My microwave sits in a space built into the lower cabinetry in my island. I love the placement - it’s not at eye level, so I don’t notice it unless I need to heat something up. My son could be independent earlier because it wasn’t above his head. It has the regular swing out door, not the drop down door you describe, but I don’t see why that would make a difference.

In my previous house we also put it in the island when we remodeled the kitchen. It worked great.

Yup. In the house we sold a couple of years ago, it was in a 24" wide cabinet with two doors. On top shlef if the cabinet with put-out wire basket drawers underneath for storage. I loved it and now miss it.

I also have a regular countertop microwave in lower cabinetry. It’s on the working side of my island. It has some minor drawbacks... it’s difficult to see the display without awkwardly bending down. But since we use our microwave for only a couple of things (and not even daily) we notice that we only press the same couple of buttons and that’s easy to memorize. And to clean it out, I find it’s best to just sit on my floor while cleaning it. Those are the only drawbacks I’ve found using my microwave like this for several years now, and they really don’t even annoy me. I much prefer having it mostly out of sight. (Ideally it would be in my pantry, but my walk in pantry is tiny, it’s really more of a step in pantry, so no room for electronics in there. Perhaps in my next home!) Anyways, here’s a few photos! Note that we left room on the sides of the microwave for venting. And my hubby designed and built all of the cabinetry, so it’s not like I have a cabinet line I could reference. But we felt it was imperative to the longevity of the microwave to give it space on the sides.

Oh, forgot to add... mine has a regular swing out door too. I’ve never used a drop down door, and I’m not sure if that would be awkward if the microwave is down low.

Thank you so much! The wood on the island (and above the range hood) is walnut. It has no stain on it, it has only Waterlox on it to protect it from any water damage.

@skmom - agreed, it's gorgeous! Where did you get it?

Note that that those Thermador drawer microwaves are manufactured by Sharp (all drawer microwaves are) and you're just paying $500 extra for the Thermador brand and not being able to see the controls unless you're sitting on the floor because the Thermador control panels do not swing outward like they do on the Sharp models.

24" models:

• Sharp SMD2470ASY
• Thermador MD24WS

30" models

• Sharp SMD3070ASY
• Thermador MD30WS

@wiscokid, thank you so much! My husband and I picked out each individual board at a local lumber store. My husband designed and built all of the cabinetry including that waterfall island counter. :)