Mins is 36W x 18D. I like the reduced depth--since you do not use it as a prep surface and it's less included to gather clutter. Even at 18" the upper drawers are deep enough to store all the office type stuff. Make sure to put your outlets down below and install a grommit in the counter top to hide the wires.

Yes to grommits ....... that is something I will be doing thanks to GW : 0 DH already moved the power and phone jack thankfully. I plan on not putting cabinets at the bottom to accomodate room for a chair and pet feeding area.
I really like your "cubby holes", I could use that idea for school stuff!
Thanks for the input.

We were planning on a 27"W x 12"D base cab + wall cab + granite counter for our Message Center with one drawer + shelves in the base rather than all drawers---until it became a victim of our budget. However, I plan to add it back some day!

We hadn't decided on the depth of the top cabinet...either 9" or 12" since the counter below wouldn't used for prep work.

Counter: A 27"W x 12"D counter is plenty deep enough to hold the land line phone + answering machine + charge phones & cameras + a small message pad & a couple of pens/pencils.

Base cabinet: We decided on shelves rather than drawers b/c we wanted to be able to use it as a bookshelf with doors. One shelf for cookbooks and one shelf for phone books & directories. The drawer would have held miscellaneous desk-type things, but not a junk drawer. We were planning on putting 3 outlets inside to accommodate all the phones, etc. w/a a couple of grommets to direct/hide the wires.

Wall cabinet: The wall cabinet was going to be for our calendar + dry-erase board for messages + markers.

HTH!

I've linked a pic that shows ours below. Sits at the end of the pantry run. It's regular counter depth and about 3 1/2 feet wide. I find the area under it where a chair or stool goes to be just a junk catch-all in our house and I would have preferred all drawers or a lower cabinet beside the stack of drawers. We keep cookbooks and vases in the double cabinet and phone books in the single cabinet above the message centre desk and the drawers house a variety of things, including service manuals.

tess

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}