Of Uppers and Lowers (continued)


© Brian Mahoney
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Most designers start the design by placing your appliances in their planned locations, keeping in mind that they can be moved at a later date. Basically this is to allow them to subtract the appliance's space from the kitchen's overall space. Be sure to measure your current appliances if you are keeping them, or get the dimensions of your new ones before you visit the designer. The only appliance that really differs frequently is the refrigerator, and you need to know how high and wide it is before you begin.

Next, the designer will probably attack the base corners. Corners are always a bit of a pain but some careful planning now will make all the difference in your new kitchen.

Basically there are two choices for corners. The best is the so-called 'easy reach' corner. This is a cabinet that takes up space on both lower walls, usually 33 inches to 39 inches on either side although some good manufacturers have corner units that take up one dimension on one side, say 33 inches, and another on the other side, say 39 inches. The kitchen side of the cabinet shows what looks like two doors in the corner but in reality there is only one double hinged door that swings out to reveal the innards of the cabinet. These cabinets are also called 'lazy Susan' cabinets, since one usually finds a carousel or 'lazy Susan' in them, allowing access to the back corners.

The second way of doing a corner, I won't say choice since most people wouldn't choose this cabinet, is the blind-corner unit. Imagine a long box that is accessible from only a small door at one end and you kind of get the picture of what a blind corner looks like. These cabinets are only to be used as a last resort, once all other possibilities are exhausted. Usually you will find them in a kitchen where a window is less than 33 inches from a corner and the plumbing is directly in front of that window. Even then, you might possibly be able to use the third corner solution.

Corner sinks might be of interest to you if you have limited counter space (and who doesn't?) or if, as described above, a window arrangement makes an easy reach cabinet not viable. Corner sinks limit the size of sink used, although you will see some butterfly sinks around that seem to address the problem quite well. The cabinet used for corner sinks is something like the easy reach unit but instead of a right angle corner, you will see a diagonal corner, where the door and

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