Do you mean something like this?

{{!gwi}}

I recessed ours into the wall so that it wouldn't stick way out in the room. We haven't put the filler above yet, so I don't have pics. edalkin and pcjs placed hinged filler above their fridges. It has much more of a built in look. We'll be doing the same.(Thanks, guys!)

Here is a link that might be useful: hinged filler

alex399, yes, that's just how I'd like mine to look. Does your fridge have a hinge at the top? I think that is one of my problems because my fridge does have a hinge. Does the door of your fridge stick out in the room at all or is it flush with your cabinets?

laxsupermom, that's so interesting about the hinges.

Thank you for your ideas!

We have a full depth fridge, so the cabinets there are 27" to help hide the sides. Here's ours:

It would have been better if we could have used 30" cabinets by the fridge, but we had to work with the depth of that water heater bump (on the other side of that red stripe of wall). We also have hinges on top of our doors, so there's a gap between the top of the fridge and the light rail, but it's pretty small.

We recessed ours too. You can see the hinges on top of the fridge.

trudymom,

Well, it's not MY fridge, that's a kitchen I built for a customer. The pantry cabinets are even with the front edge of the refrigerator box.. The doors themselves do project out past the cabinets. The hinges and plastic covers are very low profile, so I was able to bring that filler down to just a hair above the top of the fridge. No, it's not hinged, it is permanent.

Side note: The last two kitchens I've done this year have had frigidaire refrigerators installed, and they both have had issues. Maybe it's just bad luck, or perhaps their quality control dept is run by monkeys. Do some extra research if anyone here was planning on a frigidaire.

We are currently doing that. One thing we found is that we had a limited choice of refrigerators if we didn't want the box to stick out farther than the rest of the cabinets. We only have a few inches to cut into the wall to accomodate, so we needed to go with one that had a 28 inch depth (not including door) which was very limiting. I couldn't get either of the ones I really wanted. We are going with a GE to fit the space. I do like it, just not as much as the Jenn Air I had picked out.

We have a counter-depth with panels (I'm not wild about this) that sticks out farther from the main box outward than our old full depth tucked into a box. The higher profile door is because of the panels I just had to have. So if you have enough room to tuck the whole box away (either full or counter dpth) be aware of the depth of the door plus hardware, and that panels may add to that depth.

Nice job, alex!

the doors are always going to be outside of the cabs. but if you can get the box to slide all the way in, it does look nice.

http://s529.photobucket.com/albums/dd336/lacuisine/?action=view&current=DSCN2954.jpg

Our LG has hidden hinges so there is no gap between the top of fridge and bottom of the cabinet above..

Here's mine:

There is a bit of a gap at the top of mine. I don't find it objectionable, and use the space to store a *large* platter that doesn't fit anywhere else. (Some have put in a hinged strip to hide such an area while still providing access.)

It is true that "counter depth" frigs vary a lot in actual depth when you start reading the specs carefully.

What we did was make the panel on the left side deep enough for the frig, and pulled the (24") pantry on the right, and the cabinet above, out enough to make it all line up. It worked out well - the panel comes out far enough that the counter, including its overhang, can butt into the panel.

(Wish I had thought to do the same at the other end, where the counter runs into another pantry.)

In my case we were able to get the frig back to where the box and about half of the door are recessed.

First of all, my refrigerator has "hidden" hinges...meaning the door is slightly higher than the box so it hides the hinges.

We have a counter depth refrigerator, but, as we discovered, that just means the refrigerator box is approx 24". The door sticks out another 4" and the handles another 3"...so the total depth is really 31". Then, there's the inch or two in the back that you need for power cord, water line (icemaker & water in door), and the "anti-tip bracket".

All in all, our refrigerator sticks out 7" or so past the cabinets. So, what did we do?

Our refrigerator has finished end panels on both ends. Instead of using 24" deep panels, we used 27" deep panels. This covers everything except the door. The door needs to be exposed to open properly.

I think it looks fine. (Because of the angle, it's difficult to get a front on shot)

This isn't the best picture but I plan to frame around my fridge like this:

{{!gwi}}

I wanted some separation between my fridge and my hutch so that the fridge doesn't overpower it. I haven't yet decided if I will panel the front.

Our house is in the process of being built, but we bumped out into a hallway so that a standard depth refrigerator can be put in the bump-out. This was not a problem, because on that wall a bank of bookshelves was planned. We just eliminated some of the shelves so that the bump-out will be flush with the built-in bookshelves. Now I've not made a decision about the refrigerator--what kind, etc., and the cabinets haven't been built, but I believe the bump out will accomodate just about any size frig. I guess I'll be in part making that decision on which a frig best fits the space, which might have been sort of a backwards way of doing this. Or if there's room on the sides, storing a folding step-stool there or something. I'm not obsessing about it looking totally built-in; I just didn't want it sticking out noticeably from the cabinets on the one side that will have cabs. On the other side of the frig is an open doorway, no door, just an opening to the hall and then the din. rm. beyond. I think it'll look sorta like abbycat's but on the other side of our frig will be counters with uppers, etc., not a bank of floor to ceiling cabs like she has.

I have a small house (baby house I call it) and a small kitchen. In order to accomodate my monster French door fridge, I built out into the garage about a foot so my fridge slides back and is flush with the cabs. Otherwise, I would have had trouble opening the door to my step in pantry. I didn't like the cabinet depth fridges at all. Too little space for me on the inside. Sorry, this is about the best picture I could find.