lower cabinet microwaves. Are they easy to use.
Comments (12)
PROJAN MOYER
4 years ago
PROCreative Visual Concepts, Kevin Strader
4 years agoIt is for us. We're not big microwave users (warming up leftovers, popping corn, defrosting) so we ended up putting it in a lower cabinet in our island. We bought one that would fit in the cabinet and were going to leave it open but I put the doors on and we decided we liked it better completely hidden. It's in the cabinet to the far left end of the island in this picture.
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OTR microwave - higher, lower, or in line with cabinets?
Comments (9)We currently have an OTR microwave - and will with the new kitchen as well. Right now, the micro is lower than the cabinets, only because when our microwave died 2 years ago, we bought a SS one to replace it knowing *someday* we would redo the kitchen and get all SS appliances. Then, the micro arrived and it was bigger than the one it replaced... Anyhoo, I am planning that the new micro will be in line with the bottom of the cabinets, and since I am doing 36" uppers, I am most likely getting an 18" cabinet above it. Since the microwave is also 15" deep, I am also going to get increased depth cabinets for that wall so it is flush. We also want to vent to outside, but don't have that yet so I don't know how that works... Since my husband is pretty tall, I think we will end up having about 21" from top of cooktop to bottom of microwave. I am 5'7" and too much higher than that would be a stretch for me, I think. HTH...See MoreHelp! Cabinet/microwave clearance issues
Comments (17)Thanks! As to the idea to make the cabinets over the sink shorter than the rest, my designer was adamant about not doing that, said it's not a good idea and it's way cleaner to have a "full set" of cabinets both for storage and for the look of the place. We have so little storage that I agree with her and if we have to jettison the higher faucet this week and find something shorter so be it. My electrician thinks we'll be fine with the 16.5 faucet (which is so pretty goodness gracious - a Kraus 60/40 for the 30 cabinet with a faucet that looks like a piece of sculpture for what it's worth). And the appliance store and the designer said don't worry about the blue light on the microwave - I hate it personally but the appliance store ALSO said it won't take the microwave back anyway now that it's been installed, since it's officially "used" at that point so we're stuck with it or have to spend another $250-$350 for a 2nd one. Which is not my preference. (and we can do it later if need be anyway)...See MoreAny photos of staggered height wall cabinets that extend lower?
Comments (23)We are exploring another option- seeing as there are some challenges to making a pantry in the kitchen itself happen, we are crossing our fingers that we can "borrow space" from the laundry closet area, which is opposite of the kitchen (near the opening of the "U"). The only problem is that there is a hot water heater that needs access so we will see if our contractor can come up with a clever idea how to manage that. There is a good 3 feet of space next to the washer and dryer between it and the hot water heater where we could have either a pantry closet made of walls and shelves or a pantry cabinet inserted into the space. We would have to re-wall in the present door opening and get smaller doors to fit another pantry door next to it, but I think it can be done if we can figure out how to not hide the hot water heater or at least have access to it if repairs or replacement is needed. If that is impossible we are back at square one and fitting a pantry into the kitchen proper- hopefully I will get measurements soon so I don't have to guess dimensions based on tile size, etc :-)...See MoreSacrifice only lower cabinets for recycling?
Comments (23)I am intrigued by the fact that many of you have mentioned composting. I have been composting here where I live for almost 30 years, in my backyard. Up until this last summer I have never had a problem. Suddenly, I had some rats set up home around my house and one even got caught in the garage. I think I have conquered the rat problem now and I now have compost in a galvanized garbage can with holes in it. Those little suckers chewed through the resin cans. And, they burrowed into the receptacle where I was composting yard clippings and were nesting in there. I thought that I had posted this comment yesterday and offer my apologies if it appears elsewhere. Compost can become quite smelly is it goes anaerobic. It takes some effort to keep it in balance. I have never found that the compost that results to be of any real noticeable benefit to anything, but I do it to keep it out of the mainstream trash. It is really amazing how so much vegetable matter can compost into a small heap. I even compost natural fibers from sewing and knitting, paper napkins and some other paper products. Right now I have a tomato plant growing directly in one of the bins that I decommissioned last season. I did mix in some soil with the compost. It was full of compost, but I can't say that tomato plant is thriving. Compost is not the organic gold that many claim it to be. I just can't stand to put all of the easily compostable organic matter into the garbage stream and that is the main objective for me-- to deal with it at the source. I keep two small galvanized buckets in the kitchen. One is for garbage and one is for compost. We don't generate very much garbage. The small compost, of course, gets emptied into the large can. We were in Italy last year and I saw that they have kitchen waste composting pick up. My apologies if I posted these comments twice....See More- PRO
JAN MOYER
4 years ago 
Cheryl Hannebauer
4 years ago
megs1030
4 years ago
Matt McLagan
4 years agoI read too many scary stories about drawer microwaves to take the plunge on the big price tag.
All brands are made by Sharp, so there's no one better than the other.
Instead, I spec'd a door top/drawer bottom cabinet that I'll put the microwave in and remove the door, or as Kevin Strader did, perhaps just leave the door on.
Worst case, I have a nice cabinet and can put a microwave on the counter somewhere else. And if it ever breaks, replacements are cheap.
jalarse
4 years agoI know that eventually the microwave will need to be replaced, it’s 17 years old. May have to bite the bullet and get a drawer microwave when the time comes. I like it under the counter out of the way and I don’t have to reach up to remove something hot.
shivece
4 years agoeandhl2
4 years agoskmom
4 years agoWe placed a countertop microwave in the working side of our island. I would’ve loved to have kept a microwave in the pantry, but my pantry isn’t large enough so this is the next best thing imo. We don’t use ours everyday, but we still want it easily accessible. The only downside that we have found is that it’s difficult to see the digital display... ours isn’t very bright and the angle is wrong when it’s down that low. However, that was really only a problem when the microwave was brand new and we were still trying to get used to which buttons to press when we used it. Really, for the most part, we use the same several buttons and that becomes easy to memorize which button to press and how many times. Getting stuff in and out of it has been very easy and I like that it’s not a noticeable feature in my kitchen. We thought about a drawer microwave, but we just didn’t feel comfortable investing that much money in what we consider to be a disposable appliance, especially one that we don’t even use daily. We do feel with a countertop model that we needed to have some clearance on the sides for venting, so there are a couple of inches of gap space around our microwave, that was easy for us to accommodate though because hubby designed and built all of our cabinetry.
sornbarry
4 years ago
Helen