Have you asked at the place you purchased the units from? They should be able to answer your questions.

We haven’t, since we were fine with the appliances the way they were. Now that the renovation is underway, we purchased the rest of the Gaggenau appliances (gas cooktop, oven and combi-oven, built-in coffee machine, etc) and we think that the panel ready fridge and freezer will do much better with kitchen cabinets as well as with the rest of the appliances.

Everyone has their ruthers but, personally, I would stick w/ the stainless fronts. I have never cared for the look of panels on appliances. Not only not preferring the look, it looks somewhat dated to my eyes.

From a practical POV, metal fronts are easier to clean & keep clean. Esp. in a kitchen that gets used (as opposed to some trophy kitchens).

At some point in the future, an appliance is likely to go kaput & need to be replaced. Quite likely, as in almost guaranteed, that the old panels won't fit the new appliance so either the look goes off or you're faced with a problem of sourcing and matching a new panel to the rest of cabinetry.

Your cabinet makers should easily be able to make the panels. The appliance manufacturers supply very detailed drawings with the specifications required for the panels.
The main issue would be finding a qualified installer. Since you’re having other high end appliances I’m assuming you are dealing with a local showroom with their own installation team.
It’s a pretty simple, and only slightly expensive, process. Your new panels can likely run another 1-2k plus another $500 for the added manpower and expertise required for installation.
Hope this helps!

Acedesignsky - my read of the OP is that the refrigerator she has is not a panel-ready model. Are you saying that the OP's "cabinet makers should easily be able to make the panels", and that the current stainless steel on the non-panel-ready fridge can be removed and replaced with cabinet panels?

One other consideration with adding panels is the weight of the panels vs the weight of stainless skin.

Wood panels are going to be heavier &, depending on the material used, can be much heavier than skins. MDF is frightfully heavy, for instance. Much heavier than plywood. Hardwoods weigh more than softwoods... More weight obviously is more wear and tear on the hinging.

I did paneled fridges in my current kitchen and it was one of the best decisions. Not having to constantly clean a large expanse of stainless is priceless! There is no comparison on the ease of cleaning a panel, versus trying to get a perfect streak free shine on stainless.

Contact Miele customer support. They are pretty helpful. You can also go to their website and download the specs for the various models to get some information before you call them.

Thank you, everyone! We decided to contact Miele and see what can be done. I like the look of stainless steel, but because each monster is 30” wide, it makes big stainless steel blob and will not compliment white frosted glass tall cabinets that surround them. Thanks for the input again, everyone

What ended up happening? Were you able to replace your stainless steel fronts on your Miele columns with custom panels?

I have the same situation. We’re you able to convert the stainless to panels?

It’s actually very easy, despite what they say on the web. The problem we faced that we have the tempered glass cabinet surfaces that we want to match and it’s impossible to drill the holes for handles. The factory refused to do it! It would look absolutely stunning, but because the doors of fridge/freezer are lacking push to open option, we have no choice but to use handles and they can’t be installed on tempered glass surface in our case. We have an option that we are exploring though… we might order the cheaper version of matte melomine that looks somewhat the same as real matte glass. The project is still ongoing because we faced a bunch of delays due to current market situation… judge yourself! My husband likes the look, but I would rather change them for custom panels.

Big monsters! They perform an amazing job!

Thank you! Notice the crowns above? Our daughter did a custom paint job! And she amazingly replicated the texture and colour of Roberto Cavalli floor tiles we installed! It looks stunning and it’s absolutely my favourite thing of all the kitchen features!