Galaxy Cobblestone Specialty Base Cabinets

An island microwave keeps the perimeter counter clear and puts reheating within reach of the people sitting at the island. Three decisions come first:

1. Which face. The bay goes on the working side facing the range or sink, not the seating side, where it would sit at knee level behind the stools. The open door needs aisle space, and the island clearance guide gives the widths.
2. Power. An island has no wall behind it, so the outlet for the bay has to come up through the floor or across the ceiling and down. That work is planned before the floor goes down and the slab is templated, not after the cabinets arrive.
3. Opening size. The bay opening is not printed on the listing. Ask your designer for it, then compare it with the appliance’s outside dimensions plus the air gaps its manual requires.

The BMC30 costs $81.25 more than the BMC24 and takes a wider range of appliances, and the island usually has the length to spare. Both are 24″ deep and 34½″ high. The site also lists each as a carcass-only loose part, GCB-BMC24-BO at $396.50 and GCB-BMC30-BO at $448.50; ask your designer what ships with them before choosing that route.

This is where a dark island helps. A black-glass microwave or warming drawer set into a near-black gray-brown cabinet almost vanishes; from across the room it reads as one more dark panel in the run, which is often what people want from an island appliance. Stainless becomes the brightest thing at knee height and is clearly visible. That is fine if it matches the range and fridge, and odd if it is the only stainless piece on the island. A white appliance would be the one thing everybody notices.

Buy the appliance with the cabinet in mind, then confirm the opening. If the brand you want only comes in stainless, the bay still works; it simply becomes a feature rather than a hidden one.

An island has no wall to hide against. Every end is seen, and the back often is too. Where a microwave cabinet ends a run, the matching GC SK MC microwave end skin is $50.05; a standard base takes the GC SK BASE skin at $62.40 or a full GC BEP base end panel at $149.50. The product pages also offer a finished-side option at checkout; confirm the charge there.

Order all of it with the cabinets. Grain varies from piece to piece in any stain, which is part of the look, but a panel from a later order can also differ in tone, and on an island you can see both panels from the same spot. The touch-up kit, GCB-TOUCH-UP-KIT at $62.40, covers the corners that stools and bags will knock.

The site lists these under plain base cabinets, not under specialty, and each needs a question answered before it goes on a quote:

• GC BOC30, $598.00: the title says a 30″ base oven cabinet, but the product handle says base open cabinet. Those are two different things. Ask your designer which one it is before planning an under-counter oven around it.
• GC KD30, $172.25, and GC FD18, $559.00: a 5″-high knee drawer, 30″ wide and trimmable to 24″, and an 18″ file drawer base at 28½″ desk height. Together they make a desk. They sit lower than the 34½″ island counter, so use them on a desk wall rather than tucked into the island.
• GC BSS3, $2,021.50: a 34½″-high base with storage accessories factory-installed. The listing does not give its width or say what the accessories are, so confirm both first.

The other odd base shapes each have a page: blind corner bases, easy reach bases, lazy Susan bases, return angle bases for a peninsula end, and drawer bench seats for a banquette. The whole finish is on the Galaxy Cobblestone collection page. A free design request will place the bay in the island and route its power on the drawing in 3–5 business days.