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Ideas needed-I have a gap above new counter depth fridge

11 years ago

My lovely built-in fridge has died and will cost $7,000ish to replace. I hope to save $4,000 by buying a good-quality counter depth refrigerator but that means I'll have a 12" high x 36" wide space between the top of the new fridge and the bottom of the upper cabinet. I'd like to spend some of my savings filling the space with something interesting. Does anyone have ideas or pictures to share?

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Comments (9)

live_wire_oak
11 years ago
I know it's expensive, but the best replacement for your built in is another built in. A counter depth doesn't even come close to the same look and will hurt you way more than 4K at resale time because people will look at that "shortcut" and then think that that's an indicator of more shortcuts that they may not be able to see. A certain level of kitchen just requires a built in.
cam349
11 years ago
You can never have too many books :)
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I don't like it when there's a full fridge surround and the unit sticks out six inches, but a standard, old fashioned gap with a full sized fridge looks fine to me. It's more about whether it looks like you got the wrong size fridge for the design than whether the design works with a stick outy fridge. I've also seen where there's a full fridge surround that itself sticks out six inches. That's not ideal because it often looks clunky, but then the fridge doesn't stick out of the surround and doesn't look like a mistake. Much of this depends on what the norms are in your area. If build-in or integrated is the norm, having a big box store full sized fridge sticking out from a shorter surround is going to look relatively bad. In that case, a full surround properly fitted to the fridge, is the best idea, possibly with the fridge recessed into the rear wall. If you live in a place where most people have free standing fridges, and most aren't in built in surrounds, then a free standing fridge (full or counter depth) in a gap or a correctly sized surround, looks fine. If most kitchens have the fridge outside of the cabinets altogether--just in the open space at the end rather than in a designated space, any kind of freestanding fridge looks fine.
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Jumpilotmdm
11 years ago
A nice cookbook shelf, with a piece of wood to "stop" the books from sliding all the way back. No doors to hassle with matching, etc..
Check what counter depth means. I saw one recently that was still 27"-28" deep???
jjaazzy
11 years ago
Cookie sheet and cutting board storage.
tartanhabit
11 years ago
What jjaazy said. That's exactly what we have over the fridge - it has vertical dividers and we put trays, baking trays, cutting boards, pizza paddle.
July4
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks all, I have a tall skinny cabinet for cookie sheets and similar pans and am worried about adding anything that would require a door. The kitchen is 20 years old and I doubt that I could match the existing cabinets. I've been toying with the idea of having a piece of stained glass made for the space. Has anyone done or seen something like that?
GreenDesigns
11 years ago
Unless you are going to be living with this kitchen another 10 years and will be selling it at a 100K discount as a gut reno, the correct solution IS to replace like with like. You don't usually see SubZeros in suburban tract homes, so unless that was the case and the PO was a bit eccentric in that way, your kitchen is best served by having the level of appliances replaced with the level that is already installed. Anything less, and yes, you are downgrading the kitchen and that's a road you don't want to start going down if you want to keep up the value of your home. Even with the real estate market trending downward, there's always further down to go if a buyer feels that the home may not have been "kept up". A non built in in a built in's hole gives them more opportunity to think this was the case.
gr8daygw
11 years ago
I have seen people put a false stainless grill there that makes it look like the compressor is on top. Not sure if that would be an option or not as if not done perfectly it might look kinda hokey. Do you still have the stainless piece from your old fridge? A plain stainless trim piece running above it might look kind of nice actually.
weissman
11 years ago
Usually I say get what you want - don't worry about resale BUT in this case, I agree with those who say you should put in another built-in fridge. If you don't do it know, you will have to before you sell the house so you might as well enjoy it yourself.

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