personally speaking a small MW sounds like a dream come true, but I don't use mine much. It sounds like you use yours fairly often, but also sounds like the smallish one you're already accustomed to has met your needs.

I do think it is a good idea to know 100% all of the appliances you'll be using before signing on the dotted line for the cabinets. a MW is not the end of the world in that you can get something to fit the space (obviously the one you already have would).

On another note... you mention a 21" wide cabinet, 15" deep flanked by two deeper cabinets. MW issue aside, I do think you should consider bringing that cabinet closer to the edge. I think it might be awkward reaching into the cavity to extract items from the MW... seems sort of narrow for that particulary if the dish is hot ... you have the potential to be bumping your elbows on the walls of the fridge and pantry units and hot liquids sloshing about. I'm concerned. I don't know... maybe just a few inches recessed?? maybe out to 20" with fridge and pantry at 25".

It may be too late, but If you can fit a slightly wider cabinet, you could use a GE Spacemaker II microwave. It fits on an opening in my 15" deep upper cabinet, but it is 23 1/2 inches wide. It is a compact microwave, but still fits a 9" X 11" dish. I think it is a really useful size.

If at all possible, I would try to get a wider cabinet...24" would be best. 24" seems to be becoming the norm for a full-size MW...at least when I was looking at them 18 months ago.

I also noticed that an 18-inch depth seemed to be common.

We use our MW quite a bit as well, for cooking frozen veggies, warming up leftovers, softening/melting butter, even the occasional MW dish and I have found that the full-size MWs are the most versatile.

Thank you all for your responses. I think if it is at all possible, it would be good to get about 3 more inches. I feel so stressed about this! It is the little things. Also, Mamadadapaige, your thoughts are good about being in a cavern. I think pulling the cabinet forward is going to have to happen for depth anyway!

Ok, wait a minute, I am so excited. I just looked at my drawings again. I was reading them wrong. She gave me room for a MW 15x21W. The cabinet is 36 wide! HALLEJULAH! I will increase the depth of the cabinet and be fine!!! I feel SO much better. Hope I am right now...

I have the GE Spacemaker microwave in an OPENING that is 24 3/4" wide, 11 3/4" tall, (and 15" deep). I am not using a trimkit. It is just resting in the opening. I don't think that you could fit it in a 24" cabinet. You need space around it for the air to circulate.

Here's my GE Spacemaker microwave. The opening is 24 wide, 12" deep, 13 1/4" high. The couple inches underneath provide ample vent space.

-Babka

{{gwi:1605834}}

Not meaning to add to your worries, but my KD spec'd out my planned MW very carefully using the mfr's dimensions, and the MW wouldn't fit into its cabinet! The mfr specs understated the actual size by 1/16"! After a long saga that I posted here (enlarge opening? buy trim kit?), I ended up getting the smaller version of the MW and adding a little bit of trim. I can easily pull the MW out for cleaning. So, I guess the moral of the story is to give yourself some wiggle room.

Here's a pic, fwiw.

Babka, yours looks very nice. How do you feel about the height? Is it ok? I am not going to change it at the point, but wondering...

Bluekit--I think I remember that thread. Thanks for the heads up. I am going to buy the MW before it is done.

Note that I have since figured out I was wrong--I have 36 inches to work with! Now I am worried about how to fill the fill. I have another thread started with that question :)

Babka, another question:
What kind of refrigerator do you have? Your kitchen looks great!

It sounds like you've resolved this already, but FWIW, here's what I went through in deciding on microwave location and MW itself. This turned out to be crucial to the entire kitchen design.

- I wanted double wall ovens, so, no wall oven/MW combo.
- I didn't want a countertop MW.
- I wanted a real range hood, so, no over-the-range MW.
- I could only have one ceiling-height cabinet, which was taken up by the double ovens, so no waist-heigh shelf.

Turns out, all that really cuts down your MW choices! It leaves a cabinet-depth overhead microwave, or an under-the-counter MW.

I found that most overheads are designed to be over-the-range, which are wide and are intended not to have any cabinet under them. The rare exception was the GE "Spacemaker" line, which is designed to be cabinet-depth. The most popular Spacemaker, that fits cabinets perfectly, was only 1000W, and maybe it'd have worked better than my previous wimpy microwaves, but I wasn't taking any chances. I cook a lot, but I reheat and defrost a lot too, and I need a kick*ss microwave.

And, I'm short. As it is, a regular OTR MW has me balancing hot bowls of soup carefully from over my head to pull them out. A cabinet-mounted Spacemaker is that much higher up, with the cabinet under it. (However, I have a short friend who has the Spacemaker mounted up high and she doesn't mind it at all. I would.)

Other microwaves besides the Spacemaker that looked like they weren't super deep, and could be accommodated by making that one cabinet deeper, were way too tall to be overhead, or there were venting issues, or various issues with trim kits to make them look built-in. It could be done, of course, but my experience with varying MW quality (and indecision about the value of convection), told me I didn't want to be seriously restricted in choices by size. What if the Spacemaker didn't work for me? I'd be stuck.

I kept coming back to my original vision of a *space* for a MW where I could stick in any old thing. That meant: counter (no), wall shelf (don't have unless I give up double ovens), or under-mount shelf. In the end, my KD persuaded me to go with a shelf underneath to put the MW, with the additional argument that MWs are ugly. My kitchen is still being built, so I don't know yet if this is going to work or not -- we may well end up with one on the counter. But therein lies the "logic."

The one thing I did learn though: kitchens are not modular. You can't make a space for something and fit in the appliance later, for a variety of reasons. The MW, of ALL appliances, I thought would be the easiest to change out, but it was one of the biggest and hardest problems to solve. I spent a lot of time at appliance stores with a tape measure, discovering one brainstorm after another that wouldn't work.

Even if you can't pick your exact microwave now, pick one that you think will work for you as a default, and use it as a starting point. But definitely start with an actual microwave rather than "most are...."

I have a bunch of posts queueing up about kitchen design, regrets, initial desires that seem non-negotiable that later you think "eh whatever", lack of confidence in decisions. MW location will be tops in those!

Kelleg- The height probably wouldn't work for kids until they became teens. Fine for us, no more kids around. The GE Spacemaker is "hung" from the cabinet above it in our kitchen, with the plug in the cabinet above it.

Oldalgebra- That is a GE Profile Arctica. 3 years old.

-Babka