Revisiting Placing Wall Ovens in Your Kitchen Designs

As I have been working on developing my Appliance Workshop for this fall, I have been revisiting past VESTA Blog posts on appliances.

The Best Locations for Placing Wall Ovens in Your Kitchen Designs was my most read post, showing there is a lot of interest in appliances when it comes to Kitchen Design.

Here is that post again in case you missed it!

Many consumers are requesting a wall oven and cooktop instead of a traditional range for their Dream Kitchen.

There can be many reasons for this.

They may have a large space and would like to spread the cooking activities around the room.

They may want an oven at a more ergonomic height.

There may want special features only available in a wall oven.

Once it is determined that your client would like to include a wall oven or two in their new Kitchen, it will be up to you to find the perfect solution for locating it in their design.

Read on to discover some great ideas for placing wall ovens in your Kitchen Designs.

Traditional Placement

When manufactures began splitting the range into a separate cooktop and wall oven, many ovens were placed within a wall cavity, hence the word “wall oven”.

It was popular to build ovens into brick walls with many of them being placed on the back side of the living room fireplace that faced into the kitchen.

If there was no brick wall in the vicinity, the wall oven would often be recessed into a plastered wall.

Soon cabinet manufactures saw an opportunity to build cabinets that could house wall ovens.

The most popular configuration was to stack the microwave above the wall oven and in some cases add a warming drawer below.

This setup works well in many designs because it puts all of the ovens together and concentrates all of the electrical hookups into one place for easy rough-in.

Once the decision is made to stack the wall ovens, the next decision is to decide where to place them in the design.

In the Cooking Zone

Many homeowners like to have their oven stack near the cooktop for a complete Cooking Zone.

By placing the ovens at the end of a run adjacent to the cooktop, it will define this zone and also provide drop off counter space beside the oven.

To learn more about drop off spaces you should be providing in your Kitchen Designs, check out “A Beginners Guide to Kitchen Design”.

Within a Run of Tall Pantry Units

To balance the depth of an oven stack consider placing them beside pantry cabinets.

For a custom look ensure you line up the upper doors above the wall ovens and the upper doors on the pantry.

Also plan the width of the upper cabinets across the top to all be the same size. These small details make a world of difference in the finished design.

Beside the Refrigerator

The refrigerator is also a deep appliances that can balance the size of a double oven.

Todays wall ovens and refrigerators are much better insulated than those in the past so placing them side by side is an option.

Do check the specifications on the refrigerator door swing to ensure there is not a conflict with the wall oven handles before specifying these two appliances side by side.

Check out “Tips, Tricks and Traps for Reading Appliance Specifications” for more info on refrigerator swings.

In A Corner

Corners are often overlooked areas for placing a set of wall ovens, but it can be a great spot to consider.

If you choose this location for the ovens recess them back into the corner.

This extra 6″ or so will make the tall unit feel less bulky and adds a nice detail in the corner.

Perpendicular to a Counter Top

Having a landing counter near a wall oven should always be top of mind for the Kitchen Designer.

A solution to ensure this is to place the ovens perpendicular to a counter top run.

This type of installation allows the oven door to be opened with counter surface directly beside it.

Your design can still have all your tall units lined up with the safety of a counter top close by.

In Mid-Height Cabinets

Mid-height cabinets are often overlooked in Kitchen Design but they can be the perfect units to house wall ovens.

In most cases they will accommodate a double oven and they are perfect for placing ovens side by side.

The shorter height of mid-height cabinets could be the unique feature your kitchen design needs.

In an Elevated Base Cabinet

Another underutilized cabinet in Kitchen Design is the elevated base cabinet.

This unit is usually between 42″ and 48″ high and allows the oven to be elevated slightly above standard countertop height.

It is a great solution for placing the oven at an ergonomic height for the baker in the household.

Under a Cooktop

Installing a wall oven under a cooktop produces a streamline look.

Designers will choose this option to allow a continuous countertop line on that elevation.

It does take more planning on the part of the kitchen designer because you need to calculate clearances between the bottom of the cooktop and the top of the oven.

This set up is a great alternative to a free standing range.

Under Counter

Specifying a wall oven under a countertop will allow it to be tucked up tight to the counter.

This also allows a drawer to be placed under the oven for added functionality.

With consumers investing in multiple ovens for their Dream Kitchens, Designers will need to find unique places to install them.

There is never a one-size-fits-all solution for wall oven locations.

Hopefully the above examples will inspire you to develop some unique wall oven placements in your future Kitchen Designs.

I would love to see your wall oven installations. Please comment and drop in a pic below.

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