Corner Kitchen Cabinet Ideas That Transform This Awkward Space Into Something Useable

Any kitchen is a good kitchen when it comes to having a place to cook, and with a little paint and some hardware changes, you can usually turn what you’re working with into a room you truly love. Some cooking spaces are a little, well, on the strange side when it comes to dimensions though, and that can create bigger decorative challenges than you might have bargained for.

A lot of kitchens have those gaps above the cabinets, while others are made with cupboard doors and drawers that can’t fully be opened at the same time. Odd corners certainly exist, too, where there’s really not enough room for a cabinet but somehow one gets squeezed in anyway; it’s these types of spaces that can prove to be the most difficult to deal with.

Thankfully, with a few strategic moves, you can turn an odd corner cabinet into an organizational tool, whether that’s by inserting a lazy Susan, making it a pull-out drawer, or simply rewriting the rules of how a corner cabinet should look. These clever ideas will give you some perspective on how to maximize this space and make all of your kitchen cabinets usable.

The most popular way of handling these types of dimensions is through a rotating cabinet. You know, the ones with lazy Susans that have a quarter cut out? They’re perfect for storing pots and pans, and with some pretty hardware, like what’s in this colorful farmhouse, you can make your setup look even better.

When your upper cabinets are laid out in a slightly curvy, hexagonal shape, similarly to this Hollywood Regency-inspired home in St. Louis, it can be hard to work around the corners of the room. Follow the lead of these owners, who turned their uppers into a stacked row of shorter and taller cabinets, some of which have glass panels. How fancy!

Take a page from the book of this bright red Australian kitchen and work the weird corners in your kitchen with an appliance garage. By selecting a spacious upper cabinet and working a tambor door into its design, you’ll be all set for stashing everything, including countertop appliances. Take that, weird corners.

A corner like the one in this Melbourne home can be transformed into your classic spinning corner cabinet. You can also block out one half of the cabinet and make the other a super sleek, narrow pull-out drawer, perfect for drying racks, baking sheets and cutting boards.

Think you can’t find a purpose for that empty corner in your kitchen? Think again. As proven by this light-filled house in Maine, a custom cabinet can make use of the seemingly pointless, dead space in a corner behind an exterior door. It’s the perfect spot for a pantry. 

A uniquely shaped roof can affect the shape of your kitchen, leading to a strange corner or two. You can deal with it like a pro by implementing open shelving, just as this Scandi-inspired Californian A-frame did with aplomb.

Yes, even the smallest kitchens can make a corner cabinet worthy of more than just a false-front. A tiny wooden version in this calming, cozy Brooklyn apartment shows how its location and size could be beneficial in a small space—because every square inch counts!

This designer’s stunning home is a perfect example of how to create a dreamy kitchen, even with unexpected angles. She incorporated a walk-in pantry, molded her cabinets around the space, and even has a custom cabinet that hugs the fridge in a corner area.

Forget cabinets that are as small as slivers and figure out a way to work in two regular cabinets. This particular setup creates more room for kitchen utensils and still maintains the minimal, stylish look of this industrial apartment in Chicago.

Take a corner and smooth it out with a curved structure, just like this Melbourne kitchen did. One side of the island is a flat-facing front and the other is a round set of shelves, perfectly making do with the awkward layout.