I am currently redesigning my kitchen in a 1930's Midwestern USA house. The kitchen has a decent floor area but the floor plan is oddly restrictive.
My space next to the sink is such that I can either have a standard 24" dishwasher next to the sink and a slightly weird cabinet adjacent to it, or I could have an 18 inch dishwasher at 45 degrees flanked by two small but reasonably sized cabinet doors (or drawers), although the 45 degree plan would dictate a somewhat shallow custom counter depth on the flanks (like 18-20 inches).
I think I would be more proud of the accomplishment of building the angled design, and I think the ergonomics would be optimal.
But I'm not sure about the smaller dishwasher. I have never used a smaller one. It seems like it would be enough for my small family and still plenty helpful for gatherings.
Which one would you use the most, the dishwasher or the cabinet?
That is a great angle for a design question.
I think I, the person, will open the dishwasher door and interact with its contents more frequently than any base cabinet. But any cabinet that has stuff in it is being used perpetually.
So I think the question is where is the best equilibrium of value; volume of dirty dish space or volume of clean stuff space.
The way I see things now is that my family of three produces one drying rack worth of hand washed dishes per day, which is a smaller volume than an 18inch dishwasher.
On the other hand, the layout with the 24" washer and 90 degree cabinet configuration wastes less space than the 18" one at a 45 degree angle, but it also has less aesthetic (and ergonomic) appeal.
Another consideration is the cabinet design is hugely simplified in the 24" option, and as a "beginner" "cabinet maker" (ie someone who will do it exactly once in their life), that might be a less risky bet.
I got the feeling that the other commenter is right, that you’ll hate it, every day going forward:
Choose dishwasher over cabinet: every time you don't use the dishwasher's full capacity, you'll wonder why you didn't go with extra cabinet space instead
Chose extra cabinet space over dishwasher: every time your dirty dishes are too much for your dishwasher, you'll wonder why you didn't go with bigger dishwasher instead