Is this area over a range?

I have my microwave inside of a pantry and I love it there. Saves on counter space

This is not over a range.

Since this is not over the range, you can build a microwave shelf. Unfortunately, you do not have an outlet there, though perhaps there is one that is near. It looks like there might be an outlet under the cabinet to the left?

what is beneath that cabinet? can you take a photo from further back?

Fine, Get a stainless micro and trim kit. What is the problem as long as that isn't over a range or the sink? Call the electrician

That was designed for an OTR to be hung there, if anything is to be here. And it will stick out slightly, as they are all 15" D. The measurements don't lie.

A built in requires a cabinet. Of significantly more depth and size than you have available. Even an add on MW shelf will need to be deeper, and require a cabinet purchase and alteration.

Not to mention the electrical requirements. Nothing works without juice. If you don't want to do any of that, then you are SOL.

There is a plug in the cabinet above and underneath is just the countertop. My husband doesn't want an over the range bc of the fan underneath and the smallest one we found was 15 inches deep which would have it stick out 3 inches which he doesn't want either. He just wants to hang a shelf and put a small countertop microwave which at this point I guess is the best way to do it.

I think my job now is just to convince my husband that an OTR is the way to go. Thank you all!

There are microwaves which are shallow enough to work fine, but you do need a sturdy shelf, as they are superheavy. That space seems perfect, and it should look fine with a countertop model -- pick your microwave first and you could even get a cabinet built to give it just enough breathing space. The build-in trims don't add much, in my estimation -- you can get a little extra filler from the cabinet people to fill the gap if needed (or stick a cookbook there).

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Here are a couple that are slim in both dimensions (depth and height), which would be great for your spot:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/GE-Profile-1-1-cu-ft-800-Watt-Countertop-Microwave-Stainless-Steel/50149190

https://www.lowes.com/pd/GE-0-7-cu-ft-700-Watt-Countertop-Microwave-Stainless-Steel/50426808

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Haier-0-9-cu-ft-900-Watt-Countertop-Microwave-Black/3660958

That was just a quick search, so I think you can find something that looks nice and does the trick. You may have the most luck if you can replace the whole cabinet above with one that's designed to have a cupboard + microwave opening, but that will depend on where the cabinets came from and whether you can match the doors.

GE makes a microwave that is 12 inches deep. When we remodeled kitchen this year, I wanted the MW off the counter but not above the range. Our KD immediately knew that GE had a model that would work on a shelf that was upper cabinet depth. Yes, it sticks out a couple inches - part of that is the space behind for the cord/plug but the legs of the MW sit securely on the shelf. Because you are adding the shelf, it may need some re-inforcement - my shelf is part of the cabinet unit.

looks like I overlapped with acm