Your thoughts are good considerations. Blending a large refrig with the cabinetry can also be a good idea when a kitchen is small. So I think your plan is good - but would have to drive somewhere far with a cabinet door or large paint sample first!

Since you haven't painted them yet you could adjust the color to complement the refrig, but I would still want that worked out to make sure I liked the white tones.

The specs should say what color the sides are. Sometimes they are black!

This post was edited by snookums2 on Sat, Mar 15, 14 at 13:28

You could get wood cabinet panels for the frig & paint them BM Decorators White? The cabinet panels are frequently cheaper than stainless steel.
Edit: That's a pretty frig. I'd pick a white paint for your cabinets that blends with the White Ice.

This post was edited by romy718 on Sat, Mar 15, 14 at 19:39

I love the white ice look and would have considered it if our cabinets were more white than almond. I googled and found this link to a picture that I believe shows white sides. Hope that helps!

Here is a link that might be useful: White ice fridge side

The white sides are NOT the same glossy finish as the front. It.s the standard white metal look. I would choose it over the fake stainless though with white cabinets. But in a french door configuration, not a side by side. You get MUCH better storage with the full width of the whole fridge shelving than if you cut it in half like a side by side does. You can fit a pizza box or a sheet cake in the french door, but not in a side by side.

I'd also recommend the KitchenAid brand of the Whirltag conglomerate over either the Wirlpool, Maytag, or JennAir. You get sucky customer service with all of them, but greater reliability with the KA so you may not have to interact with them as much. They offer a glossy white that isn't as sexy sounding as ''White Ice''but it looks just fine with white cabs.

Advice appreciated! And thanks for the link, sum5463! The video on that page helps clarify, too, though that fridge is mostly hidden on the sides. (Oh, if only I were a blogger! I too would make a video where I was over-the-moon about my new free appliances!)

Re: the cabinet color. I think the Benj. Moore "decorators white" is very slightly green, so there may well be a danger of dinginess against the "white ice." At least in sample size the paint looked smashing with countertop and backsplash materials, which are in fact being installed this coming week (huzzah!) The underside of the top cabinets is also being painted this week, before the undercabinet lighting goes in, but the cabinet faces won't be painted for a while yet, since the painter likes to be last. So I don't know if at this point I can change my mind about which white I want on the cabinet faces. Maybe I will just have to paint a cabinet door and trek to the nearest big city in search of a real live white ice appliance.

I also have to think about whether the white ice "ipod" style cues will fit. Maybe -- the cabinets are simple in style, and my new breakfast-area light fixture will be pretty modern. It's such a huge change from the brown early 80s that it's hard to visualize, and I'm lousy at visualizing to begin with.

Here follows a bit of rambling re: model choice. This model fits under the existing cabinets; other counterdepth models I have looked at tend to be a little too tall. Capacity is not an issue for me; in fact I have so much extra space in my current 18cf fridge that I store about a dozen large bottles of nonperishables like fizzy water -- because a fuller fridge is more efficient than a mostly empty one.

Which reminds, me, some of those bottles have been in there more than a year. I probably should move them around! :)

I thought about a 24"/apartment-size one as more suited to my own habits. I cook when I'm home, but I travel a lot, so I don't keep huge amounts of fresh food on hand. But I have a 36" x 69" space to fill. A smaller fridge, even the 28" x 65" one that's there now, looks awkward. And I'd have to buy a fullsize one anyway if I were selling the house.

I want the side-by-side because I use the freezer mostly for single-serving leftovers; having those on shelves in plain sight, so that I can see at a glance what's there, is a bigger priority for me than storing large fresh or frozen things: there has never been an occasion when I wanted to put a pizza box or a sheet cake in my fridge.

So I have really thought about usefulness; it's just that I use my fridge differently than people who find the french-door style useful.

Interesting about your SBS use!

The lighting in stores throws everything off but I still would want to check it out in person. So hard!

I have a Whirlpool SS fridge. Yes, the side are grey. Initially, I had the same concerns as you, but barely notice it anymore (my cabinets are white). What I do notice is that the SS front is very difficult to keep clean. Everything marks it, fingers, damp cloths, even if just a fingernail touches it. I tried a couple of SS cleaners, but they just seem to make an oily residue, which makes marks darker.
My fridge is only 3 yrs. old and if I ever have to replace it, I'm going to take a damp cloth with me and wipe it on the fridge. If it streaks like mine does, I'll pass on that brand.