All cabinet installations require fillers against walls. Appliance clearances usually require fillers as well. Other situations can be handled by hinge restrictive clips.

A refrigerator door door will hit the handles of a wall oven and dent without fillers. You have to read the appliance specs to understand the door swing, angle, and opening arc. Then add a fudge factor, in case you want to change a fridge later. Your fridge is not against the wall oven, so that’s fine. But it does have a door swing arc that MUST be checked. Otherwise the door can’t open, or gets dented when it does.

You are going to need smaller cabinets to the left. You should never ever crowd trim by shoving cabinets against it. And where will the light switches go?

The light switches are on the other side of the entry (to the left when you walk into the room and then cabinets are on the right).

I'm not sure what you mean about a refrigerator door hitting the wall oven handle? The refrigerator and the oven are on opposite sides of the cabinet run.

We originally did not have everything up against the entry trim but found that our only option for a refrigerator with in door ice/water meant that we needed more clearance than anticipated - which is why we ended up having to shove everything down. It's not ideal, but it's what we have. So now, I just need to figure out how much filler I need between the wall oven cabinet and the other cabinets in order for them to open properly.

Post your entire overhead layout. Not the elevations.

That totally will not work. The fridge can’t open. There’s too much wasted space. There are expensive cabinets in spots that won’t be useful at all to you. The layout hurts, not helps you to cook.

Start over. Stop with the planner entirely. As is frequent, using a tool like that that too early in the process is attaching you to bad ideas that need to be jettisoned. Figure it out on paper first.

What exists now? Post that. On paper. With measurements. And why are you trying to take over the breakfast area, but not really put anything useful there? Leave it an eating area. Or move some of the actual kitchen there. Cabinet outposts aren’t the work zones that would need to be there in order for it to have value. You likely need to move back to a range as well. The extra 5-10K costs of a wall oven and cooktop generally isn’t supported in a budget kitchen.

Just quickly ... the 21" cabinet is a pita because you have to open it completely to open its drawers. Better to go with a 9" cubby and a 12" pull-out (perfect for tools, oils, vinegars and seran wrap, etc), or an 18" set of drawers and a spacer. JMHO!

I disagree with whoever said to ditch the planner. It's so incredibly easy to use, and to scoot and swop stuff around, then swoop around in 3D. Pencil and paper is less accurate and slower and more limiting, imo.

If you can, go to the ikea store and play with all the configurations you're thinking about. Imagine yourself hefting pots around, opening the fridge and filling and emptying it, prepping food, doing the dishes, cooking, serving, etc. Good times to go are around 5 pm weekdays as nobody is there and you can play uninterrupted. Get a feel for the widths of drawers you really like, and pay close attention to all the clever things they've done in the store. They have good designers and come up with creative ideas for all sorts of spaces. Browse the website for ideas and inspiration, too.

Quicker errors are just more errors. A tool like that creates more errors and issues than does the slower and more cerebral process of figuring it out mentally on paper first. Especially for someone with self described poor sense of spatial relationships to start with.

A tool is a tool, and needs the proper mind wielding the tool. If the brain behind the tool isn’t trained first, and made to really think it through, all that happens is more errors and frustration. Or worse, the errors never get corrected, and the errors get built.

Bubblyjock, here is what it looks like with the appliances in. Just do give you a better idea of where everything goes. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet about the cabinet issue. I'm thinking that even if I resolve the issue with the lower cabinets, I still have a problem with the uppers because the door will be hitting the oven cabinet.

The attached photos don't include the same appliances that I am getting, but dimensions are the same. Just attaching the photo so people can see that I do, in fact, have a cook top, etc. I just didn't buy the IKEA one, so I deleted it from the planner.

Change the 21” cabinet to an 18” cabinet. Which probably has drawers available. It will also give you 3” to use as fillers or just reduce the total length of run of cabinets.

It is always good to plan a couple of inches in addition to trim width around doorways. It allows for getting a paintbrush between the trim and cabinets, some overhang of the cabinets by the countertop, and more elbow room as you come through the door.

Also, you need to have several inches between a wall and refrigerator to allow the doors to open fully.

Yes, thank you mainenell. That is definitely one of the constraints, we wanted all of the extra space next to the fridge and the wall and already have several inches figured in. That's why we didn't want fillers to chew into that space we allotted.
The 18" may be a good solution for the lower with a smaller upper and 3" filler on the upper to line things up and allow cabinet to swing open.
Thank you.

Have you allowed an absolute minimum of 3”, preferably 6” between wall and fridge?

3” is insufficient. 6” is insufficient many brands as well. The needed up to 8”1/2” space between the fridge and wall (check appliance specs) uses fillers to accomplish that space. Or a 12” broom cabinet plus a filler between it and the wall so the broom cabinet can open wide enough.

Swapping the wall ovens ovens and refrigerator would be the better option if this layout survives its other challenges.

Yes, we allowed for 6"

I have an Ikea kitchen in a tight space and got away with no filler pieces, but it took some careful planning. If I understand your question, the doors don't need more than 90 degrees to open fully unless the knobs/handles would be hitting a wall, for example. The hinges pull the door in a bit as they open, so they're not in danger of scraping the door next to them. So while your 21in cabinet should fit, I would want an 18in one with drawers anyway; it will be so much smoother to use and you'll thank yourself later.

You won't need any filler between the upper cabinet and the wall oven (unless the handles would get in the way, but that doesn't look like a problem). But you might want a full-size panel to cover the sides of the wall oven cabinet, unless you're fine with the basic white finish. Just be careful that your walls are very straight and square if you don't have room to spare- they are probably more wobbly than you think.

ALL cabinet lines require fillers between cabinets and walls. All cabinets. Kitchen Design 101, first day, first mistake.

Thank you Christine. We are going to have the full panel on both sides of the oven cabinet. I appreciate your explanation, it was very helpful.

I am also designing an Ikea kitchen and would love to compare notes. What about doing a cabinet above the fridge that swings up rather than doors?

are you doing a pantry?

Are you doing one like this?

kel_kat 5 we are thinking of doing an open shelf above the fridge since I am short and can't reach into those cabinets anyway.

we are doing a pantry on the other side of our entry way ( 2 cabinets that are 24" wide and 15" deep because that suits the space best)

kel_kat5 no, the cabinet that I'm having an issue with has only one door on the front

We are just finishing up an Ikea kitchen install. We have cabinets going up to our refrigerator panel, which is about 26 inches deep. We put just over and inch of filler between the upper cabinet and the panel, and could have used more. It was a challenge to figure out how much filler we needed; it depended on the width of the upper cabinet door and the position and depth of the cabinet knob.

For our pantry, the cabinets with drawers behind a door the Ikea planner specifies hinges that open wider than the regular ones (153 degrees vs 125 degrees). The door needs to open wider to allow the drawers to extend. So, yes, you might need filler between the 21 inch cabinet and the oven, unless you changed the cabinet door to hinge on the other side.

I agree with Bubblyjock, to try and go spend some time in Ikea looking at installs. I spent time looking at exactly how the hinges work and how they installed cabinets next to appliances and walls, etc. I also had a free design appointment and they were a great help with calculating filler pieces and cover panels.

I loved using the planner to do my kitchen and I made many changes before we finally installed everything. But I also posted my floorplan here and got some great help and feedback and ended up using a layout I had not even considered initially. You have a similar amount of space as I do (our kitchen is 13.5x17), and I think you have enough room to not have your fridge in the corner and your dishwasher between your sink and cooktop. I think both of those things would bother me.

Yes, fillers are required. Between walls and cabinets, and for corner clearances, and for appliance clearances, among many reasons.

The overall design has some fundamental issues.

The fridge should not be located in a corner. Accounting for the door swing wastes too much space. If you swap it with the wall oven, you only need a minimal filler between the wall oven and wall, and you lose less space. IKEAs 21” cabinets are problematic. Avoid them. Avoid crowding any door or any window. It doesnt give you any wiggle room if things aren’t straight. Things are never straight. It also makes the kitchen feel physically small and crowded.

The DW should not be located in your prep and cooking zone between the sink and cooktop. Also, the sink and cooktop are too close to each other. The L bit is awkward and needs reworking.

The other cabinets are scattered around the perimeter, like the classic sofas all pushed against the walls, leaving everything too far apart. But they intrude enough to interfere with any table seating planned for the area. If you have a formal dining room, creating a peninsula with seating would work much better, and be less awkward for casual seating. Then just use your DR more frequently.

This is is a good first draft, but you need more expert eyes and more expert help. Make an appointment with the planners there as a start. But you’d get really good advice here if you would post a measured plan here and change some things around based on the feedback that you’ve received so far.

Amy - you're very fortunate to have live_wire_oak and The Cook's Kitchen take an interest in your kitchen. You'd be wise to post a sketch of your existing space with dimensions and get their (FREE) expert advice.

Amy - what type of door style will you be using?

21" cabs aren't a problem if you use 3rd party fronts or, if you use regular slab fronts such as the Ringhult.

We easily cut down a 21" door into two drawer fronts for our Ringhult kitchen and installed the drawers cut sides down, with the third drawer installed as a pullout or inner drawer above one of the modified drawers. Works like a charm! Get two doors, if you want a 3-drawer stack.

Even before we edge-banded, this modification was not visible. At all! The material lost due to the saw blade matches the width of the needed gap between drawers exactly.