I love it, but I knew what they were going to be used for in advance. We have one for the toaster and one for my husbands coffee maker, grinder, beans, etc. Just close the door and the mess is gone.

This gets asked a lot on here. Some people love them (I do) and others don't (to the point where they remove them!).

I wonder if it's placement in some cases? Mine is at the end of a cabinet run, facing the peninsula. It's not in the way. You couldn't use that space anyway very well.

People who don't like them *seem* to be ones who have them in the corner (where it might be taking up more space?). I actually thought they were "breadboxes" when I first saw them! :) That's what I keep in mine. Turned out there was enough room for the coffee pot as well, and the coffee, and the sugar bowl. It pleases me to not have these items all lined up on the counter any more.

YMMV

We are putting one under the microwave. It will house the one appliance I just can't seem to keep clean -the toaster oven.

Now I'm wondering if I can install another one for DH's coffee pot. That is the only other appliance that will get to sit out on the counter top. That is one good thing about making your own cabinets, you can make changes on the fly.

That is why I keep reading on this site, I keep getting ideas to "fix" areas I wasn't sure about.

Cathy

I absolutely love mine. It was a requirment in my remodel. I agonized over where to place it and ended up like biochem: Mine is at the end of a cabinet run, facing the peninsula.

Perfect spot. Like bio said, it's an otherwise unused spot. My peninsula is my main work area so all my most-used appliances sit in the garage, plugged into a strip of plugmold.

And yes, I do pull them out to use them. I keep the toaster in there for one thing and would never use a toaster in an enclosed area. But additionally, because of where it is, it would be sorta difficult to reach inside to use the appls anyway. It's not a big deal to pull them out. My KA Mixer which is the heaviest of all sits at the farthest corner of the garage. Pulling it out is no biggie.

It helps that the peninsula stretches out in front of the garage because that leaves plenty of room to pull things out and still have all the other stuff you need sitting on the counter next to it.

I will mention that I'm not a fan of tambour doors and have a lift up pocket door. I'm also not a fan of corner garages with a small opening because it seems to me that it might be hard to pull stuff in and out of those. Those are my own preferences and different things please different people.

We had a corner one with roll up door in our last home.
I kept my Cuisinart and rice cooker in there. Yes you do have to remove them to use them, although the builder had put an outlet in there, there was also an outlet outside of the appliance garage too.
I liked it as it gave the counter top a clean look.

I'm one of those with a corner garage. It holds my mixer, large food processor, mini processor, blender, paper towel holder and some folders with current recipes. Plus anything I want to hide quickly!

It has a 4-plug outlet in the back, and have the appliances plugged in all the time. When I need one, it's just a matter of pulling it to the front. As lowspark said, when it's at the end of a run, the opening is larger and it's easier to get things out, but that didn't fit in my layout, and I find this works just fine for me. I also wanted a lift-up door like lowsparks, but the cabinets I chose didn't offer that option so I went with a regular door. It's the only thing I'm not crazy about -- it is in the way, but I'm finding it not a huge deal.

I think one of the secrets of having a useable corner garage is to have an angled setup so there's workspace in front of the door.

In my last kitchen, I had a recessed garage that extended into the adjoining pantry. If they'd done it the way I wanted, it would have been perfect . . . I loved it, except that it had a tambour door that never quite worked perfectly.

Garage closed . . .

Thank you all for the info especially the pictures!

IÂm wondering if the kitchen itself would make a difference here. For example, my last kitchen did not have an appliance garage and I didnÂt want one. Although that kitchen was smaller than the one I have now, the appliances were not ganged together  more spread out in the "Zone" theme (though I didnÂt know it then!).

In my new kitchen, they all ended up in the same spot. This kitchen has a small island, and very little counter space on the perimeter. There is only one corner where things can hang out and it looks really ugly with all those appliances sitting there together. I even moved my stand mixer to a cabinet because it was just too much. In my smaller kitchen, it lived on the counter just fine. So, this kitchen could *seriously* benefit from a garage IMO.