We have this little nook in the kitchen that was actually part of the powder room that we moved across the hall. We want to put a little desk area in here and our plan was to put the stereo components in the uppers and have file drawers in the lower part of desk. The house was rewired for internet and integrated sound for the main floor - thus all the wires are currently exiting the wall at upper cabinet height to accommodate the components.

Now, the big oopsy - the upper cabinet needs to be 20" deep to allow proper airflow and room for the wires in the back. So now I am thinking this is too deep for upper cabinets - right? We can put them in the lower portion of the desk but then we lose our file drawer (really important to us). I have read all the threads on kitchen desks and know a lot of people have pulled them out of the kitchen because of the clutter factor although we truly feel we would use the space and keep it somewhat neat - I mean all that mail and kids paperwork and stuff needs to go someplace - and we don't have an office in the house elsewhere.

Now - I could also entertain the thought of getting a new nice laptop and scrapping the desk top computer (ours is old and was to be replaced with a new iMac). If I do this then I could redesign this space to be a built in and leave the stereo in the upper portion and file drawers below - yes?

We are placing our cabinet orders Wednesday ( I feel faint!) and this decision needs to be made pronto pronto. Help me sort through this and come up with a plan / redesign. The dimensions are 54 1/2 X 21" deep. I have pics of the space I can post in a few hours - off to lacrosse practice.