As I have shared before, our kitchen island is actually an antique hutch from our first home. It was left there by the previous owners so it’s our little special heirloom. We love that we have a piece of our last house in this house. I love the idea of an old piece of furniture juxtaposed in a kitchen. I added some trim to the sides and little legs on the bottom. The next step I wanted to do was to insert a microwave to it.

We took down the microwave from above our stovetop and made a hood for that space. You can read about that in THIS blog post. So this was the perfect place for our microwave. There is an outlet under the island, so that hard part was already done for us. I did some research online and found that you need six inches of space around the microwave for the ventilation. There is a lot of space to the back and top of the microwave. We had our microwave in a cabinet in our last house and I loved it.

The first thing I did was cut the opening for the microwave.

I painted the inside white and made a little shelf for the microwave to sit on. 

I nailed a few more pieces of trim around the opening so that it looked more finished. 

I love having the microwave inside the island. It’s virtually hidden from sight. It’s the perfect height for the kids because before, they would have to climb on the counter to reach it above the stovetop. It is a tiny microwave, but we have been using it for a few months now and it’s just fine. I’ve never wished that it was bigger.