Just use regular upper 30" high cabinets
which are usually 12" deep. Of course,
you have to add a recessed toe kick, if
you don't want it to be uncomfortable when
standing in front of it. By time you
add the toe kick and the top, it will be
about the
standard lower cabinet height. I didi
this for a small "junk desk" at the end
of a full
height and depth oven stack and it works
well ...... lots of junk (papers, pens,
letter
opener, etc.) alway on that surface.

Joe wrote:
I have a u-shape kitchen. It has VERY little counter top space because
the center leg of the U is broken up by a door into the backyard. The
fourth wall is entirely blank, and I'd like to add some counter-top
space along it. I can't put a standard 24" deep base cabinet along the
wall because it would stick out further than the lip of the door jam of
the entry into the dining room (any of that make sense?). Are there
shallower base cabinets one can order? How shallow do they go?
Could a cabinet builder make a custom cabinet of, say, 16" deep. This
fourth wall is about 6 feet wide. It is a load bearing wall, but I
could consider moving it back into the front living room behind it if I
had to go with a more expensive option.