It's purely a personal preference issue. Personally, I don't like paneled appliances - I like a fridge to look like a fridge, a DW to look like a DW, etc. I don't like having to hunt around in a kitchen for the appliances. Also, depending on the particular appliances you get and the particular cabinet style, you may not get a completely flush, even look - there have been numerous posts with complaints about panels not lining up properly.

A friend of mine who's a KD said that women tend to like paneled appliances and men don't but of course that's not universally true. There's no right answer - it's a matter of personal preference.

I prefer to see my appliances, it is a kitchen after all, and I don't think covering them with panels is a good use of my money. What do you prefer? My white cabinets are in and my appliances will be stainless steel.

Woman here...I prefer the look of the appliances! The only exception might be the DW...but it's not the look so much as the drips on the DW front...they show up more on SS than wood. BUT, I'm not sure I'd want water dripping on a paneled door every day either...

I've also seen quite a few paneled refrigerators that aren't completely paneled...you see a frame of SS around the sides of the doors and the water/ice dispenser. I think the best look is either the appliance or a panel that completely hides the appliance...not a mix.

I don't mind seeing appliances at all, but through a fluke I did have my new dishwasher paneled and I'm loving it! Every dishwasher I've ever owned was such a pain to keep clean of those permanent streak marks from the steam and drips. My last DW, a stainless front, looked perennially dirty no matter what I did.

So I'm not militant either way, but I'd now warmly recommend a panel for the dishwasher.

i like either. in our first house i didn't do panels; just kept all the appliances in stainless. but now, in our "forever" (i hope) house i'm paneling everything except the range, of course. no particular reason other than i see this kitchen as somehow a little "dressier" than the old one.

yes, i know that sounds very silly!

I have a mix.

In the working area of the kitchen, the main fridge is stainless and the dishwasher is panelled.

In the drinking section of the kitchen (aka the bar), the wine fridge has a glass door with stainless trim and the ice maker and undercounter fridge have panelled doors.

I didn't want to spend the money on a panelled fridge for the working area of the kitchen. I do like the look of panelled appliances, however. So I went with a panelled dishwasher. Wall ovens, cooktop and hood are all stainless, too.

The original plan for the bar was to have a wood trimmed door for the wine fridge, but I picked up the stainless trimmed model on sale. Plus, the look of the bar with a mix of stainless and panelled appliances would have been just strange. If you will, the boxes are arranged as follows:
sink base -- ice maker -- wine fridge -- cabinet -- bar fridge

Now imagine the fronts for mixed stainless and panelled:
wood front -- stainless -- glass -- wood front -- stainless

Compare that to
wood front -- wood front -- glass -- wood front -- wood front

I think you need to figure out what works for you.

I know lot of people like those panels but I'm not a fan of playing hide and seek with my appliances. To me appliances are part of what makes a kitchen and hiding them so they're not part of the design is like taking the apples out of apple pie. Also, I have read some threads where people have had trouble with the ones for dishwashers, refriges I'm not so sure about but dishwashers definately, something about sweating when the dry cycle is on.

Just needed to chime in to support the panel option, contrary to most of the posters above. We have everything we could paneled: the DW's, fridge, beverage center. The MW is behind a "garage-type" cabinet door so it too is hidden when closed. I love the look, have no problem even at my advancing age remembering which door is the fridge, and get a kick out of visitors suddenly realizing they can't find it. It's a totally personal/design issue, and there is clearly no right answer.

Couple of points though:

I am totally unaware of any "sweating" issues with paneled dishwashers that lukkiirish mentions. That seems totally spurious. If you look at the hundreds of posts from Miele and other integrated DW owners, I'll be surprised if you find any mention of such a problem.

Paneled appliances avoid the hassle of keeping stainless fronts clean and fingerprint free. There ARE tons of posts on GW regarding the difficulties in doing that.

Like anything, good panel fit is a combination of good appliances and quality installation. We had no problems with the Therm columns, Miele DW's, or the bev center sitting flush.

I like appliances to look like appliances OR cabinets--I do not like fridges that are paneled with visible frames, but I do like the totally integrated ones. Same with DWs.

I'm getting a paneled DW because I bought it before picking cabinetry and I didn't know what color to get. My old one broke.

I'm getting a paneled integrated fridge because, well, a few reasons. The builtins are a mile high and would look ginormous in my wee kitchen in stainless. Yet I wanted the integrated so nothing would stick out into my wee kitchen.
And you can see it from the street if the blinds are open. That bugs me for some reason.

Just to clarify, I have never had paneled doors, I READ IT HERE IN THE FORUM. Maybe a search will find the posts. And, to keep fingerprints off of the stainless appliances just rub them with a little mineral oil. Works like a charm.

It is personal preference, just not mine, it's an opinion that was asked for and one I was happy to give! :c)

My KD designed our kitchen with a paneled DW (for symmetry on either side of the sink cab). DH liked the idea, but was fine either way. I was adament that I did not want it paneled. I was in the "appliances should look like appliances" camp, and I happen to like the industrial/sleek/modern SS look. I finally capitulated (I don't even remember exactly why, maybe 'cuz I am a sucker for symmetry) and it was one of those "I am so glad I did that" decisions. I still love the look of my remaining SS appliances (micro, range, built-in fridge), but I am ever grateful for one less SS thing to clean in my kitchen--especially one that would be subject to drips and splashes umpteen times a day!

As much as I am even less a fan of paneled refrigerators, that beast is a PITA to keep smudge and streak free between cleaning lady visits (she's not the best cleaner, but she has me beat by a mile when it comes to cleaning the fridge doors!) so I sometimes have a fleeting wish that we'd done that as well. Very fleeting though, because I really do like the look of that bad boy gleaming in our kitchen :-)

I think all my friends' homes when I was growing up had panelled appliances, as did we, so to me that's what looks "right". And because integrated is "new", I'm fine when the frame, controls, etc., show. In fact, if I could have gotten a panelled DW with the controls on the face that I liked the guts of, I'd have gotten it. It's nice to be able to see the controls, and my old one has a red/green light for on and done which is very useful (I think the new one has an on light which shines on the floor but not a done one).

Since integrated is the way they do it nowadays, and since I'm getting overlay doors for ease of cleaning, everything is going to be panelled and integrated, except the cooktops and ovens--including the warming drawer. I LOVE it.

But I agree with the "should look like an appliance" crowd too, as in one shouldn't have to guess, and am putting lovely appliance pulls on them all so that there will be no mistaking. My big question is whether putting matching drawer pulls on the island will be confusing. I don't think so. They're much smaller.

That said, it depends on the look you want. I think my current black dishwasher in the middle of a run of medium oak cabinets looks particularly ugly. But many many lovely kitchens have been posted here with all the appliances, um, nude.

I only paneled my DW because that was exactly what I wanted. I did not want an extra iteration of SS in that location. I carefully placed the SS range/ss backsplash/ss venthood to balance the SS Fridge at the other end of the layout.
Casey

Another one in the minority - *love* our panelled fridge, DWs, freezer drawers (no microwave in our kitchen). You can definitely see that the fridge is the fridge; it is built in, not integrated. The cooktop and double wall ovens are as is, of course and I think it makes a nice mix.

What look are you drawn to when you see kitchens here or in magazines? Do you have a folder of inspiration pix? There's probably a preference there already.

Eliz

I also have a mix. I wanted water in the door, so I didn't panel my fridge. I hated cleaning my old SS dishwasher, so I paneled the dish drawers ... love how they look and no more polishing the front! And maybe because they're drawers, I haven't had any drips on the panels.

I also paneled my fridge drawer, but only because it's a new model that only came panel-ready. The panels aren't flush, and I wish they had offered a non-panel version. I also paneled the wine fridge so that there's a white frame that matches my cabinets around the glass door ... it's also not flush, but I like how it looks.

Wow! Thanks for all the great ideas and opinions. I've had a SS DW before and you reminded me of the difficulty in keeping it looking good. I've never had a SS refrigerator, but I agree that the real integrated ones look great paneled (I love those false drawers, rmkitchen!). Some of the others built-ins just look like a fridge with panels stuck on the front. I'm going to have a KitchenAid built-in, so I'll have to think about that.

I'm so glad I found this forum. Everyone is so helpful.

In a traditional kitchen, exposed is fine. One thing you may want to consider is designing the kitchen so that even if you get a full depth refrigerator, it is recessed enough so the sides don't stick way out into the room past the edges of the cabinetry. That is my one pet peeve about fridges. Pretending we don't see the sides (that are usually not finished the same as the door)

rmkitchen: i sincerely hope you don't mind, but i showed your fridge panels to my cabinet maker because i love the way you broke up the space with the false drawers.

i think i'm going to start a new thread about this. so i'm stealing your fridge panels. i hope you're flatted rather than put off; please take it as a huge compliment!