Thank you. It is full custom. Her drawings show it between the fridge in a surrounded cabinet and an angled cabinet. It is in the bottom half of a standard 12" deep 30" wide cabinet. The cab next to it is angled and also 12" deep, and then there is another 12" deep cabinet on the wall around the corner. I know this won't work.. although she keeps saying it will. She is not associated with the builder.

This is my kitchen. I have 12" deep uppers and my microwave cabinet is 24" wide (22.5" internal width). The shelf sticks out 2 3/4" from the frame of the cabinet (2"beyond the door). The microwave is a Panasonic NN-SA661S, which is 12 1/4" H x 20 11/16" W x 15 13/16" deep.

Scout.. thank you so much! That is exactly the information I was looking for. Are you happy with the height?

I am relatively short (5'3") and would find the microwave at cabinet height too high to be comfortable for myself. I prefer not to reach up to a MW and pull things down. It's why we have a MW drawer. Yes I lose drawer space, but I'm not reaching up.

I am 5'2" and our MW is a GE Profile PEM31SFSS
Profile 1.1 Cu. Our MW is in an upper cabinet, 18.5 inches over the 36 inch high counter. The cabinet is 16 inches deep, inset. 15 would have been fine, 14 would have been tight, but one could cut into the wall behind the cabinet perhaps? We don't use the MW much, so the height over the counter in a wall cab is fine. It would not work with little kids.

Do you know what MW you want? Seems to me that is your first step. There aren't may MWs that are less than 15" deep. And, when you look at the specs, they don't include space needed to allow back side circulation or if the plug pops out the back.

Also note - the Profile we have does not take a full size plate. A salad plate is fine. We haven't used it much, so no report on how good it is, but it seems strong enough for our needs.

If you don't have a MW selected yet, here is one site where you can put in your specs and see what your options are http://www.goedekers.com/appliances/cooking/microwaves/browse/depth-3,5.html

We are all 5'6" and above and are moving it from above the stove, although that is broken and it has been on the counter for some time. I was originally thinking the smallest microwave we could find, but I do think the dinner plate thing will be frustrating. I guess I do need to figure that out some more. Thanks.

Then you should be fine with it where your designer placed it. :)

Thanks everyone. We just went to a local store and spoke with a designer. She suggested bringing that cabinet out 18" and sitting it on the counter with a drawer or two under it. This would make it a bit lower and easier to use. Hubby doesn't like not having a landing spot that way though. The cabinets next to it are angled and go around the corner. She said that would be fine to keep those 12" but I think it would look odd. Any opinions? I did mention that to my KD ages ago and she wasn't thrilled with it either, but she is the one that keeps telling me a micro will fit in a 12" cabinet.

if you decide to the "bringing the cabinet out to 18 and sitting it on the counter", perhaps you could do a pull-out shelf (like the old style cutting boards) as a landing spot, since it sounds like you have room for "a drawer or two".

Yes, we could do that. I'm more concerned about how it would look going from the 24" fridge cabinet to the 18" micro one to the 12" angled corner uppers. Around the corner would be similar to this: