Charon:
I'm not one of the GW experts but those look like some really nice cabinets. I would hate to see you paint them unless you really dislike this stain. Adding coordinating cabinets seems like a good idea, especially I see the dark molding at the ceiling. Is that black or a very dark stain? Could you post photos of your entire kitchen to give the real pros more to go on to make appropriate suggestions? By the way, I think you're very fortunate to have such a nice kitchen to start with. Do you like what you have except for the desired changes already listed?

Hi Texasgal47.......Thank you for your complement! I do love the stain of the kitchen cabinets. I just want to make the few minor modifications I mentioned. I am researching the best way to do this for the least amount of money. I want it to look right as well.

The molding is black. The first picture I posted is opposite the kitchen. Below is a photo of the area where the fridge is. I want a built in look here for the fridge. I'll take more photos of the rest of the kitchen.

Here is another photo of the kitchen. The over the microwave range will be replaced with a wolf ventilation hood and a 30 inch DF wolf range.

If you already like the finish of your cabinets and kitchen generally, I don't think refinishing or getting an all new kitchen makes sense. That is tens of thousands of dollars to achieve a small change. Seems like a very poor investment.

Because your tall pantry cabinet and desk are together on their own wall as a distinctly separate unit, it would make some sense for just that wall to have contrasting materials from the rest of your kitchen. Perhaps cabinets painted the same color as the wall color or another neutral that sort of melts away.

Since you want the oven to be there, it would make sense to style that wall as a baking station, which usually has contrasting materials from the rest of the kitchen, so that would make sense too. You wouldn't want to keep the desk there anyway with the heat coming from the oven and the need for a counter landing spot next to an oven and the fact that you generally don't want to set up a kitchen where people would try to hang out near the hot stuff and get burnt.

I don't think you will be able to get a built-in fridge with cabinet panels as you want without refinishing or changing out everything (which, as I said, I don't think is worth it for you to do). If you can't find your original cabinet manufacturer and get panels that are an exact match, then your fridge will be a different color too, and that'll look bad. You have a small kitchen that can only handle so many little flourishes, and I think you would max out how many flourishes your kitchen can take with the contrasting baking center. A contrasting fridge too would be overload. Plus, of all the things to highlight in a kitchen, a fridge is the least exciting, beautiful thing. I assume that is why you want it totally hidden in the first place.

I would just get a counter-depth or a built-in fridge with a stainless front and call it day.

That is your simplest and likely most successful solution.

Alternatively, are any of the doors on the desk wall the same width as the doors above the fridge? I am thinking the two larger doors above the desk might be.

If so, this is a long shot, but it might be possible to put the new oven stack where the fridge is now. You'd have to get a stack that is the same width as the fridge and, above and below the stack, use the existing fridge cabinet doors and whatever desk/pantry doors fit the same width. You might have to lower the above cabinet fridge to be the same height as the adjacent cabinets to make it all fit, and your carpenter would have to cobble trim pieces out of what he could salvage from the desk wall. This is all very unlikely to be possible.

If that were possible, you could then do a solid wall of contrasting cabinets on the former desk wall and have the fridge built into that. So that whole wall would be pantry/fridge.

Another option:

1) Still just install a counter-depth or built-in stainless fridge.

2) Get a new range with cooktop, an oven, and a warming drawer.

3) Leave the pantry cabinet alone.

4) Install an oven where you currently have a hole for legs under the desk. You will need trim pieces to go around it. Perhaps when you remove the microwave cabinet, that will provide enough. Or you could remove the cabinets above the desk and have open shelving or art there instead.

You could make this a speed oven, so it would work as a second oven and a microwave. Or:

5) Are the little doors above the microwave the same width as the little doors above the desk. If so, you could install a microwave above the desk (reusing the little doors above the current microwave).

Last one (and cheapest):

1) Still just install a counter-depth or built-in stainless fridge.

2) Get a new range with a cooktop and double ovens. This is actually what we are doing for a second oven, and I am excited about it. When you have two ovens in a range, one of the ovens is smaller, and I have read everywhere how much people end up liking and almost exclusively using the little oven because it preheats so much faster. But then you still have the big one for holidays and parties and the function of being able to bake two different things at two different temperature.

3) Keep the microwave in the tall pantry cabinet or on the desk counter.

4) Do without a warming drawer. I get the sense that this particular appliance is something people never actually end up using. You might do a post here to ask, "People who have had a warming drawer for over a year, do you actually still use it?"

Jillius, thank you very much for your responses. I appreciate all of the options. I am planning on purchasing a built in Subzero fridge and selling the current GE fridge. The fridge is a counter depth but the doors still extend past the counter.

A designer at Home Depot recommended that I purchase two cabinets(one for the microwave, oven, and warming drawer and another for the subzero fridge) in black with a heirloom finish. I attached a photo below. She thought since I have black trim, shutters, and interior doors that a black cabinet would coordinate well with the rest of the kitchen. I like the idea but I am not good at visualizing it. The heirloom finish matches the color of my existing cabinets. What does everyone think about this idea?

What double oven are you purchasing? I saw the GE cafe double oven but haven't read good reviews.

I was looking to solve a similar issue a few weeks ago and also came up with the compromise of doing a colored wall oven cabinet to complement maple cabinets. I put together a pin board on pinterest to collect images that would help me get a feel for what that would look like. I'll link it below. Hope this helps!

Edited to add a picture from the board: {{gwi:2137973}}

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to my pinboard, some inspiration oven cabinets are about half way down

This post was edited by laughable on Mon, Jan 12, 15 at 22:11

Laughable......Your Pinterest photos helped me so much!!!!!! It helped me visualize what the black cabinets will look like in my kitchen! Thank you!! The designer at Home Depot was right on the money.

Hooray! I'm glad that was a help to you. : ) Please share pictures when you get your cabinets in. We'd love to see them.

My HD has a built-in hutch with those heirloom black cabinets. I've always loved that finish and think your kitchen will look smashing with that contrast. Just two additional suggestions which I think would make a huge improvement to your kitchen:
1. Add under cabinet led lighting. Unless a contrasting black light rail is added providing added depth, use led tape lights and hide the driver either inside of, or on top of, the cabinets. That will make a huge difference in how your kitchen looks and functions. You might even add up lighting for the two sections where the wall cabinets are lower. As you can tell, I'm really into adding layers of light. This can visually enlarge a small kitchen by lighting up the dark recesses.
2. There aren't many drawers in your base cabinets causing you to have to almost stand on your head to see what's down there. Even if you don't have the $$$ now, add full extension pull outs as soon as possible. I just ordered nine fully custom all wood pull outs for my dining room cabinets from quikdrawers.com. All are easily adjustable thanks to a notched pilaster system at the side walls where the drawers mount. Also, I'm amazed at how much those pull outs hold, especially if higher sides are used. I found their staff very helpful and dependable, and there were no problems with shipping.
Looking forward to seeing your improvements.

Texasgal47....Great suggestions. Thanks for the website to the company. I can't wait to get that done. I'll need to save up a few pennies as my budget is maxed out right now.

My KD at home depot isn't very experienced and is wondering how to design the cabinet for my subzero fridge. I have 45.5 inches of space available and the fridge only requires a 35.5 inch opening. She said she had to call someone to figure out what to do with the remaining 10 inches. I am a little nervous about this. Does anyone have any ideas?

Hello Weedyacres.....Thank you for your response. I have already decided to replace the pantry and fridge cabinets in the Black Heirloom finish . I really love the idea.

I am waiting to here back from the KD at home depot about the design of the fridge cabinet.

Charon

Charon, you're welcome. GW folks have been wonderful in sharing advice with me so it's nice to pass help on to others. If you decide to try up lighting on top of the cabinets, use florescent fixtures in about the 2700k range (warm white) that are linkable. That's an inexpensive way to stretch the lighting budget.

I forgot to add that the hardware for those pulls outs are full extension.

you might want to keep an inch or 2 in case needed if/when the fridge needs replaced.

If you then have 6" or so you could put in shelves to slide in cookie sheets, cake pans, cutting boards, trays/platters etc.

Pull out pantries for can/box storage is available in 10" width. I had one in my last kitchen and loved it. Would go there again if the kitchen layout allowed one.

Hello! I have attached an artist rendition prepared by Lowes of the built in cabinetry for the fridge and the cabinet for the microwave, oven, and warming drawer. I love the pull out pantry! Thanks so much to all of you for your suggestions. I would not have gotten this far without your suggestions.

Just wanted to say the black looks great with your cabinets.

Thank you Deddles! Lowes allowed me to bring a cabinet sample home. It looked beautiful!! I can't wait until it is finished. I have awhile to wait though because the new WOLF 27 inch M series won't be out until 2016. They have released the 30 inch this month. I don't have room for a 33 inch cabinet so I have to wait until next year. I just found that out!..

@weedyacres what brand of stove is this you posted above? I love it and have been looking for one for some time now. Please share with me!