get the panel...makes no diff what color the fridge is. They IMO always look better than the side of the fridge.

OK- I just went and measured my fridge and panel to see if I could be of any help to you . .. .
If your fridge is 28.5" that sounds like counter depth like mine.
I have a panel on the side. It is 25" wide. The only part of my fridge that shows are the sides of the doors. My fridge is all SS (even the sides that aren't visible) but even if yours has black sides I'm sure the sides of the doors are SS. So, probably only about an inch of black would actually show if you go with the panel. Perhaps you could just get a piece of molding or trim to cover that one inch space so the black won't show.
Another thing to consider- will the panel be plain or look like your doors? Originally ours was plain but I was unhappy with that look and we ordered "dummy doors" for the panel. I think it looks much nicer that way.
HTH

Here's a picture of the fridge at my lake cabin - you can kind of see the side of the fridge and cabinetry. I bought a new fridge and had all kinds of anxiety about the fact the new fridges were a couple inches deeper than the old one. It really doesn't bother me now at all. All my appliances are pretty distinctly black and stainless so it kind of ties in with that - plus I have black-ish hardware on my cabinets.

dh said that the side of the fridge is 28.5" to the door. This means that 4.5" of black will be showing. Also just realized that the black will show on both sides of the fridge because the pantry piece is only 24" deep. I'm not happy!

The fridge in our new kitchen will stick out about that much too -- our fridge will not be counter-depth (according to GE's website, the case depth without the door is 28 1/4''). We are planning on having a panel beside the fridge. I think it looks more finished and also will stop things on the adjacent countertop from falling through the gap. Our KD said we could could get a panel that is deeper than 24'', so that it comes out to the doors and covers all the black side. We also plan to bring the cabinet above the fridge forward so that it is closer to the front of the fridge.

I don't remember how much the panel costs, but if you're deciding whether or not to get it, maybe check exactly how much it would be adding in cost and see if it's worth it to you.

I don't really like the idea of spray-painting the side or making a panel on your own. I think this might like amateurish (no offense to your DH intended!) and might cheapen the overall look of the kitchen. Better to just have the black side showing IMHO.

Will there be other black elements in your kitchen? I think that could be a factor to consider too. If it will be the only black thing in the kitchen, it will draw more attention to itself than if there are other black things to tie it together.

inky..typically a little bit of the sides always show with the panel such as pictured above. It's still better than the entire side, in my opinion. It's not a full built in.

I have the entire side showing on mine and would love to have the panel, with 3 or 4 inches only of the fridge showing.

I just realized that in my thread about molding, svwillow1 has posted a link to a picture of their kitchen that also shows a fridge with a panel and with some black showing - you might want to check it out. I don't think it looks bad at all.

Here is a link that might be useful: Look for svwillow1's link in this thread ...

First, is your fridge supposed to be counter depth? For some reason that I do not claim to understand, the fridges advertised and sold as counter depth all show dimensions of 24" without door and 28" or so with door. So with a 24" panel, yours will look pretty much like every other counter depth fridge in America (if that's any consolation).

Second, my KD agrees with all the posters re: needing to have a panel for a finished look, if a little sticks out it's better than having the whole side show.

OTOH (I've plugged in the new fridge even though demo doesn't start until next week), I'm finding that I like having the black MAGNETIZED side without a panel -- because of all those refrigerator magnets! (The black side is not obtrusive in my kitchen due to layout.) So maybe in a few weeks I'll be agonizing too....

I have a counter-depth fridge with side panel. The fridge sticks out 1.25 inches. That is the side of the fridge, not the door edges. The door edges must stick out to be able to open.
My first fridge had black sides and the replacement has grey. Personally i preferred the black over the grey but keeping foods cold was more of a priority so i must live with grey.
You don't even notice the exposed section after it is in place for a short period of time.
Like you pointed out you could extend the panel a little longer but you will still have the other side also exposed. I think it looks fine.
I will try to post pics. Took 2 but they aren't downloading from the camera for some reason so will need to confer w/DH once he raises his bod from bed.

The sides of our fridge stick out several inches. We have the panel. The sides are grey. If I had it to do over I would measure better and get a refrigerator with less depth. Now that's it's been in for a while I don't notice it so much. But I think you should definitely get the panel to go with your cabinets no matter what the depth of your refrigerator is.

Could you have the panel made deeper (to extend to the doors)and bump out the cabinet that will go above the fridge, or do they only come in a stock depth?

That's the problem: the panels and the upper cab only come in the 24". I'm thinking that maybe adding a matching piece of trim on the bottom of the upper cab to close the gap there and then maybe have two of the kitchen panels glued together to the depth to make it come out a little more. Probably if I just get the trim piece on top, the sides won't bug me so much. I think it's ridiculous that they don't make the panels in more widths.

Btw, I'm getting Decora in a light (Wheatfield) Shaker door style (Rivington). I love these cabinets but I'm considering going with another line if I could get a more built in look.

Anymore pics would be great!

Inkycrab,
Here you go: some side views of my fridge showing both the panel and cab sides. There is also a shot of the top.

Unfortunately that first fridge fit like a glove and there was at most a 1/4" of space above the top but when replacing I became very nervous on the larger size fridge not fitting so went with a smaller one. Big disappointment that whole thing. Anyways, we are considering putting a pc of trim under the cab to make it appear more built in. Someone here showed a piano hinged pc that looked pretty good. I will see if i can find it for you.
HTH

Here is a link that might be useful: Side views of fridge & panel

Here is a thread I found trying to find the one about the trim above the fridge. Lots of pics and may help you with your concerns.
HTH

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen Forum thread on Built-in or Counter Depth Fridges

I agree, just get the panels from the cabinet maker. If you try to do it yourself, it could end up looking home-made. Is there any room back there to knock the wall behind the fridge out - kind of like, recessing the frige? That might be another idea for you if there is room to do it. A few inches could be the difference between being happy, and hating it. Just a thought.

I haven't seen this and don't know if it would work in your kitchen....but something I would consider would be to use some sort of blackboard panel---it would blend in with the side of your cabinet, would look like the black was intentional, and would give you a message center (or a fun things for kids if you have any or if any visit often.) I'm assuming the fridge is at the end of a cabinet run.

Or even better, a magnitized blackboard (we have a smaller one we bought from Pottery Barn but I'm not sure how it gets made.)

This might be kind of a PITA solution, but if you really hate that look, is there any way you could recess the frig a few inches into the rear wall? That way your panels could come all the way up to the frig doors.

Here are two pics. The light colored kitchen is mine now and the dark finished kitchen is someone from the gallery here. This is what mine will look like if we continue on as planned. That little pantry to left of the fridge is getting replaced with a 24" deep pantry. I don't like it - no offense to this person. I wish I'd known about CD fridges before I bought. It's purchased but not delivered so maybe there's hope. I can't recess the fridge because there is a bathroom right behind it.

With Cabico, we got a 28 in panel and an 28 in deep cabinet. It was a little extra, but we thought it was worth it. Esp. since our fridge is at the end of the run, I like the look we ended up with:

{{!gwi}}

My sister has a similar setup (also Cabico, 28 in panels and 28 in cabinet) with a 24" pantry on one side and regular upper and lower cabinets on the other side, and it also looks very nice in the context of her layout.

I really like having the cabinet at 28" because it makes it SO much more accessible (much easier to reach up above the fridge than up AND over).

BTW, you might want to ask your KD to double-check with Decora. In our case, there were a couple of items that I wanted (customized pull-out door, and spice pull-outs in upper cabinets) that our KD said "Cabico doesn't do that". I asked her to check with Cabico while she was calling about something else, and they told her "sure, we can do that"! As good as KDs are, they may not be aware of all the "extras" that a certain cabinet maker can do. And, FYI, all you really need is the 28 in panels. A 24 in cabinet can be installed forward 4 in, by building up behind it (and you won't really miss the 4 in in the back!).

Get a 28" deep panel and a regular 24" over-the-fridge cabinet. When the cabinet is mounted, you just need to use 2x4's to bump the cabinet out the needed amount.

We used a 27" cabinet on the side of our fridge, and a regular 24" deep cabinet bumped out on top.

If your fridge is not yet delivered, you can change it to anything you like! Fridge sides are one of my main pet peeves and you have an opportunity to get rid of them, get the counter depth or whatever works to solve the problem now.

Check out this link and look for jejvtr's pics. It looks like what you are trying to achieve.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cabinet thread

I think you should get the panel to be deep enough. If they don't make them that wide, get an extra piece, or an extra panel, and piece them together. If the seam is at the back it won't show much. And then space the cabinet above out from the wall.

I was able to get a deep enough panel, at extra cost of course. I had much the same situation as you. I just posted pictures of my kitchen which should show how it worked out for me. The pantry to the right of my frig is also pulled out to line up.

Thank you all so much. I talked to my uncle tonight who owns a kitchen place (long story why I'm not using him) and he said semi custom lines should be able to make the panels up to 30" so I'm going to have my KD call them on Monday. If they can't do it we'll add to the panels from the back. We'll pull the fridge upper cab out and pull the pantry out and then move the doorway over to make it all work. I feel better about it now.

It'd be easier to just get a diff fridge and I thought we might get a CD fridge and just cancel the fridge I already paid for but dh said we saved $500 on it due to specials and then the price between the old fridge and new fridge could be up to $1,000 so he's no going for that. This is def. not our dream home so I'm not trying to sink a crazy amount of money into this kitchen.

Thanks for letting me freak.
Carol

Whoo hooo! We went Lowes today and they have a special order CD fridge just like the big one so we returned the big and got the CD depth and didn't lose any of our rebates, sale prices, incentives so we're only out $400 diff.