So, you don't like my brilliant idea of making the end uppers narrower than 36" wide, but 24" deep? :>)

I'll reiterate...we have decided NOT to have cabinet maker make the 42" wide appliance garage we had planned. We've been using counter for a few weeks now, and do not want to give up the space.

BUT, we have so much extra storage in our new kitchen, and with 2 lazy susans, our appliances can be tucked away and not take up counter space. Not sure what else you have in your kitchen. But in reality, a 16" X 11" space (once you count plywood walls) isn't going to store a lot.

I could take or leave the appliance garages (don't have them myself) but what concerns me is that you have less than 3 feet of full counter space on either side fo the cooktop. Not sure if that is a 30" micro drawer in a space marked 29" or a 24" drawer and a few inches beside it -- similar issue with the warming drawer. I don't know what other spaces you have in your kitchen, but I would want more space on at least one side of the cooktop. Just make sure you have enough space for prepping, laying out ingredients so they at easy reach while cooking and for plating or taking up dishes.

What's so wrong about seeing a toaster or a coffee maker in a kitchen? It is a kitchen -- a place for preparing and eating food.

My appliance garage is sitting in our garage because I just didn't want it once the kitchen was finished. I don't mind my kitchen looking like a kitchen with a few appliances on the counter but I'm in the minority on that. I agree with the poster who wonders whether yours are too small to be useful. Like drawers, you can get a whole lot more in one large garage than in two small ones. Good luck in your decision!

It sounds like I am in the minority, but I had an appliance garage before the remodel, and will have one after as well. Ours is relatively large, though, plus we have alot of counter space. I will put my toaster oven inside, and maybe my coffee maker.

Do you have an island or some other place you plan on prepping or will you be doing so next to the cooktop? If this is your prep space, I might rethink having them. If you have someplace else to do all of that and this is merely staging for cooking, that might be okay.

Do you need two of them, or are you a fan of symmetry? I think it depends on the rest of the kitchen and your plans for cooking. There are some really cool toasters out there if you end up keeping it out on the counter...

If it is just a toaster here and a blender there I guess there is no need to hide them. However if your kitchen is like mine -- blender, food processor, chopper, slow cooker, steamer, rice cooker, toaster and plan to add more (deep fryer, grill etc) then sure you need a garage so your kitchen does not look like an appliance parking lot.

I guess it is really a matter of how much you use them and how many you use....I use some everyday; some rarely but I cannot imagine hauling an appliance back and forth from the pantry ( or the lazy susans).

I have two in my garage as well. Dont waste your money as I did. It was the only mistake I really regret. Tried to sell and cant even do that. They just took up way to much counter room and looked funny too. JMHO

Here's my 2 cents. I dislike them because it breaks up the counter space and seems to make the surfaces seem more choppy. If you have a few daily use appliances out like a toaster and a coffeepot, then those don't seem to distract from the counter the way a garage does. If you use your food processor DAILY then just leave it out. And to me, the garage draws my eye directly to it, that is usually the FIRST thing I see - and appliances don't. To me it screams "I couldn't find anywhere better to put my appliances than leaving it on my counter."

oh and I forgot something else I wanted to add. All my friends who have garages - they become wastelands for whatever they need to tuck away quickly. Not only appliances but take out menus, extra utensils, something here, something there and the garage becomes exactly like the garage on your house. Useless for it's intended purpose. If what is living in your garage isn't being used every day then find a cabinet to tuck it into. it doesn't need to take up such valuable real estate.

Ok, here is the contrarian. I like my garages, a lot! I have one for my breadmaker, one for our coffeemaker, and one for our toaster. Before the redo, my counters were so cluttered that perhaps I went to the extreme. On the other hand, I have a large island and peninsula, so counter space is not an issue. I think that would have been my deciding factor...did I have counter space to spare vs. cabinet space to store?

Here is the coffee one. I like that there is still landing space there, since it is diagonal to my refrigerator.

Here is the toaster oven. The cabinet above holds the kitchen TV, which is on a pullout.

And here is the breadmaker garage:

So, after all this, as I re-read your post, Raehelen is right. 16" x 11" is not huge; it looks like its about the same size as my coffee garage. I have my krups coffee pot in there, 3 or 4 travel mugs, and my vitamins.

HTH!

We have 2 appliance garages and I really like them. I feel as though they "anchor" the upper cabinets and make the kitchen feel more cohesive. This is particularly true at the ends of cabinet runs, the way you have them placed. And I like that they are a quick space to stash clutter when I need to clean up quickly--much better than having the misc. items that accumulate sitting on the counter. Some may consider it a waste of space--I consider it very useful (we don't let items accumulate there for any length of time since that would impact the ease of pulling out the appliances.) Along with our appliances, we also keep tall bottles in the garages--we would have no place for them, otherwise (liquor bottles, tall bottles of olive oil.) They have also been used to store bulky snack bags when we accumulate more than the usual for guests.

I'm concerned that the proportions of your garages would be awkward. I think having the appliance garage narrower than the upper cabinet door could make it look like an after thought rather than an extension of the upper cabinet (but maybe that's just something that jumps out for me on paper and wouldn't make a visual difference in the actual kitchen.) It seems that the appliance garage is usually sized relative to the upper cabinet rather than the lower one.

I like the look of some appliances on the counter. We use our garages for lesser-used appliances such as our food processor, rice cooker and bread maker. Our toaster oven, blender, mixer and coffee maker live out in the open. We have quite a bit of counter space which may be one reason I feel the appliance garages work well for us. After living with them, I would consider putting them in again, even if they were just for extra storage rather than for appliances. In our kitchen, storage space is in more demand than counterspace.