Mine is a Kenmore, not stainless, with the freezer on the bottom. I love this design. The freezer pulls out and closes easily. Nice not to have to bend as often as I did when the freezer was on top--or even when I had a side-by-side.

And also nice not to have to move the cats (or dogs) aside every time I want to open the fridge.

Oh, that's an excellent point about moving a dog out of the way, Alisande, I hadn't even thought of that! Paisley is the worst about laying there, and even the cats are bad.

If it helps, here's a photo of the kitchen- the sink is black and the faucets rubbed bronze. What color do you recommend for me?

I used to have an Amana w/bottom freezer.. I wish I still did -- what I like about it was the fact that your regular everyday in & out of the fridge time has everything right there in front of your face... no leaning down to peer in the back of the lowest shelf to see what science project is growing there.... You can easily see all your science projects.... all at 'eye' level... I also stuck in a couple of 'turntables' to help keep stuff easily reached...
PS -- this is helpful when you are 'height-challeneged' as I am...

I won't be much help cause we have a side by side. I had to have the ice in the door (I use a lot of ice).

I've never had stainless appliances, but a long time ago I worked in the housekeeping department at Famous Barr and had to clean stainless drinking fountains.. so I will never have stainless. I don't like black appliances either... everything seems to "stick" to them.

So.. my vote is for white and an icemaker for those Margaritas! lol

Mine is the standard fridge-on-bottom; freezer-on-top model. I'm very happy with it, except for one thing. It's the kind with no door handle--just little wells on top of the door to put your fingers in to open it. Two problems with that--first, they catch EVERYTHING that goes buy--I'm always cleaning them, and they're a little tricky to clean. Also, if you go to open the freezer before the fridge has closed (or vice versa)--it's pretty easy to pinch a finger, because of where you place them to open the doors.

A few comments about freezer on the bottom. Theoretically, that's more efficient (cheaper) because cold air drops. However, in many of todays freezer on the bottom models, the freezer is a drawer. EVERY time you go into the freezer to get one product, you're pulling all your frozen food out into the warm room, and the food is being assaulted on 3 sides by the room temp air. I'm not thrilled at all with that idea. I can see a big difference in storage life between the items IN my top freezer, and the ones stored on the DOOR of my freezer. (I put less perishable things on the door--extra flour, yeast, things that a little temperature variation won't hurt to terribly much.)

I spent so much time replying, I forgot--did you ask about stainless? Not a fan of that. I've got one stainless appliance in my kitchen. It's got 2 major problems. Impossible to keep clean--there are always fingerprints, no matter how frequently you wipe them off. Second, stainless scratches pretty easily. The item I have is an extremely expensive one, and it scratched within the first month or two. After 35 years of being a homeowner, I've come to the conclusion that the safest choice is white. it always matches if you have to replace a single appliance, it's easy to see if it's clean or not, most of the enamel surfaces are pretty easy to clean.

I have the Kenmore stainless french door style with the freezer on the bottom and love it. However, if I had it to do over, I would not go with stainless - I would go with black. Even with just me and DH, it seems I'm always wiping the finger prints off.

I saw one advertised on tv last night....

It was a brushed chrome I think (that part didn't jump out at me so much) but it had a freezer on the bottom. With two drawers that pulled out. That way you wouldn't have to dig so far in to find what you are looking for.

I told Denny if we had money that would be what I would pick. I love the freezer on the bottom. And that one to me has the best answer to it all.

Now..did I remember what brand it was......sorry Nope I didn't.

patti

We have a Sub-Zero refrigerator...brushed steel with black mirrored front. Several pull out drawers inside with separate temperature controls. I love it...only complaint is that the door seal is so tight, I sometimes have a hard time opening it.

Upright freezer is same, but in a rear corner of the kitchen.

I find that the bottom freezer is more user friendly. The fridge is used much more often than the freezer. Less bending.

I have the black and like it. I also have the side by side w/ the water and ice in the door. I love that feature, but I hate the side by side and this is my second one. You'd think I'd learn. One of my BFFs told me I'd hate this and she was so right.

We have a Samsung french door with the freezer on the bottom and we love it. Everything is so easy to see and get out. You donÂt have to open both doors unless you want the big tray on the bottom (we keep our bread and sandwich stuff in it). The freezer holds more than our old freezer on top type and has 2 drawers to help keep things organized.

Color-wise, I would go with white. ItÂs classic, easy to clean, and matches everything. Good luck with the shopping, there are some good deals to be had out there right now.

I have a cheap fridge, and I probably wouldn't buy a fancy one. In fact, I would buy an even cheaper one, if i had it to do over again.

When we had our KitchenAid, all the bells and whistles were actually annoying.

I would get a French door fridge *maybe*, if my kitchen were skinnier.

I just want shelves, and places to stack stuff.

The reason I'd get a cheaper one is bcs it would be smaller. Mine has all the mechanism on the bottom, which means to get larger, the fridge got DEEPER, which means more stuff is pushed to the back.

Also, the fridge is bigger, which means I have *less* space in the refrig section (or certainly less TALL space; fewer places to stand a bottle of soda or a carton of milk), and I have to lean over to look in it.

I love your kitchen! What are your counter-tops made of? Very pretty. I just have a regular top freezer, but I've had the bottom-type and I like it a lot better.

I'd love to have a french door with the freezer on the bottom. I looked at them at Home Depot and lusted!!

Also, some cabinet makers make panels to match your refrigerator so if that appeals to you, you might check with yours and see if they're available. I like that look.

I think black would look nice in your room, but I'm not particularly fond of it. Seems like it'd be easy to clean (or not).

Ours is a stainless steel Kenmore Elite, French door with bottom freezer and water dispenser.

We're happy with the bottom freezer but are not crazy about the French doors. You can open just one if you want, but it seems we open both anyhow. Not exactly sure why we do this. The nice part is when the doors are both open, there is easy access to every part of the fridge. Easy to clean too.

The stainless steel is a breeze to clean if you spray a little WD-40 on a soft cloth and wipe. Looks wonderful when you're done.

{{!gwi}}

I have a black side by side, so I'm not much help except in the color department lol. It isn't any harder to keep the black clean Flamey but my kitchen is so tiny I wish I had gone with a smaller fridge. Mine sticks out far enough it doesn't interfere with the cabinets or the doors.

My cabinets are about the same color as yours maybe a hair darker is all.

Flamey, we had a one door fridge when we moved here. With the kitchen island, we could not open the door all the way. When Lori (daughter) remodeled her kitchen we got her old side by side. I got used to it. The function I like most is the water dispenser. The function I like least in the summer is the ice dispenser. It leaks, and ices over on the inside, due to high humidity. However, it works just fine all winter long.

Lori got a stainless steel, French doors, with pull out.

Personally I don't like hers. You have to open a door for water dispensing, as the spout is inside.

Yes, you only need to open one door, but most times, both get opened, cause the item you are looking for is not behind door number one. LOL

She loves the stainless steel. Her oven, dishwasher and micro are ss too.

Moni
ps, no magnets on ss fridge doors. :(

Flamey, we love having the freezer on the bottom.

I'm glad to see so many votes for a bottom freezer. I had one for years but now have a freezer on top - it came with the house. Bottom is much more convenient.

As for Azzalea's point about pulling out the entire drawer every time assaulting the food with warm air, that seems logical, but things are so solidly frozen that a minute or so of warm air doesn't make a difference. Warm air is really only coming in from the top because the drawer is well-insulated. My bottom freezer was easy to organize logically. Things just get jammed into the top freezer, are harder to see and get rearranged every time I get something out.

I keep ice cream, frozen juices and breads in the door of the current fridge because they seem softer and easier to use if kept there. I am not good at freezer management and often keep things frozen MUCH longer than recommended; only rarely do things suffer freezer burn or loss of quality.

Oh, and I like white. Your kitchen is beautiful now with white.

When we bought our fridge in 2001, we carefully checked the Energy Star ratings. The most energy efficient was the freezer on the top style. Maybe not pretty, but uses the least energy. I am proud to report it has not needed any repairs since we purchased it, a big plus in my eyes.

Hi Flamey!
Your kitchen looks so nice. My first thought was the wood panels for the fridge front, since it is visable from the front door. I was wondering if the french doors would be the same problem as the side-by-side. Remember though that those doors only extend out half as far as a full door. It looks like your island would be a good place to transfer things in and out from.

In my kitchen, I have a side-by-side and love it. We special ordered it w/o ice maker and water dispencer, and glad we did. Making ice is no big deal (just leave the responsibility with DH.) The shelves in the refrigerator are a full 18 inches across, so I have room for anything I'm wanting to store. In the freezer most of the often used things are either on the door or near the top. We have an extra freezer for long time storage.

Oh, another thing, our side-by-side is almond even tho the rest of the appliances are white. Because it is such a big thing, I thought it would "stand out" too much. The almond blended with our painted cupboards. If I happen to mention to a freind that our fridge is a different color from the rest, they usually say they didn't notice.

What ever you pick out, I'm sure you like it.

You've seen my "newer" Kitchen Aide black side by side. We HAVE to have the ice and chilled water dispensers in the door. We're spoiled to it. I was thinking like Judy. The island looks like it would be a convenient place to transfer the fridge food to if you decide on a side by side. Our Kitchen Aide has the ice maker in the door so that frees up a little more space in the interior of the freezer. I also like that the shelves pull out for easier viewing.

With our bad backs, we chose not to get the bottom freezer because of the bending and lifting and the weight of the freezer door. For young punks like you and Woody, that probably won't be an issue. We looked off and on for a while. They start looking alike after a while. LOL

Flamey, if you take a nice straight-on shot of your kitchen and fridge area and tell me what SS and what black fridge you're considering, I'll Photoshop them in for you to help visualize it better.

Jodi-

At my vacation house we have a great room so you can see all of the kitchen from the living and dining rooms. I have a side by side and I detest it. I'd switch to a bottom freezer drawer and a single door above it for the refrigerator if I could. It's a GE Profile and it works beautifully. I love the fact that it displays the temperature of the refrigerator compartment and the freezer compartment on the inside of the door. I just don't like the layout of the side by side.

It's also black and my cabinets are fairly close in color to yours - they have a maple stain on them. Our first refrigerator had the shiny black finish on it and it showed every finger mark. When we replaced it we went for black again but this time we chose the textured black and it hardly shows any marks. Our neighbor has a similar kitchen and I think her white appliances are just too stark and noticeable.

At home we have a Sub Zero with the matching wood panels for the cherry cabinets, but our cooktop, microwave and ovens are stainless. I don't have any problems keeping the stainless clean. Jodi's WD-40 tip works great and so does the stainless cleaner/polish that came with our Dacor ovens. I only wipe them once or twice a month.

Since you're getting 4 appliances do you want them to have the same finish?

We have an almond colored Maytag with a drawer freezer on the bottom. When it was about two years old something went wrong and it would no longer freeze. It was so new that they didn't stock the part so it took about three weeks to get it fixed and cost about $200.00. We joked with the repairman about never having any work because Maytag is so reliable and he said that was a joke and he was being run ragged. We were his third call of the morning. I do like the bottom freezer drawer concept but it doesn't hold very much. We do have a big upright freezer so that isn't too much of a problem. The almond color doesn't show fingerprints and is easy to clean. The repairman said they make appliances now to save power not to be reliable.
Pat

I have the french door elite by Kenmore,double door fridge on top and bottom freezer.I love mine and i have the almond color..
Kathi

We have a side by side with the ice & water in the door. That is a must for us. Ours is off white/beige. I have stainless at the coffee shop at church and I hate it! It always shows fingerprints and I am not into cleaning them every day!

I have a white fridge. The only thing I dislike about it is the material that the handle is made of. It is impossible to keep clean. It is a rough surface. My stove has the same material on it where the controls are. If you should get spaghetti sauce on it, you're doomed to spending 20 minutes cleaning it off. The handle on my fridge has yellowed and will not clean. I hate it. I will never buy another like it. It was from Sears, a Kenmore. My next appliances will be stainless steel or black.

Ooooh I just saw an ad for the double drawer bottom freezer in the July addition of the BH&G. Now I can't find that mag anywhere. I thought it looked really nice. If I find it I'll post the name.

I have a side by side with ice and water in the door and hate it. It looks like a huge fridge from the outside but really has no room on the inside. It's way too narrow inside. It's six years old and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I am hearing a motor noise back there. I can't wait until that thing breaks.

Flamey, I have a SS, French door fridge made by LG. I love it. The only reason I have to open both doors is to get to the extremely wide drawer in the bottom of the fridge. Its ideal for holding things like sheet cakes that take up extra room.

We have a Maytag with the freezer on the bottom and it's a textured black. I love it. We also have a Kenmore, with the freezer on the bottom, which is the "drink" refrigerator. It is white. In our old house, when we remodeled, we went with stainless on smooth black appliances. I would never do that again. I was forever cleaning smudges and fingerprints off the stainless...no matter what I used. The black, always seemed to have a layer of dust on it, even right after cleaning it. That bugged me! And the refrigerator was a side by side, because DH wanted the ice and water feature. I would never have another side by side either. It just seemed like there was never enough room and the drawers way down at the bottom? I think there were a few major science projects going on there. LOL

I won't be much help here, because our fridge is a side-by-side. However, I love it and we haven't had any problems with it in 6 years. It's a Kitchen Aid. My sister has the fridge that has a side-by-side fridge on the upper half and the pull-out freezer on the bottom. For some reason, I'm not sold on it. Hers is so electronic that after only 2 years the computer part of it broke. Fortunately it was still under warranty or it would've cost them $500 to fix. That's why I don't like all that computer stuff on them.

{{!gwi}}

Meant to say that keeping a stainless steel fridge clean has been much easier than keeping a white one clean. No prolbems at all, and we have 3 teenagers! So don't get scared by that. (I'm glad we can't use magnets because I hate stuff hanging on the front of a fridge. We use the side instead. LOL)

Sheryl

I found my magazine. The fridge with the duel freezer drawers on the bottom with the french doors on top is made by Haier. Not familiar with the name, sounds expensive. I like the look of it.

Wow, so many tips and ideas, thanks everybody. Tomorrow, when I have more time, I'm going to read over these again more slowly and start a list of pros and cons.

Jodi, I'll take you up on that kind offer, but it'll be Friday at the soonest. I'm so tired of the white appliances, I need a change, so I'm really leaning towards a black texture at this point, with a bottom freezer, possibly stainless trim just to break up the big block of black. (Say that 3 times!) Bottom freezers do come with ice-makers, right? See how much homework I still have to do??

Hayjud, if I trusted Woody to keep us in ice, there would be so much frozen water in the bottom of the freezer! Men are too sloppy IMO, for that job. Mine is, anyway.

And yes, I want all the new appliances to match as much as possible. The stove and micro especially, they will need to be the same brand so the handles and features match.

Thanks again, you have all been so helpful to me.

Stainless steel side by side with ice/water dispenser outside the freezer.

We really like it.

Keeping it shiny is easy.
I clean the front with vinegar or bleach (depending upon which spray bottle I grab) then polish it with Orange pledge.

Drawback: no refrigerator magnets and stainless scratches.

Lori