I am just pulling mine away from the wall a few inches to get a deeper counter. Mostly because of the 15" deep uppers and to get extra space for my faucet so its not so close to the window sill.

I agree with Numbersjunkie - just pull your cabinets away from the wall by 3", and make your countertops 27" deep. Don't forget that the countertop overhang adds about 1-1/2" inches.

A good solution indeed. Storage can be hard to find so it just feels wrong to waste the space.

Your concern about wasting space is misplaced. If your base cabinets were actually 30" deep, it might create problems. If the 30" cabinets hold base drawers that are 30" deep, you might need stronger drawer slides to support the size and the amount of weight hanging when the 30" drawer is fully opened. If you have base cabinets with doors that are 30" deep, it will be a pain to get to the back of them. And, if you have base cabinets that are 30" deep, your uppers will have to be 18" deep at least in order to reach them over the 33" counters.

As noted above, the better solution is standard depth base cabinets that are pulled out from the wall 3", with a deeper counter. You will need 15" uppers with this arrangement.

Are your upper cabinets going up to the ceiling?

Still working on overall design, but there will most likely be some to ceiling.

Thanks for the help!

If you're doing a DIY install, building a base to set Ikea cabinets away from the wall sounds like a giant pain compared to just hanging them on the rail. We installed our Ikea cabinets using the rails--incredibly easy. I wouldn't want to DIY what you're considering and I can't imagine how you'd install the uppers 3" further from the wall with any ease.

Benjesbride - you wouldn't install the uppers 3" away from the wall. As mentioned earlier, you need to get 15" deep uppers.

15" deep uppers are better because they easily fit dishes, platters and wide glasses, more easily than 12" uppers do.

Oh! I misunderstood since Ikea uppers only come as 15". I kind of forget that other manufacturers have 12" as standard depth.

We did what numbersjunkie mentioned for our pantry and fridge cabinet - mounted a 2x4 on the wall and the rail on the 2x4. That meant the pantry and fridge sat about 1.5" further forward than the rest of the cabinetry and the counters died into the end panels of those cabinets, rather than sticking out in front of them.