Take it down and return it, or sell it on eBay or Craig's list...cut your loses now and get one that fits...your new kitchen shouldn't make you stress

Unfortunately it seems that I cannot find an over the range microwave that is the same depth of my upper cabinets 12 inches. I asked my contractor for a price to move my cabinets 4 inches out from the wall so that the microwave and cabinet faces line up.

Yes, do that

Agreed - furring out the cabinets should be relatively inexpensive and easy, especially if you haven't installed the backsplash yet. Maybe you can use that 4" to create a channel for the LED rope, as a bonus.

The other option I am debating about is to forgo the microwave range hood and put in a pro style range hood. Kitchen Is supposed to modernist style. Are microwave range hoods becoming less vogue ?

Hi

I would move the cabinets out.

Best of luck !

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Your microwave looks unusually high to me - all your cabinets do. Perhaps it is just an illusion. I can barely reach a microwave on a cabinet shelf, and I think that one would be hard for me to use - and my equally short teen daughter. If it is fine for you, not a problem, but if kids will be using it, rethink its placement. You do not want to have to help a 10 year old microwave something.

If you move your cabinets out, you lose precious adequate prep area. 16" uppers are too deep. Move the microwave and get a proper wall hood.

Uppers are 24 inches off Of the finished countertop. 18" is to low in my opinion, makes the kitchen seem dark and cramped when working. Microwave is 21 inches off of the stove top. I think I will remove the microwave and go with a traditional range hood. Issue is I hate countertop microwaves and don't have space for a builtin

24?! Wow. Are u tall? Mine are 21 and I can barely reach second shelf

All upper cabinets are 12 inches deep. That's the standard. If you pull them out, then it's hard to do any work on the countertop because the uppers are in the way.

Kitchens are workspaces, not showplaces. Don't hobble your workspace just for some perceived problem--especially a 'problem' that everyone else lives with (because all cabinets are 12" deep and over-range microwaves are deeper).

OTOH, I think over-range microwaves are dumb. That's just a bad place for a microwave and the fans are often ineffectual. Putting the microwave there moves all cooking to one place in the kitchen and causes traffic jams.

I agree with tatts. Unfortunately, if you wanted microwave over the range, this should have been taken care of before installation. A kitchen designer would have known this ahead of time and given you alternatives for where to place the microwave.

I have been looking at Ikea cabinets and they are all 15". I spent a good deal of time in their example kitchens before deciding to move forward. They do not feel restrictive at all and offer a great deal more storage. I think the extension idea may work great. They have cabinets in the design you bought.

Trust me on this: over the range microwaves do not offer much,if any ventilation.

This looks properly installed, the problem is that you have a white kitchen, and the black sides are showing. If you found one with stainless steel sides, it would look more cohesive.

The microwave vent is at the top. If the microwave was more shallow, it would be blocked. They used to be on the front, but didn't have as clean of a look.