Appliance Garage Cabinet Sizes, Door Types and Ideas

An appliance garage cabinet is a small cabinet that stands on the countertop, usually in the 18-inch gap under the wall cabinets, with a door that closes over the toaster, coffee maker or mixer so they stay put and out of sight. The standard size is 24 inches wide and 18 inches tall, which is exactly what fills that gap. We sell two: a straight 24-inch garage (Fabuwood Allure WAG2418, $968.50 in the Galaxy painted and stained finishes) and a diagonal corner garage (WDCAG2418, $757.25). Whether one works in your kitchen comes down to three things: how tall your appliances are when they're in use, where the outlet goes, and whether you give up prep counter or a dead corner.

We sell cabinets for a living and we build kitchens, so this kitchen appliance garage guide sticks to what you can order, measure and wire. It covers real dimensions from the spec book, how tall popular appliances actually are, the four door types, corner versus straight, full-height pantry-style garages, costs and the mistakes we see. If you are planning a whole coffee station, our coffee bar cabinet guide already prices a straight-garage station build, so we won't repeat it here.

Key Takeaways

• Standard size: 24 inches wide by 18 inches tall, made to fill the gap between a 36-inch-high counter and an upper hung 18 inches above it.
• Our two: Fabuwood Allure WAG2418 (straight, $968.50) and WDCAG2418 (diagonal corner, $757.25) at displayed Galaxy prices. Both ship unassembled, are finished per order (which may extend the ETA) and are not offered in Desert Oak or the Luxe oak finishes.
• Height is the limit: the outside is 18 inches, the usable inside is less. A Keurig K-Slim is 16.6 inches tall with its handle up; a KitchenAid Artisan mixer is 13.9 inches with the head down.
• Store heat appliances, don't run them inside: Breville's Toast Select Luxe manual asks for 8 inches of space above a running toaster and does not recommend enclosed areas. Pull toasters, toaster ovens and air fryers out onto open counter to use them.
• Outlet inside: plan it before the backsplash goes up; your electrician follows the NEC as your jurisdiction adopted it.
• Corner usually wins: the corner version costs $211.25 less and uses counter nobody preps on anyway.

Table of Contents

• What Counts as a Garage: Three Kinds
• Appliance Garage Dimensions and Standard Sizes
• Will Your Appliances Fit? Real Heights
• Appliance Garage Door Types
• Corner vs Straight Appliance Garages
• Outlets Inside the Garage
• Full-Height and Pantry-Style Garages
• Five Appliance Garage Ideas That Work
• What an Appliance Garage Cabinet Costs
• Frequently Asked Questions

What Counts as a Garage: Three Kinds

The term covers three different builds, and it helps to know which one you mean before you talk to a designer.

• Countertop appliance garage. The classic. A short box sits on the countertop, tucked under the uppers, with a door that comes down to the counter. This is what WAG2418 and WDCAG2418 are, and it's what most people picture.
• Wall-hung appliance cabinet. An upper built to house an appliance, with a lift-up or regular door. Fabuwood's is the WAC3018 wall appliance cabinet (30 inches wide, 18 high, 12 deep; $796.25 on the Galaxy grid). Diamond lists a "Wall Appliance Garage" with a vertical-lift door in its organization catalog. These keep the counter clear, but the appliance hangs at eye level and must be lifted down.
• Full-height, pantry-style garage. A tall cabinet with a counter-height shelf, an outlet and doors that slide back into the sides. It holds the most and hides a whole breakfast station, but it's a custom build (see below).

A garage is not the same as a slide-out shelf or a mixer lift inside a base cabinet. Those put the appliance below the counter; a garage keeps it at working height, which is the whole point for anything you use daily.

Appliance Garage Dimensions and Standard Sizes

The size of a counter-standing garage is set by the space it lives in. In most kitchens the base cabinets are 34½ inches tall, the countertop brings that to about 36, and the wall cabinets hang 18 inches above the counter, so their bottoms sit at 54 inches. A 30-inch upper then tops out at 84 inches. An 18-inch-tall garage fills that gap exactly, which is why 18 is the height almost everyone makes. Our kitchen dimensions guide walks through the full stack.

Fabuwood's Allure spec book (V.01.20.25, page 52 under Wall Accessories) gives the two garages we stock:

• WAG2418, straight: 24 inches wide and 18 inches tall (the drawing prints the width; the 18 comes from the code, as with every Fabuwood wall size), "designed to be placed under a 24″ wide wall cabinet," with 2-inch stiles. The spec book does not print a depth, so we confirm it on your quote.
• WDCAG2418, corner: 18 inches tall, with 12-inch sides running along each wall and a 17-inch angled front, "designed to be installed under a diagonal corner wall 24″." That upper, the WDC24 series, is 24 inches along each wall and 12 deep, so the garage sits in the same footprint.

Two stiles at 2 inches each mean the straight garage's clear opening is roughly 20 inches wide (our arithmetic, not a printed spec). That matters more than the 24-inch label when you are sliding a toaster oven in and out. The same spec book notes that both garages "ship unassembled" with assembly on site, and that each comes unfinished and is "finished per order," which "may have extended ETA." Order them with the rest of the kitchen, not as an add-on the week before install, and confirm the timing on your quote. Neither is offered in Desert Oak or the Luxe oak finishes; the appliance garage page shows the finishes that carry them.

The industry range in the last row comes from Woodworker Express, a cabinet hardware supplier that sells tambour kits. Depth varies most, and it decides how much counter you keep in front.

Countertop depth. A standard top is 25 to 25½ inches deep (our countertop guide explains why). A garage that lines up with 12-inch uppers leaves roughly 13 inches of usable counter in front of it, enough to set a mug or slide the toaster forward to use it. A garage built to full counter depth hides more, but it turns that stretch of counter into a cabinet. Both are legitimate; just decide which one you're buying.

Will Your Appliances Fit? Real Heights

Here's the question that decides everything: how tall is the appliance when you use it, not when it's stored? The outside of the garage is 18 inches. The inside is less, because the box has a top and the door mechanism takes some room. Fabuwood doesn't print an interior clearance, so treat 16 inches as a safe planning number until your quote confirms it, and measure your own appliances. These are manufacturer figures we checked:

The KitchenAid figures come from the KSM150PS specification sheet, which also lists the mixer at 22.8 pounds. The two Keurig numbers are answers posted by Keurig Care, the brand's support team, on Best Buy's product Q&A pages; owners there measured the open K-Slim at 17½ to 18 inches, so measure yours. The Breville dimensions are from Breville's US product page.

Three rules fall out of those numbers. First, depth is rarely the problem: a 14-inch-deep mixer fits a counter-standing garage but would never fit a 12-inch wall cabinet. Second, height in use is the problem: a pod brewer's lid, a mixer's tilted head and a blender jar on its base all need more room than their stored height. Third, weight decides whether you'll put it back: a 23-pound mixer you slide is fine; one you have to lift will live on the counter by March.

Toasters, toaster ovens and air fryers: store them, don't run them inside

This is the part most garage articles skip. Breville's North American instruction book for its Toast Select Luxe toaster says that when the toaster is operating you should keep "a minimum distance of 4″ (10cm) of space from the surrounding sides and 8″ (20cm) above," and that "Breville does not recommend placing the toaster in enclosed areas." (Breville instruction book, BTA735.) A 7½-inch toaster inside an 18-inch box with an upper overhead doesn't meet that. Other brands and other heating appliances, including toaster ovens and air fryers, have their own clearance rules, so read the manual for each one. The safe habit is simple: the garage is where the toaster lives; you slide it forward onto open counter, clear of the upper, to use it, then push it back once it's cool. Never close the door on a heat appliance that is running or still hot. That's also why the counter in front of the garage matters.

Appliance Garage Door Types: Tambour, Lift-Up, Pocket and Hinged

How the front opens decides the room you have inside, the room you need around it, and whether you'll bother opening it at all.

Tambour is the classic garage front and the one that suits the counter-standing box best, because it needs no clearance: it disappears upward into the garage itself. The Allure spec book drawings of both WAG2418 and WDCAG2418 show a slatted, roll-up front. The written spec doesn't name the mechanism, so if the door type matters to you, ask us to confirm it on the quote.

Lift-up doors are common on wall cabinets. Fabuwood uses a lift-up stay door on its microwave wall cabinets, and Diamond's wall appliance garage uses a vertical-lift door. On a garage standing on the counter with an upper 18 inches overhead, a door that swings up has nowhere to go, so this style belongs on the wall-hung version or on a garage with open space above.

Pocket doors are what make a full-height garage feel built-in: open the doors, push them back into the sides, and the whole station is exposed with nothing sticking out. Hardware such as Häfele's HAWA Concepta, per its product listing, covers door heights from 1,200 to 2,700 mm (about 47 to 106 inches), needs 110 mm (about 4⅜ inches) of "parking" space for the door and can be fitted "full height or half-height for over countertop." That parking space comes out of the cabinet's width on each side.

Hinged doors are the plain answer: cheap and reliable, but an open door hangs over the counter beside the garage.

Corner vs Straight Appliance Garages

On our Galaxy grid, the corner garage is the cheaper of the two, which is backwards from how corner cabinets usually price. It's also usually the better location.

A garage permanently takes a slice of countertop. On a straight run, that's 24 inches of the counter you prep on. In the inside corner of an L, it's the deep, hard-to-reach corner that collects jars and the kettle anyway. Closing a door over that corner costs you almost nothing you were using.

Prices are the displayed Galaxy painted and stained finishes at the time of writing; oak finishes and other door lines can differ, so the product page and your quote are the final word. The pair totals are our arithmetic.

The corner garage has one real cost: it commits the corner upper to the diagonal style. If you wanted a blind corner upper or open shelves in that corner, the garage changes the plan. Our blind corner guide and lazy susan guide cover what goes below the corner, which is unaffected.

Location rules apply to both. The National Kitchen & Bath Association's Kitchen Planning Guidelines say built-in garages "extending to the countertop can be counted toward the total countertop frontage recommendation, but they may interfere with the landing areas." That's Guideline 25; Guidelines 16 and 17 recommend at least 15 inches of landing area on the handle side of the refrigerator, and 12 inches on one side of a cooking surface with 15 on the other. Keep the garage out of those spots.

Outlets Inside the Garage

A garage without an outlet inside is a cupboard with a cord trailing out under the door. Plan the receptacle when you plan the cabinets, and put it on the electrical drawing with its exact position, because it's wired before the drywall and backsplash go up. Adding one later means cutting into finished tile.

• Put it low on the back wall. Plug bodies take an inch or two. An outlet near the top of an 18-inch box eats the height you just measured for.
• Ask for a double. A garage that starts with a coffee maker usually ends up with a grinder too.
• Corner garages: mark which of the two walls inside the corner gets the outlet. Electricians can't guess it from the cabinet plan.
• Code: countertop receptacle spacing and circuits come from the National Electrical Code as adopted, and sometimes amended, by your jurisdiction. Our coffee bar guide has a plain-English note on countertop outlets. Treat it as a briefing for your electrician; the inspector has the final say.

A garage blocks any under-cabinet light above it, so stop the strip where the garage starts or light the inside. Our under-cabinet lighting guide covers the options.

Full-Height and Pantry-Style Garages

When an 18-inch box isn't enough, the answer is a tall cabinet that works like a garage: floor to the top of the uppers, a fixed shelf at counter height with outlets behind it, shelves for mugs and supplies above, drawers below, and pocket doors that slide back into the sides. Open the doors and it's a full breakfast station; close them and it reads as a pantry.

It solves most of the height problem. An espresso machine and a stand mixer with its head up fit because there's no upper cabinet 18 inches above the counter. It also keeps the counter run clear, since the work happens inside the cabinet with the doors pushed back. Heat appliances are the exception: a toaster or toaster oven still needs the clearance its manual gives, and the shelf above counts, so run them with the doors fully open or on the open counter, never shut in.

The catch: none of the lines we carry list a stock pocket-door appliance pantry, so this is a custom or modified build. Expect to quote the tall box, the pocket door hardware, an interior counter surface that takes heat and spills, and the electrical. Plan it around the tallest appliance in use. Our pantry cabinet guide covers tall box sizes, and the wall oven and microwave cabinet guide covers the tall appliance cabinets that do the same job for built-in appliances.

A cheaper version: a 24-inch-deep tall cabinet with a regular door and a pull-out shelf at counter height. Less slick than pocket doors, but standard parts.

Five Appliance Garage Ideas That Work

• The corner coffee garage. WDCAG2418 under a diagonal corner upper, a double outlet inside, a drawer base nearby for pods and filters. Our coffee bar guide prices a complete station built around the straight garage.
• The breakfast garage. Toaster and kettle in a straight garage at the end of a run, next to the plates, with open counter in front to use them on.
• The baker's split. The mixer is often too tall to use in a garage anyway. Fabuwood's Allure spec book lists a heavy-duty mixer lift, MLU-B18 (60 lb capacity, for the B18FD base only, cabinet ordered separately). Ask us to quote it with the base, and let the garage hold the smaller machines.
• The wall-hung version. If you'd rather keep every inch of counter, a 30-by-18-inch wall appliance cabinet (WAC3018) holds light appliances you lift down to use.
• The pantry wall. Two tall cabinets flanking a pocket-door garage, for kitchens where the counter runs are short and the appliances are many.

What an Appliance Garage Cabinet Costs

Those are cabinet prices only. Add the electrician's outlet, on-site assembly of the garage (budget it with your installer; our installation cost guide has typical ranges) and the upper above it. Among the other lines we carry, the J&K, KCD, US Cabinet Depot and Mantra spec books we checked don't list a counter-standing garage.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an appliance garage?

A small cabinet on the countertop, usually under the wall cabinets, with a door that closes over small appliances so they stay plugged in but out of sight.

How tall is an appliance garage?

Usually 18 inches, to fill the gap between the counter and uppers hung 18 inches above it. Both Fabuwood garages we sell are 18 inches tall; usable interior height is less.

How deep is an appliance garage?

Anywhere from about 12 inches, lined up with the uppers, to full counter depth. Fabuwood's corner garage has 12-inch sides; the straight one's depth isn't printed, so we confirm it on the quote.

Does an appliance garage need an outlet?

Practically, yes. Put a double receptacle low on the back wall, wired before the backsplash goes up, and let your electrician apply the NEC as your jurisdiction adopted it.

Can you use a toaster inside an appliance garage?

Check the manual. Breville asks for 8 inches above its Toast Select Luxe while it runs and doesn't recommend enclosed areas. Store it in the garage and slide it out onto open counter to use it; the same goes for toaster ovens and air fryers. Never close the door on one that's running or still hot.

Can you add an appliance garage to existing cabinets?

Often, if you have an 18-inch gap under a 24-inch upper or a diagonal corner upper. The hard parts are matching a finish made in a different batch and adding an outlet through finished backsplash.

Is an appliance garage worth it?

If the appliances inside get used most days and slide in and out easily, yes. If they have to be lifted, it becomes a cupboard and the counter fills up again.

Get the Garage Drawn Before You Order

Send us your wall lengths, ceiling height and the make and model of each appliance you want hidden, and we'll return a free 3D design and an itemized quote within 24–48 hours, with the garage, the upper above it and the outlet drawn in. Start on our design service page, write to us through the contact page, or call 609-900-3358.