check out this picture. I don't know about Miele but I have a Thermador integrated frig that looks exactly the same as the vent shown on this picture. (mine is bottom freezer drawer) The vent is above the toe kick. The door is longer than where the vent starts. so there is a small gap where the air circulates between the back of the door panel and above the toe kick when the door is closed. The toe kick is made of the matching material as the rest of your cabinets. The same is also true for Miele DW. This is hard to explain. Any appliance store that has integrated paneled Miele frig should be able to show you this. MY DW and frig did not come with any black toe kick. They come with nothing since the panels are to be custom made... Here is a link that might be useful: miele toe kick

Mine was initially left without - just piece of black metal down there. I asked the carpenter who was doing the cabinet installation about it and he made a piece for it and attached with velcro. He had to adjust it slightly after installation because the door kind of hit the toe kick piece when you opened the DW and dislodged it a bit. Once that was done it's been fine and in place for nearly five years now.

Thanks so much Dandylandy and marcdc! We will also have the Meile d/w & fridge - I hadn't thought about the toe-kick question. Thanks for bringing it up, and providing a solution. I learn something new everytime I look at this forum!

kitchen - funny story re the toe kick drawer. I was home when the cabinets were being installed ( by an installer independent of the cabinet maker)but I was in and out through the day. I came home to find him doing the island and he made a comment about the toe kick drawer. He didn't know it was there and when he realized what it was he thought it was pretty neat and mentioned he almost ran the toe kick piece over top of it. I thought uh oh because he had already installed the microwave base cabinet and there is another toe kick drawer under it. I told him this and his face sorta fell. He did put a toe kick under the microwave base but it was real easy to remove it. I am sure if your installer is the same person who made the cabinets this will not be an issue - just glad I was home to catch the slip.