In my kitchen,m the fridge is part of my storage wall -- tall frudge, pantry and utiltiy cabinets with deep storage above them to the ceiling. The islands, for both prep and moving leftovers tot he fridge, sits right in front of it.

In the interest of full discolsure, this is the back wall of my kitchen and the original fridge location. It was a bit of a pain during meals because you had to go from the breakfast room all the way across the kitchen if you forgot the butter or salad dressing, etc. and the guys always wanted a drink refill. Some of the comments on our layout wanted to put the fridge closer to the table, which couldn't happen without putting the cooking right in the traffic path of the exterior door. We were able to put fridge drawers into a hutch in our breakfast room to serve the meal time beverage service, support the coffee service, some snacking and entertaining. That has become a favorite feature of our kitchen for us and guests. Condiments are still across the room (closer to the cooking and prepping areas though where we just grab them or put them on the end of the island), but we seem to be better about getting them out and to the table as part of meal prep and without beverage service in the way. Works great for cooking.

As you use your kitchen over the next several days make mental notes about how often you use the fridge for various purposes. Do you open it a lot during food prep.? How many items do you take out of it during prep? How often do you open it during non-prep times--i.e. breakfast, snacks, sandwich making, beverages? How many items go straight from fridge to table and back again?

I don't use my fridge during prep as often as I thought. If I'm making a salad, I go over and grab all the salad ingredients at once. When I'm making a meal I have a pretty good idea about what I'm going to be using and I try to cut my trips down by taking several things out at once. Most of the items I improvise with (seasonings, oils, etc.) aren't refrigerated and are stored in the cooking/prep zone. Sometimes I have to walk to it for butter or milk or eggs, but not as often as I thought.

I prefer to have our fridge near the table and out of the prep zone. It's accessible for non cooking/prepping activities all day long--which is how it is most heavily used. To me, keeping others out of my cooking/prep zone is worth the trade off of not having the fridge right at my fingertips.

We tend to use a lot of items from the fridge while we are eating. Having the fridge close by makes meal times a lot more relaxing and setting and clearing the table becomes less of a chore. Our plates and silverware are near the table so others can set the table and get items out of the fridge without crossing paths with me.

Also, I wanted to maximize window space in our prep area and there wasn't a good spot for the fridge. I like having lots of storage in my cooking/prep area for the tools I use. This is more important to me than having fridge drawers (plus I prefer to keep things simple-one less appliance to clean and maintain and no hassle trying to find something to fit the same space when it needs to be replaced.)

The fridge is placed between the kitchen and dining area. It's not terribly far from my prep area--it's a straight shot to get to it, no islands or peninsulas to walk around.

I think if your kitchen isn't huge, you have some flexibility on where to place the fridge. It's handy if it's near the prep zone, but ours wasn't in the old kitchen and isn't in the new kitchen (9 and 10 feet away, respectively, I think), and it's not been an issue. What *was* an issue in the old kitchen was a lack of landing space near the fridge, so we fixed that and it's much better. I think you adjust your habits to wherever it is. Make sure to have counter space near the fridge and near the cooking area for queuing up things that are going into whatever dish or coming off of plates to be leftovers, and you should be fine.

One interesting thing I didn't anticipate is the number of trips between fridge and breakfast table for us, though. Before, our breakfast room was closed off by a wall, so most food was prepared in the kitchen and then taken in. Now, the space is open, and it's not uncommon for us to bring part of a breakfast to the table and then go get things from the fridge (syrup, milk, etc.). Exactly the same footprint, but something is different psychologically now that you can see and easily walk over, I think. The funny part is that I spent months trying to find a 36" single door fridge we liked because "obviously" it needed to open towards the landing counter/cooking area of the kitchen. We ended up keeping our old single-door for the time being after not finding anything I was excited about---and now that it's in place, I've realized that a french door will be *great* for the space because of all the unexpected trips going the opposite direction to the breakfast area that are rather awkward with the single-door! Who knew. :)

Food storage section it is. A little island-on-wheels will help corral items around during prep. That way I can store my espresso machine on the landing area to the right of the fridge and have all the milk I need close at hand. Also, the landing area is close to the eating area. Win-win for all. Unless I get a great deal on refrigerator drawers. :)

We don't move a lot of things to the table from the fridge...at least not enough, IMO, to inconvenience me while I'm cooking/prepping. I need not only ingredients for the dish I'm cooking, but add-ins, and often start a 2nd dish while tending to the first one already on the stove. Seconds can make a difference if you have to leave or take your eye off the stove. Bringing everything back and forth by cart, then having the cart sitting possibly in the way would sure not work for me.

I have often said here that I am a selfish cook. I think my priorities are more important than those of someone wanting a glass of milk or some ketchup, so they are the ones who can do the walking. ;-) One thing I do want to make sure, though, is that when they do go after that milk, they're not in my work area...That the fridge is easily accessible to others without actually entering the cooking/prep work zone. This means it's on the outside edge of the work zone. Snackers and table-setters might have to be the ones who walk farther, but it's best if they have a straight shot to the fridge and back out.

I also put everything on the counter at once before I start prepping. But I have been monitoring my motions lately each meal requires 3-4 trips from fridge to counter. I am not going to have an island, so I was thinking about a little butcher block cart that can sub as a second prep surface and then pushed under the bar area when not in use. (It is these 3-4 trips I was trying to minimize.)