A Home for the Microwave

With our handmade kitchens, they are completely bespoke allowing you to create the space exactly how you want it. When designing your bespoke kitchen you want to choose where’s best to place this convenient appliance. Easy access is key, but you do want to save some space with it.

The microwave appliance originated from an American engineer – Percy Spencer. Percy worked for a company called Raytheon, developing microwave radar transmitters during World War II. In 1945, he noticed that a candy bar he had in his pocket was starting to melt. Due to this accidental discovery, he soon realised that microwaves could quickly heat food.

Microwaves have become a norm for the kitchen in recent years for everyday tasks when cooking meals, to leading a hectic lifestyle. These appliances can be an easy style of cooking but can appear quite bulky taking up quite a lot of space. It can be placed high or low, out of sight or within easy reach.

Are they something you use?

The classic location for a microwave is the countertop, but there are many other places where it can be placed to deliver a good functional kitchen. The modern kitchen is all about creating a multi-functional space for you and your family to enjoy. Book a showroom appointment today and speak with Nick our kitchen designer.

Our traditional cabinet making process is combined with the latest technology from design in 3D to sub-millimetre precision production – your new furniture will fit beautifully into your available space.

We use beautiful raw materials which are handcrafted by our skilled craftsmen from scratch. Mortice and Tenon jointed door and dovetail drawer boxes are some of the traditional methods used in the construction of the cabinetry.

Integrated into the handmade cabinetry

Integrating the microwave into the handmade cabinets is a perfect option for those who love stunning appliances featured in their kitchen. If you are creating an industrial style a stainless steel finish would be ideal. It allows you to choose where and what height it goes with the kitchen designer to plan for the perfect hub of the home. You can now have the perfect customised hole for your microwave with perfect reachability.

In this small retreat in the middle of Matching Tye boasts a period property from the 1800s complete with rustic wooden exposed beams and stripped back warm solid wood flooring. Our client likes to use a microwave within her busy family lifestyle and was contemplating where to place the microwave in her new kitchen layout. After speaking with Nick they came up with the idea of integrating this convenient appliance into the cabinetry.

The main cooking area is symmetrical in design, allowing us to split up one of the cabinets for the microwave. This allowed us to keep within the streamlined style but also creating a handy space for this multi-functioning gadget.

An island addition

Placing the microwave in amongst the panels of the kitchen island makes use of the available space, freeing up space for other kitchen cabinets in the main area. It makes it easier for the chef to work in the kitchen if the microwave is placed at the other end of the kitchen. If one is using the oven then another can use the microwave without bumping into each other.

In our Clayhall kitchen project, there were many places where we could have placed the microwave, but the best bet was to house this in amongst the cupboards and drawers of the island. It proved to be the best-suited place, out of view and within easy reach from the worktops.

Placed in a pantry

Day and breakfast pantries are becoming increasingly popular in the kitchen today, with many of our latest projects featuring these bespoke furniture ideas. They are the perfect place to store your microwave. It allows it to be hidden away and can be placed at the perfect height.

The pantry comes from the Latin word “panis”, meaning “bread”. In the late Middle Ages, a pantry was where bread was kept and food preparation was done. In Victorian times large houses and estates in Britain maintained separate rooms that were dedicated to food preparation. Today the modern pantry is making a huge comeback in British homes and is a cupboard built into the kitchen design that is charming and useful for all cooking ingredients. It also changes the way a busy family works and lives out of the kitchen.

The solid oak interior seen below in our Classic Shaker in Hadley Wood creates a great backdrop against the light neutral hues of the hand-painted cabinets in Farrow & Ball- Blackened. Artisan solid oak drawers fill the bottom of the space designed with easy pull-out handles storing the kitchens essentials, and shelves above for more storage space and quick and easy selecting.

This day pantry cupboard has been designed for all of the family to help themselves to their breakfast cereal, a simple but effective idea. The middle section has been designed into the very much loved ‘breakfast pantry”, where the microwave sits alongside the toaster and coffee machine. It’s a great place to house the microwave as it can be shut off from view.

Contact us today at Nicholas Bridger to discuss your requirements on creating your dream kitchen that will appeal to anyone who appreciates fine English cabinetry and an understated style – we look forward to hearing from you.