I like the idea of glass doors above the garage for interest. It could help to break up a large expanse of floor to ceiling cabs and, as you say, add some visual interest. Whether you go with glass or not, I definitely think separating the garage cab doors from the upper cabinet doors is better than opening the entire cabinetry every time you want to make some toast or have a coffee.

Re. doors, you should check houzz (search appliance garage) to get varied ideas and visualize what will work best for you. I considered pocket doors and hinged doors, but in the end I went with a straight door. I am blessed (?) with a DH that cannot/will not/does not close doors or put anything away unless it is dead simple and mindless. It's unbelievable, really, he is so absent minded with stuff like that. For us, the regular door actually gets closed after he uses it (it's a small miracle) and I know that pocket doors would be forever open and drive me crazy. Your mileage may vary depending on the degree of absent mindedness of your family. :-)

Here is a picture I love from houzz of hinged doors. I would do this in a heartbeat if I had a corner space like this that did not allow for straight doors:

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[Traditional Kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Minneapolis Kitchen And Bath Sawhill - Custom Kitchens & Design, Inc.

But here is what I actually did for a straight run that butts up to fridge/pantry cabs, and I would personally do this in a heartbeat with double doors in your space:

My garage is 21" wide and only big enough for the blender and toaster. If I had 36" and also a juicer I'd do the same thing with double doors. Not sure you'll have enough room for coffee maker as well. Perhaps you will, but it will be tight. Anyway, check out various pics on houzz and you'll get a good feel for if you'd like pocket, hinged, standard, or even lift-up doors.

One more thing I'll mention is that you should think carefully about your depths. How will you want to use your garage and appliances? Will you have enough room to pull them forward on the counter and still have usable space? In our case we did a 16" depth garage and 26 1/2" depth base cab against pantry cab that was pulled out to 29".

In a perfect world you'll want your base cab at less depth than your fridge and oven gables both for looks and also so that the counter overhang blends into the gable without impeding the fridge door swing. So working backwards, you don't want to end up with too little depth in your garage to fit the appliances you need in there. If you can pull your fridge/ovens cabs out to 30" it would leave you good flexibility for a deep enough base cab and garage/upper to be useful.

Good luck and have fun planning your new kitchen!

Thanks, Taggie, I appreciate your ideas and links. I have already been poring over Houzz (and have these in my IdeaBook) looking at all the different appliance garages, which led to being overwhelmed with choices (a daily occurrence as I plan my kitchen ;-)

The fridge and ovens will be bumped out a bit so we have 27 inches of depth on this wall, (although we really have 36 inches, because that is the depth of the adjacent pantry), as we want to keep the aisle wider near the doorway. What would be an appropriate depth for the garage based on 27 in deep counters?

I will need to consult with my KD about the 30 inch depth for the fridge and ovens, but she has been hesitant to do that, insisting those 3 inches will make a big difference in the flow of traffic as people come into the kitchen from the family room and dining room.

I, too, live with absent minded folks, so whatever is easiest is better. I had been leaning towards the door that lifts up, as I thought that was cool looking. Do those have a tendency to break? Also, could you send a photo demonstrating the following quote, as I am not sure I am following you: "In a perfect world you'll want your base cab at less depth than your fridge and oven gables both for looks and also so that the counter overhang blends into the gable without impeding the fridge door swing."

Thanks again.

I, too, live with absent minded folks, so whatever is easiest is better. I had been leaning towards the door that lifts up, as I thought that was cool looking. Do those have a tendency to break?

I don't think they'd have a tendency to break. For me it wouldn't work since I keep plates and glasses in the above cabinet, and want access to those while using the appliances in the garage. So the lift-up door was out for that reason. Assuming you mean this type of lift-up door, that is:

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[Traditional Kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Philadelphia Media And Blogs Colleen Steixner

I think it looks totally amazing but for us it just wasn't practical. I imagined being halfway through blending a smoothie and then realizing I forgot to get the glass, or halfway through toasting and I didn't get the plate out. Then I imagined the attendant muttering and grousing when it happens with DH. That was enough to eliminate it in my world, lol.

The lift-up pocket door I nixed for the simple reason that I know it would never get lifted-down again in our kitchen. Ay yi yi. :)

Also, could you send a photo demonstrating the following quote, as I am not sure I am following you: "In a perfect world you'll want your base cab at less depth than your fridge and oven gables both for looks and also so that the counter overhang blends into the gable without impeding the fridge door swing."

I was trying to say that you want room to have the countertop blend into the side gables without overhanging them like this:

Does that make sense? I just think it looks nicer to have the countertop disappear into the gable, and it's also practical if you have a fridge door swing or cabinet door swing to the side of it to worry about.

The fridge and ovens will be bumped out a bit so we have 27 inches of depth on this wall, (although we really have 36 inches, because that is the depth of the adjacent pantry), as we want to keep the aisle wider near the doorway. What would be an appropriate depth for the garage based on 27 in deep counters?

At the end of the day, the appropriate depth of the garage is whatever depth you need it to be to comfortably house your appliances (remember to account for where the plugs will be too). In my case that meant 16" though I could have gone 15" if needed. You should measure your toaster and juicer to be certain. Then just plan for enough counter space in front and the counter overhang.

In our case we had 29" max for the fridge/pantry cabs given how wide we wanted to aisle to be. So I went to that max depth and it worked out to 16" appliance garage, 26 1/2" base cab + 1 1/2" counter overhang bringing the counter to 28", leaving the extra 1" for it to end prior to the fridge/pantry cab at 29".

If you have 27" then you might do something like 15" appliance garage, 24" base cab with 1 1/2" counter overhang brings it to 25 1/2, leaving an extra 1 1/2" prior to the pantry cab. If you can do custom sizes then you have some additional flexibility. If you have 3" sizes then you can just play around with spacing to determine if the 27" base cab and extra counter depth would be worth losing 1" aisle width or not.

You might want to get out your appliances on an existing 24" base cab, mark up the appliance garage spacing with tape and the depth you need, and go through the motions of using them to see how it feels to you.

Hope that helps.

Ah, yes, that helps immensely. Thank you! Time to get out the appliances and see how they measure up on my existing 24 inch countertop. I am going with custom cabinetry so I should be ok.