put on display.
When choosing your corner curio cabinet, think about the space you have available and what you intend to display. A shelf design makes more sense if you’re limited on space. This way, you won’t have to account for the additional space needed to open the doors.
You’ll also want to think about the style of the cabinet you choose. This piece of furniture needs to make sense in your home. An overly ornate baroque cabinet would look strange in a home where everything else is distinctly farmhouse.
4. Creative Liquor Storage Ideas
A corner cabinet is a perfect solution for figuring out what to do with your liquor bottles and barware. You can create a built-in unit or place a corner cabinet in any room where you do the most entertaining. This lets you create a liquor cabinet anywhere in your home.
Start by deciding if you want to create a built-in cabinet unit or place a cupboard or other piece of furniture. A built-in unit will require more construction but will look original to the home. A corner cabinet piece is much faster to place but will look like a piece of furniture.
When creating your corner liquor cabinet, think about your drinking habits. No, not how often. Think about what you like to drink and the size of your collection. If you have several bottles, then you’ll need a place to store or display them. If you enjoy making different kinds of drinks, then you’ll need a way of storing the many different types of glassware and drink-making tools.
For those who describe themselves as wine enthusiasts, you’ll want to include a wine bottle rack. These are different from liquor bottle shelves because they store the bottles horizontally and away from light.
To achieve the most functionality out of your corner liquor cabinet, try to have a combination of shelving and enclosed storage spaces. Consider adding a mini bar nearby to maximize the space’s usefulness and entertainment capacity.
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5. Innovative Cabinet Designs
We’ve discussed the type of corner cabinet you should buy if you want to put items on display, but what if you want to hide them? You’ll want to consider enclosed corner storage ideas. These corner storage cabinets often appear in the bathroom, entryway, or hallway.
If you need some additional storage in one of these traditionally smaller spaces, then look for a smaller corner cabinet that won’t extend too far out, taking up valuable square footage. If you’re afraid that a full-height cabinet will look too imposing, then look for one that is short.
You could then mount a wall shelf above it. The solid cabinet below and a corner shelf above help to keep the space looking and feeling larger.
Consider giving your cabinet some style by choosing a curved front. These curved cabinets offer slightly more storage room and look beautiful with their rounded shape.
6. Space-Saving Corner Entertainment Cabinets
You’re standing in your living room, trying to find the perfect place for your TV. There’s limited wall space, and with the size of TVs growing, it’s more and more challenging to find a wall that your TV will fit on. The solution may be to place your TV in a corner.
Having your TV in the corner creates a whole new world of design possibilities and allows you to have the large TV of your dreams. The trick to making a corner setup work is to match the size of your entertainment cabinet to the size of your TV. Smaller TVs can fit on smaller entertainment cabinets, while larger TVs will need an entertainment cabinet that takes up more of the corner.
A second option is to mount your TV on the wall with hardware that telescopes out. You’ll then mount the TV on one wall in the corner and angle the TV to fit. You then have more freedom in the size of the corner cabinet you place under the mounted TV.
When choosing your cabinetry, think about the style of your home. A modern and sleek home will look good with a metal or glass entertainment cabinet. A traditional style home will look beautiful with a wood design.
Look for a unit that has both shelving and cabinet doors. You’ll gain space to display some items while increasing your hidden storage.
7. Maximizing Space
The biggest challenge when building a corner closet is to eliminate the dead deep corner space. You also want to create a visually appealing design when the closet doors are closed. Create open shelves that are perfectly sized for your sweaters, shoes, or bags.
You’ll also need an open space with a bar for hanging clothing items. Another option is to have pullout drawers. You could build them into the corner so that you have a shallow angled drawer that is perfect for holding watches, jewelry, sunglasses, or other small accessories.
Once you’ve designed the interior part of the closet, you’ll need to think about the doors. You need to create an easy way of accessing the shelves, drawers, and hanging items. Curved doors create a smooth and continuous visual line.
These curved doors work best when the doors are on a track. You’ll simply glide the doors to the left or right to open and close the closet.
Another option is to create an angular look with doors. These doors can then swing open on hinges to create a large open space. French-style doors that swing away from each other will give you the most open space when using your closet.
8. Awkward Corner Options
If you have a limited amount of square footage, then you may find yourself considering a corner cabinet out of sheer necessity. This can often result in awkward corner cabinets and less-than-functional storage spaces. Don’t let this happen to you.
When creating your corner cabinet design in an awkward place, try to have it perform double duty. The bottom may be a cabinet, but the top could hold a sink. This is perfect for a small bathroom, like one under your stairs.
Another example is when creating a desk. You can neatly tuck a desk or workspace in a corner. This turns an awkward unused space into a mini workstation. Ensure that the top of the cabinet has enough space to work, while the underside can hide your electronics, paperwork, and office equipment.
If you have a dead corner space in a transition area or hallway, it can be awkward to utilize the space. Create corner storage space by building a taller corner cabinet that either has a blind corner or a diagonal cabinet. You can create a custom storage space that could have a cabinet door on the bottom or top, counter space in the middle for small items like keys or mail, and then a floating shelf for your bag or purse.
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Corner Cabinet FAQ
The answer to this question depends on the size and design of your current cabinets and how you intend to change them. If you have a traditional blind corner cabinet, then you’ll be able to convert your cabinets to a swinging pullout or pullout drawer. However, you’ll need a diagonal cabinet setup if you want to convert to a lazy susan or corner drawers.
Yes, you’ll need special hardware to create your new corner cabinet storage setup. A bi-folding door needs special hinges to allow it to move. A lazy susan requires special hardware to mount and spin. Pullout drawers and other movable shelving require hardware specifically designed for the intended movement.
No. You can close off or simply ignore the corner space in your kitchen layout or other room. This removes the issue altogether. Unfortunately, it also reduces your storage space and creates a dead corner.