No SUPER odd, but not as tidy as it might. The door will have to stick out anyway, so that could leave you with about 6" of fridge side showing. Can you pull the side cabinetry forwards a bit to cover it? Or knock a hole in the wall behind it?

Just be sure to get a fridge with sides that match--sometimes they don't!

Can you get an extra deep frig cabinet to cover the sides more? If not, I agree with Fori in that you need to make sure the fridge sides match up!

This may sound stupid, but why wouldn't the fridge sides match?

This is common since they keep making fridges deeper and deeper to get more capacity for existing width openings.

Is there a possibility of recessing it a bit? People have created niches for the fridge by stealing a bit of space from the romm behind or stolen a few inches by opening the wall and turning the studs sideways.

Some companies make side panels in a 30" width. Check that out, or perhaps you could combine a 24" wide panel with another piece of panel toward the back.

The other thing you have to think about with these deep fridges is the clearance with the door open, yours will be about 66" deep with a single door opened all the way, if it is a typical 33" wide fridge.

To answer your question, for a lot of the stainless steel refrigerators, only the front is SS. The sides are frequently black.

Thanks for all the help.

We are having the cabinets custom made so I can have it done however, but I was trying to figure out how it would look with the cabinet sticking out beyond the counter floor to ceiling or whether I wanted the fridge to stick out.

I will have to see about recessing. I'm not sure if that will work.

palimpsist--I shouldn't have any trouble with clearance since it's a french door fridge.

arlosmom--My appliances will be black (unless I change my mind)so I assume the sides will be black. I had no idea SS had black sides sometimes. I sure am learning a lot. With your fridge and cabinets the same color, I'm sure it looks a lot better than with the fridge and cabinet different.

What refrigerator (make & model) do you have?

What is the depth of the refrigerator carcass/box, i.e., without the door?

My refrigerator is CD and the carcass is 24" deep. But, with air space and other things, it ended up sticking out 26" so we have 26" deep end panels surrounding it. The doors & handles stick out past that...to approx 31" total.

For just about all refrigerators except true built-ins, the doors must stick out past the cabinets, end panels, and counters to open fully.

Here's mine:

If yours is a standard depth, it will stick out further. But, if you still build it in, it will make a big difference in how it looks! If it's on an interior wall, look into recessing it into the wall...that will gain you 3-1/2" to 4" or so.

It's a Samsung RFG298AABP. I went and checked out where it's going and it looks to me like we could recess it. I just wouldn't have thought of that. All this is so new to me. I so appreciate all the help I'm getting. Hopefully I'll be able to pay forward soon!