Coppes and the Lazy Susan

In the 1940s, Coppes designers developed the method of utilizing the wasted corner space with the concept of the Lazy Susan cabinet. The Lazy Susan concept had been around for many years as a rotating tray. It was advertised in the Vanity fair in 1917 as a revolving server or Lazy Susan. There was lore that Thomas Jefferson had invented a “dumbwaiter” aka the Lazy Susan for his daughter, Susan.

With Hoosier cabinets’ popularity decreasing, the company transitioned away from Hoosier cabinets to creating built-in, modular cabinets, much like the standard cabinets we see in our kitchens today.

Coppes Napanee is credited with being one of the first companies in the country to use this modular style that could be customized to fit a person’s needs. The cabinets could be designed with various choices in colors, handles, hinges and sizes. The company continued designing kitchens with modular cabinets. In the early 1940s, they noticed a problem. Placing cabinets in the corners of the kitchen created a dead space in one of the cabinets making it virtually useless.

To solve this, designers created a pie-cut cabinet in the corner and inserted a Lazy Susan inside the cabinet. This 1942 design made this corner more usable and increasingly efficient. Inserting the Lazy Susan in the initial designs provided 18 cubic feet of usable space in an 11-inch door opening.

The development of this corner cabinet design became extremely popular in the market when it was introduced and is featured in kitchens today. We may not think about it, but the design is an extremely inventive solution to a simple problem.