the counter run that starts at the fridge side can be a "deeper" counter. Larger dimension, larger distance, from wall to cabinet front.

I have mine at the end of the counter run so although it sticks out it looks fine even without panels. You can see pictures of mine on the Finished Kitchens Blog.

We pulled the cabinets forward to be flush with the front of the fridge.

We should have switched the fridge and oven... which would have allowed us to open the sheetrock and recess the fridge, picking up 4 more inches of clearance around the island. Not a real big deal -- but (so far) the only thing I really would have done differently.

I don't even know why we didn't do it, to tell you the truth! Maybe we got tired of messing with things?

april_love, our builder recessed the wall (3 1/2 in.) just behind the refrigerator to accomodate a standard depth fridge with a more "built-in" look.

C.

Ours is at the end of the counter run as well, and we have deeper panels for it. It doesn't look "built in," but it looks fine.

The builder was suppose to recess into the foyer behind, but of course forgot. So, I ordered the cabinets deeper on just the Fridge/sink wall and left the stove wall cabinets standard depth. The depth difference is not noticable at all.

We had the same question/problem and the builder suggested recessing it in the back wall a few inches by turning a couple support 2"x4"s sideways.
Unfortunately a gas, water line or something prevented us from doing so.

This is what ours looks like with the intent of making it look built in.
The fridge is in there so tight I'm afraid we will never get it out should it need service.
Took two installers squeezing the sides to wedge it in there.

Jodi-

We extended the cabinets out 3" (simply to avoid a filler piece on the other run) and the cabinet vendor ordered us a 30" gable. We're really pleased with the effectively built-in look. It's a 22cuft fridge BTW, so not overly huge.

Oh mine sticks way out. We did not make the countertop/cabinets extend out because it would've made the kitchen smaller! And we live in a condo so walls can't be moved or torn down.

It has a panel on the other side like the fridges above.

Our fridge went in a spot where one side was flush with a built-in pantry, and the other side was adjacent to the range-wall cabinets (base cabinets only). We were stuck with the depth of the pantry, which left a little bit of the side of the fridge showing. So we pulled out the base cabinets on the other side to match. We initially planned to put a panel there, but the dimensions weren't workable with our stock (IKEA) cabinet components, and we didn't want to spend the $$ on custom.

So then I hit on the idea of building a wall to box the fridge in an alcove. It meant losing about 6" of base cabinet, but it fit the modern look of the house, nicely isolated the over-fridge cabinet (the only upper in the kitchen), and looked super-custom. DH and I built and finished the wall. We made it the same thickness as the wall on the other side for the sake of symmetry.

Before:

After:

considered putting in a panel on the other side

The fridge is at the end of a cab run, next to a wall. The cab installers used 4x4 pieces of lumber to frame out a little bit of an extension for the refrigerator wall cabs, so that way they would not be too shallow. We ordered an extra deep refrigerator end panel, and it works. It looks great and both french doors open completely up, which is important.

Here's ours.

We were able to recess our wall in back of the fridge ( I think he cut into the wall about 4") so it will look counter depth (I hope). We should found out next week!

Ours still sticks out a bit, but it's not the grey monolith it used to be. The countertop stopped at the refrigerator and the side and upper half were exposed. We reconfigured the cabinets a bit: removed one upper and lower cabinet to the right of the refrigerator and moved the refrigerator to the right. Made new deeper cabinets above the fridge and on the left. These were not quite as wide as the ones we took out because of the space needed by the side panels framing around the refrigerator. We considered sinking it into the back wall, but the stairwell was behind it. We did not bring the cabinets forward to totally enclose the refrigerator because we did not want to end up with different sized aisles on each side of the island.

Before (1 lower cabinet missing in this photo).

After

If I'd known beforehand, I would have done the nice thick gable panels like willtv and annac54.

AnnaC54 my refrigerator setup is very similar to yours. On that wall I have the refrigerator, double oven, and a pantry cabinet.

I'm wondering if an extended panel on either side of the refrigerator would look okay. The cabinet over the refrigerator would have to be extended as well.

The depth of the area is only 27 inches so extending the depth of the cabinets isn't an option either.

I thought that I might be able to recess the refrigerator into the wall but the cabinet maker told me he didn't see enough room.

AnnaC54 that's a gorgeous refrigerator!!! :-)

maybeiloveyou, your finished kitchen photos were really nice.

We are doing a MAJOR remodel of the kitchen. We are using the old desk area which was 30" deep to recess the refrigerator with the pantry right next to it. The entire area will be flush.

This will get the frig out of being the current "centerpiece" of the kitchen. One of the many reasons why we are remodeling.

Recessed refrigerator