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Opinions About Cabinet Lazy Susan Turntables

November 10th, 2009 Leave a comment Go to comments

Having been in the cabinet industry for many years, I have opinions related to cabinet lazy Susans. The turntables are a nice extra to have in larger kitchens, but if your space is limited, I say leave them out.

No matter what style you install, whether it is a half moon or a pie shaped lazy Susan there is going to be a tremendous amount of wasted space. It’s always a toss up for the customer to decide if they want the space or the convenience that they provide.

For me as a cabinet sales person, I always want to give the customer the best for their money. My opinion formed early on in my manufacturing and cabinet sales carrier that I liked the idea of just having a half shelf in the blind corner cabinet and two full L-shaped shelves for the corner cabinet. No lazy Susans was my standard suggestion even though they were good extras to sell for making more money.


Manufactured swinging baskets for base cabinets in the kitchen may seem to be a nice idea, but the majority rules in my eyes. I can honestly say that most customers feel that lazy Susan turntables waist too much space.

The half moon lazy Susan design really wastes a lot more than the full round or pie shaped units that are designed for the corners. If you need to utilize as much storage space as possible in your kitchen, leave them out.

The most frustrating design and waist of space that I ever encountered was when a customer requested that I install a corner cabinet that was a floor to ceiling design. We actually custom manufactured it. This was the biggest waist of storage area that I have ever seen in a kitchen. Because of the forty five degree angel cuts that were required, even the largest lazy Susan baskets we could find wasted a lot of space. I can say that it was more of a convenience issue because when ever you have a corner cabinet like this, the door opening is only about twenty inches wide. Because the cabinet was so deep there really was no way to access the back unless the lazy Susan tall turntable was installed in the cross corner pantry.

If you are set on getting them installed in your kitchen cabinet design, avoid using the wire basket style. The Rev-a-Shelf brand that has the solid plastic lazy Susan shelf design is a much better product. It only makes sense because you can place small items on the solid plastic design where you cannot on the wire basket type.

Those are really the issues related to having lazy Susans in a kitchen. I’ve debated the pros and cons with many customers. I’ve installed literally hundreds of these specialty items regardless of what my opinions are about them. The lazy Susan turn tables are nice to have, but the bottom line for making the decision is personal preference and necessity of space. My advice would be to visit a cabinet5 supply company and take a look at a display before making the decision to have one installed in your kitchen cabinet design.

  1. Trudie
    August 14th, 2010 at 20:56 | #1

    I’m trying to decide on lazy susan turntable for corner cabinet, and I really appreciated the comments on the topic and the expert advice given really helped. Thank you for sharing.

  2. admin
    August 15th, 2010 at 04:13 | #2

    Trudie, thanks for sharing. They can be an asset or a hindrance.

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