Nope- I think you are going to find those extra cabs really useful too for storing cooking oils, vinegars and such.

A 36" cabinet traditionally only has two doors. Even 42" tall 36" wide cabinets only have 2 doors. 3 12" doors looks too tall and skinny. There is no need for a wall door next to a deeper object like your hood or a pantry to hit that deeper object. That's what door limiters are for or choose a hinge with less opening ability. It also costs around 30%-40% more to do a butt cabinet and a smaller one next to it. Perhaps that is his true reasoning.

You could always do 6" pullout spice/oils cabinets on each side of the hood and then the two door cabs. Thats what I did. Although, I had limited space for spices other than that and it's easier for me to reach instead of bend.

Personally I think it looks fine. Frames your hood this way. And, it seems like it would be handy to have the doors open such that you can open them, see in, and grab something you may need while at the cooktop. You won't have to look around the cabinet door. Just my .02.

A cabinet maker should be able to make a 36" cabinet with two doors.

I have a 41" cabinet with two doors (opening right next to my fridge). Are your doors solid wood or veneer? I understand that solid wood doors may sometimes warp, but I don't see an issue with doors of that size if you are not using solid wood.

I don't mind the look in the drawings of three doors, but I think I would prefer two larger doors. And as Green Designs suggests, there are ways to prevent the knocking of the doors on the hood.

If these were my cabs, I'd rather have 2 doors than 3. Three doors look fine, but I don't think the function will be fine. That 10" cabinet is really skinny. I have a 12" utility closet that is really skinny and I can't imagine getting a lot of useable real estate from a 10" cupboard. If your cabinet maker really can't make this a single cabinet, then perhaps you ought to follow jterrilyn's advise and make the skinny guys into pull-outs.

33" of cabinet with 2 doors and he's talking about warping? Doesn't make sense. Maybe the slab style will help it from being too busy but I agree that a 10" wide cab is awfully skinny.

Go with 2 doors.

Thanks to all for your perspectives. I will have to question him further. Sochi - they are solid wood. Jterrily - I really like your pull out idea. Thank you!

I think it may be better to have those thinner cabinets that open away from the range. The larger cabs will open toward the range, right? Then you have to reach around the door. Unless you need to store something wide in there, I would go with the narrower ones.

Nancy

You guys are so helpful! After obsessing about this for 24 hours and considering all your input, we are going to change the single skinny cabs framing the range to 7" pullouts and make the other set of uppers slightly larger. We are also going to eliminate one of the pullouts on the lower prt (marked spice pullout) and make those drawers 30ish". I am truly thankful to you all and am feeling so much better.

Just FYI about the now lack of synergy in the lower part, there is an island in front of this wall, so I don't think it will be very noticeable.