I think a more important consideration is where will the MW and oven be in relation to the rest of the kitchen components (refrigerator, main or prep sink, etc.)

I recommend the MW be placed near the refrigerator and both MW & refrigerator be on the perimeter of the kitchen so they are accessible to both someone working in the kitchen as well as "outsiders" who are looking for snacks, etc. This layout keeps the snackers out of the way of the people working in the kitchen.

Another thing to check...do you have landing space for oven and MW? [very briefly, landing space is where you put something you've just taken out of an appliance or pantry]

Without seeing your layout, I cannot recommend a specific location for your MW & oven.

How tall are you? How comfortable are you with letting anyone in your family reach way up to pull a bowl of steaming hot soup out of the MW? I'm short with kids so I think you can see my preference.

OT, what's with the name? What's wrong with a blue kitchen? :)

Bluekitoobsessed, there's nothing wrong with a GOOD blue kitchen. As you might guess, mine is not good! I thought it would be when I painted the nasty dark stained birch cabs blue to buy some time before a redo, but I was so wrong! I'll post pics soon, and I don't expect any of those "why are you tearing out THAT kitchen" responses - lol.

Buehl, as soon as I figure out how to get my layout posted, I will do so because I'd love the input. Briefly, I have an L shaped kitchen with oven/micro, refrigerator, and cooktop all along one wall with sink on the other part of the L. I'll have an island in the center. But without the visual I'm guessing that won't help much.

thanks for your responses, Anita