How about three doors?

I don't think 3 was an option and I am not going with custom cabinets

This post was edited by khallock on Fri, Mar 15, 13 at 11:08

How about compromising? ;) You could do two doors on the ends and open shelves in the middle. I did that with my peninsula. My shelves are also divided vertically into cubbies.

may_flowers - do you have a picture of that? I was thinking of that but then I could either go with a 24" cabinet in the middle with open shelves and 2 12" cabinets flanking it, or an 18" cab in the middle and 2 15" cabinets flanking it? I wasnt sure the small cabinets on the sides would really store much and I would lose some space.

To give you some perspective, our peninsula cabinets are 18"W x 12"D. In one we store barware and wine glasses three deep, including a row of wider red wine glasses. In the other cabinet we store all our china. The display cubbies are each 16"W. Our wall end cabinet is 14" wide but the opening is only 9 1/2".

I would choose the 2 - 24'' doors option. Will give you nice access to the cabinet.

I most definitely would not carve the space up with separate cabinets. Separate smaller cabinets will be more expensive AND you'll lose actual space (more cabinet sides) AND, the biggie is that the space remaining will be much less functional.