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Where is your microwave located?

14 years ago

Where is your microwave located?

I have a OTR microwave and I am trying to relocate it creatively so I can get a wood hood over my range. :)

Please share pics. thanks!

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Comments (20)

pinch_me
14 years ago
My basement stairs are behind my microwave cabinet.

It was a closet of absolutely no value so I opened it from the end and have storage above, cookbooks below.

I couldn't go all the way to the floor, the basement steps on the other side prevented it. I used almost every bit of space available and put my time capsule in the bit that was too far back to be useable.
jakabedy
14 years ago
Ours is in a reach-in pantry. Our kitchen is a galley with a reach-in pantry on either side of the stove/fridge run. When we renovated DH added an outlet inside the pantry and one of the shelves was already at the perfect height -- probably a bit lower than an OTR would be. This works for us because we have no kiddos.

I just had junk on that shelf before and don't miss the space a bit. And I LOVE having a nice, clean countertop.
(MW is in the pantry to the left of the stove).

Here is a link that might be useful: Our Kitchen
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Comments (12)
Ours is between the fridge and range, near our plates and bowls which makes plating items either before or after mwing easier. It's also very handy during cooking for defrosting or melting butter. We put our mw on the bottom shelf of an upper cabinet, similar to what you show. Instead of putting doors above the mw, we put in open adjustable shelves so that we can change the height of the space, if necessary, in the future. When planning the depth of your shelf, make sure you account for the plug behind the mw. Our mw plug stuck out so much, it made the mw sit too far forward on the shelf. Dh had to buy a flatter plug at the electrical supply place and change it out for the one that came with the mw. If I had it to do over again, I would have placed the outlet so that it wasn't directly behind the mw. As far as prepping, when our kitchen was on paper, I thought I would use the counter next to the fridge for most of it. Our "prep" sink is there and it's in front of a long bank of windows which seemed very pleasant. It turns out I prefer prepping on the peninsula near the range, even though there is no sink there. The sink is behind me and I don't find it a problem at all. I like the openness of the peninsula and the expanse of counter.
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Where is your microwave?
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Comments (32)
We are in the process of making changes to bring a back porch into the kitchen. So far, we've moved the fridge where it will go, and put the M/W and convection oven where they will go on either side of it atop base cabs....which are presently just sitting there. This height is very handy but I do need some place to set hot pots as they come out of the convection oven. Presently we do not have a stove at all, just a 2-burner hotplate, since I threw OUT the stove...don't ask why...and will wait patiently until I can install a 24" Berta range before deciding how to finally secure the two countertop ovens. My hubby likes to share cooking chores, like he cooks every other night, so I must keep his preferences in mind...sigh.....and put up with his abuse of my nicer pots. I have on occasion HIDDEN some pots, but not much room to hide anything these days. I had a OTR MW (GE Spacesaver) in the house destroyed by Katrina. While it did not get any storm surge, the salt spray totally destroyed all the electrical stuff in the house. I did not like it there to begin with. If you do not have a suitable out-of-the-way counter to set your MW on, then modify a cabinet just below counter height for it. Or put it on a lower shelf of a m/w cart. I suppose the new m/w drawers are the cat's meow now, but not for me due to no cabinets in my kitchen where they could be located. Here is a picture of the current set up for the fridge/mws.
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Can't decide on microwave location
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Comments (15)
I looked at the Mieles, Ofealia. I am OK with stainless and we'll have a lot of it, but they are so modern and sleek. Ours will be a few feet from a Bluestar range so clunky and primitive would be a better match. Same problem with the Gaggenau. Too pretty. (But a side-opening door would give us clearance to not have to remove some door molding I kind of wanted to keep, or save us from moving the door altogether...) If these things came in white, I could overlook their stylistic unmatchiness. That's nice, Kimkitchy--I guess we don't really need a tall cabinet. Hadn't even though of installing under the counter. We will have pretty deep uppers so we could do that without too much pain. It might be too high for me, though, but yours looks like it's mounted lower than normal upper cabinet height? I'll look at the micro drawers. They are interesting. I think we may go with a tall cabinet anyway, though--it does put the oven and micro at more comfortable heights and gives some much-needed storage with the drawers and the spouse cabinet at the top (the spouse gets all the very high spots). But I think I have some better ideas now. Thanks!
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where is your microwave?
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Comments (35)
The microwave has been hidden in our last three kitchens - inside an armoire in the breakfast area (15yrs), walk-in pantry (12+ yrs) and currently a wall of cabinet doors that hide the SZ fridge/freezer towers, two pantries and coffee station/microwave. Two enclosed kitchens and one open concept. Current kitchen. Microwave, far right. I haven't taken a photo with the door open. FWIW, just because someone doesn't like seeing appliances, doesn't mean they don't cook. We cook 2-3 meals a day and use the microwave several times each day. While I dislike seeing appliances in our kitchen, it doesn't phase me what other people do in theirs. And I would never be condescending, and make assumptions based on preferences.
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rhome410
14 years ago
Mine is in the bottom section of an upper cabinet. There is one narrow cabinet between it and my range hood.

Where you want yours might depend on how you use it. I use mine often while I'm cooking, so I like it handy to the cooking area, with close proximity to the fridge and freezer (since most of what goes in there comes from on of them), and also close to a sink for adding a splash of water to veggies, etc. and/or draining things. Some people use theirs mostly for snacks so place it more out of the way, so users won't get in the cook's work path.

My sister didn't have room for hers in an upper cabinet, since she has very few, so left an open area in the top half of a base cabinet. (She has a drawer or maybe 2 underneath it.) She doesn't use hers often, and usually only for warming a plate of leftovers or a hot beverage, so it doesn't bother her to have it lower.

Here's mine:
jolynna
14 years ago
Me, me, me , my microwave location is my pride and joy at this moment. It is behind the roll-up beadboard in the middle of the wall of cabinets. That was my husband's idea and he is very proud of how it turned out. I think he did good too.

Please excuse the hole next to my microwave location, my ovens were damaged in shipping and it will be almost 3 weeks before I get new ones. My raised bar is also not the best. The granite for it was dropped by workers, it is in a million pieces, and they are still trying to find a replacement that matches. Sigh...:( But, I am happy about where my microwave is so seeing this thread made me smile.
sw_in_austin
14 years ago
We had a custom insert built for our old shallow pantry closet that goes from floor to ceiling (the old pantry was standard door height). At the last minute I said, why don't we put the microwave on a shelf there -- I really wanted to get it off the counter -- so we had an outlet added. We thought about putting it behind doors of some kind but in the end we just left it open. It's out of the way but I don't use it much, mainly for reheating coffee or for my kids to heat up snacks so the location has not been a problem. I thought not having a landing space next to it might be an issue but it hasn't.

Here's a not-so-great picture of what it looks like (the microwave is that dark square in the light-colored cabinets):
From Finished Kitchen
shanghaimom
14 years ago
Ours is in a cubby at the end of the island. It is right in front of the fridge (leftovers) and pantry (popcorn) which are about the only two things we use it for. We don't mind bending down and I really like having it out-of-the-way.
palimpsest
14 years ago
Mine sits on the counter in a corner, in a convenient but unobtrusive spot.
sundownr
14 years ago
Mine is in a reach-in pantry also. Love having it there.
chicagoans
14 years ago
Ours is a MW drawer. I really like having the drawer -- keeps the counter clear and it's nice and roomy inside. It's one of my fave things about our remodeled kitchen.

{{!gwi}}

{{gwi:1591533}}
segbrown
14 years ago
in here
DallasAuburn
14 years ago
Great thread and some good ideas.
Shanghimom, PLEASE post more pics of your kitchen and your home. Gorgeous.
mdmc
14 years ago
Mine is in the wall next to my fridge.
jsweenc
14 years ago
Ditto mdmc
jbrodie
14 years ago
Ours is a drawer in the island and we love it! I like that the kids can reach it.
shanghaimom
14 years ago
thank you, Dallasauburn...I will get it on the FKB one of these days! I did almost all of my planning/choices via GW!!
Buehl
14 years ago
Same as Chicagoans & Jbrodie...MW drawer.
wa8b
14 years ago
Mine languishes on a shelf in the pantry. But then, the only thing I use it for is softening ice cream or warming pancake syrup. I could probably live without it.
ejbrymom
Original Author
14 years ago
What VERY helpful responses! THANK YOU!!!

Shanghaimom - I have never seen your kitchen before - it is LOVELY!! Beautiful.
cat_mom
14 years ago
Here's ours:

Here it is in a full shot of the kitchen:
three_daisies
14 years ago
Over my wall oven and near the fridge; moved from OTR and new location has worked great:

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