IMO, that's exactly where it should be. Who wants to squat to retrieve plates or containers and then squat again to clean up the messes that will inevitably happen from time to time? Our pop-up toaster has been under an upper cabinet for four years, and the cabinet doesn't seem to mind a bit.

I don't understand the justifications for locating the warmer at the bottom either, but if I have to venture a guest: A self cleaning oven gets as hot as 900F. At that temperature, it is very difficult to insulate effectively. If you locate the warming drawer on top of this 900F oven, it will take some engineering to maintain the warmer at a steady low temperature. At 900 degrees F, the air will be complete dehydrated. If the warmer is located right on top, the air around the warmer will be very dry and food will be dried out faster. If the hot oven is located at the bottom of all components, all control wiring, temperature sensors, sensitive digital electronic boards, displays, etc. above the oven will be subjected to very hot air. At 900 degrees F, hot air rises. dcarch

Mine's in the center drawer in the bank right beside my cooktop, and for me, that placement is near-perfect. I went with the middle drawer rather than the top drawer just because that's how my cabinetry line worked and so I could keep the top drawer for utensils. I use my WD mainly to warm plates, but also as a work surface for plating foods from cooktop onto dinner plates. For work-surface use, the top-drawer location would actually be better since there would be less bending. But to me, that one difference wouldn't have been worth expensive cabinet re-works or losing drawer space I really needed. IMO, the other critical location componant is how many steps away from your cooktop the WD is. If it's more than 2-3, IMO that's too far to be really useful for more than storage.

We installed a redwood ceiling in our bedroom years ago. Planned on knotty pine but it was a little too "tahoe-y" for our home; found the redwood and loved it. So it was an easy call with the second remodel. We looked at cedar too but couldn't get long enough pieces to work. But it was honestly a nightmare for the guy who installed it. Then the painters wanted to paint it white!!! At least we stuck to our guns about the ceiling. Well worth all the headaches. One downside of the roll out shelving w/in cabs is it's two separate actions to get to your stuff. Opening both doors of the cabinet wide enough not to nick the inside of the doors, then pulling out the shelf/tray. And I guess you lose a little square footage of storage too, as drawers w/o cabs would fill the space more fully. It is easy access though, as the sides of the shelves are low, and you're not reaching down into a drawer. I have serving bowls in deep drawers and have no access issues; on the other hand my warming drawer has open sides so it's super easy to lift platters in and out with the openness. If you do keep really heavy things like cast iron in just a drawer choose your handle carefully. My larger drawers on my island don't have heavy contents, but I can feel a little wiggle of the handle when I open them, so I'm gentle. Most of my cast iron is on the roll outs, and they are super substantial. (I told my cabinet maker they'd be used for cast iron.) Also, you're not pulling on a handle, you're pulling on the whole front board of the tray/shelf. I would have liked to have drawers for my "pantry" cabinet I think, having the same set up with cabinet doors and two ROTS. It's a lot of movement just to get to the baking soda. But the upside with that is once the doors are open and the shelves are pulled out I have access to both the top and bottom stuff (all baking supplies) at the same time, so it's all good. I think there are kitchen people steadfast in both camps. I gave in to my cabinet guy when he said having cabinets breaking up the drawer runs would look better. What ever combo you opt for, they both are miles ahead of the "old days" of lower cabinets with stationary shelves that you had to get down on all fours to see what the heck was lost in there! So glad to be rid of those.