Affordable Cabinets of Cape Cod

Small Kitchen, No Wasted Space: Dennis McCartney’s Design Philosophy for Cape Cod Homes

By Dennis McCartney | Affordable Cabinets of Cape Cod | Mashpee, MA

In a small kitchen, every inch counts. I tell every customer the same thing before we start: let’s not waste a single one. That’s not a sales pitch — it’s the whole philosophy. If you’re sitting in a 15- or 20-year-old kitchen in New Seabury, Southport, or anywhere else on Cape Cod wondering why it never feels like there’s enough room, the answer usually isn’t “build an addition.” The answer is that the cabinets aren’t doing their job.

Most kitchens I walk into have three things in common: a lazy Susan that’s eating storage, a blind corner cabinet that nobody uses, and a layout that puts the wrong things in the wrong places. After doing this for years across Mashpee, Falmouth, Hyannis, Sandwich, and the wider Cape Cod area, I’ve developed a set of standard design moves that fix all three — and they work in any kitchen, regardless of size.

This article walks through each one. If you want to see what they look like in a finished kitchen, check out our kitchen cabinet gallery before you read on.

Dennis’s Three Standard Moves for Small Kitchens

Why Do Most Corner Cabinets Waste So Much Space?

I have never bought a factory lazy Susan. Not once. Every corner cabinet I’ve done in Mashpee, Falmouth, Centerville, Sandwich — all of them get the wire basket system instead. Here’s why: the standard carousel has a shoulder about this high. (Hold your hand three inches off a table.) Anything taller than that slides off the back and disappears. You’re not using that space — you’re paying for it and losing things in it.

The wire basket system I install has adjustable-height shelves. The bottom shelf can go lower to fit a George Foreman grill or a stockpot. The next shelf up can be set for bottles, or jars, or whatever you actually need to store. My installation crew sits down with the customer and works it out before anything gets locked in. We bring the items over, see what fits where, and set the heights to match.

What’s the Fix for a Blind Corner Cabinet?

Not every kitchen has room for a proper corner cabinet with the wire basket system. Sometimes the kitchen is small enough that you end up with what the industry calls a blind cabinet — a cabinet that runs into the corner, so you can only access the front portion of it. For years, the standard approach was: just accept that the back half is dead space.

I don’t accept that. The pull-out drawer systems that have come onto the market in the last couple of years change the equation entirely. We take a standard RTA cabinet — the same ones we stock in 14 colors at our warehouse in Norton, MA — and modify it on-site to accept the pull-out hardware. When you open the door and pull, the whole interior comes to you. Every inch of it.

A client in Southport summed it up well: she’d been cooking in that kitchen for 22 years and hadn’t touched the back of that cabinet in at least 15 of them. After the pull-out went in, she found a Le Creuset she thought she’d lost.

Where Should the Drawer Base Go in a Small Kitchen?

Every kitchen I design includes a large drawer base cabinet next to the stove. I’ve been doing this since my first installation, and I’ve never had a customer tell me it was the wrong call. It sounds obvious when you say it out loud: the stuff you use when you’re cooking should be next to where you cook. Pots, pans, lids, spatulas, tongs. All of it within arm’s reach.

The reason most layouts don’t do this is that nobody stops to think about it. The kitchen gets designed around the appliances, the appliances go wherever there’s room, and the storage just fills in around them. That’s backwards.

A few years ago, I walked into a kitchen in one of the luxury developments near Mashpee — home valued at around $3 million, beautiful house, terrible kitchen layout. The refrigerator was the first thing you saw when you walked in the door. It was sitting on what should have been the feature wall. We moved the refrigerator to the side, opened up that wall for the stove and hood, added a distinctive glass-panel fan, and put the drawer base right next to the range. The homeowner said it changed how she cooked.

How Fast Can I Get New Cabinets on Cape Cod?

When I started this business in 2021, the industry was a mess. Kitchen manufacturers were telling people 16 to 20 weeks for delivery. I was going into consultations in Falmouth, Hyannis, and Yarmouth and telling homeowners I could have their cabinets in a week to ten days. That’s how I got my start.

That speed advantage still exists today. Our supplier operates eight warehouses across the country, including one about 45 minutes from us in Norton, MA. The inventory commitment they make is unlike anything else I’ve worked with in 30 years of distribution. We stock 14 colors, and I can get a complete order — every piece, no missing components — in 3 to 5 days.

RTA cabinets have a reputation as a budget option. They’re not. This supplier owns the factories that produce the product. The quality is solid, the selection is real, and the lead time is the best in the business. That’s not a trade-off. That’s a competitive advantage. View our full kitchen cabinet options to see the range of styles and colors available.

The Philosophy, in Plain Terms

Small kitchens don’t need more space — they need smarter cabinets. A wire basket corner system instead of a lazy Susan. A pull-out drawer inside the blind corner cabinet. A drawer base right next to the stove. These aren’t upgrades or add-ons. They’re the baseline. It’s what every kitchen we install in Mashpee, Falmouth, Sandwich, Hyannis, and across Cape Cod gets, because I’ve seen the difference it makes too many times to do it any other way.

If you’re thinking about new cabinets and want to see what’s actually possible in your kitchen — not a rendering, not a generic floor plan, but a real conversation about your specific space — I’m easy to reach. The first meeting is on me.