Gary's picture is a very helpful illustration. It shows raised panels that do not have that puffy look that I warned against. I totally disagree with LWO, which is very rare. It is a designer's job, and LWO is a professional designer as is the KD you're working with, to say these things, but it doesn't sound to me at all like you're planning an "upper end kitchen". It sounds like a very nice kitchen, but more value oriented than high end. I definitely agree with your reasoning that the choice of fridge should be based on your ideas of form and function. You like your choice of fridge. Choosing a different one to suit what the Jones are doing in the magazines or what designers think is the latest hot look will take away from the rational choice you've made for yourself. I went into my own kitchen remodel assuming I was getting SubZero, and preferring integrated, and still looked at freestanding fridges like the KA to compare them and see if I liked them better. I didn't. I liked Miele better, so went that. You sound like you've done enough shopping and know what you want. If the look of what you want bothered you, you would have worded your post differently. There is nothing wrong with having the edge of the fridge showing like Gary has--it's a very nice kitchen, but not designery and it wouldn't change the look if the fridge were integrated. There's nothing wrong with having the freestanding panelled fridge you're talking about, and putting nicely made panels on it, and having the sides show a little in the opening with a couple inches of air space. It's not built-in, but it's decorated to match the kitchen. It's not a high end, designery look, but it's perfectly fine. I find the comments otherwise to show more about the snobbery of the people writing them than the look itself. Matching things are out, right now. That's a big part of the problem. The people who want to be "in" decide that it's wrong to match if you can't make the match indistinguishable. It therefore must be integrated. Some people really make the match perfect, with faux drawer fronts and all so that you really can't tell where the fridge is. People aren't advocating that. I think if you can tell by the size and shape of the panels, it doesn't matter whether it's integrated, built-in but frame showing, or free-standing. It's still a fridge, and a fridge is a fridge, and what you want it to look like in it's fridgeness is entirely up to you. I also disagree about the death of the work triangle. I cook. I walk that triangle constantly. I have two fridges and two sinks, so there are different versions of the triangle which overlap, but I would never, ever, given a choice, remove the fridge from the main cooking area. People remodel their kitchens just to correct this problem. A big reason I planned a full remodel from the time I placed the offer to buy the house was the distance from the fridge to the stove. It was massively inconvenient even in an almost straight line. Moving the fridge out of the kitchen just so you won't have to look at it is something that people may do nowadays, but it is greatly impeding the function for cooking. People also buy vastly uncomfortable chairs because they look good, and then sit on the floor with pillows because they don't like sitting on the chairs. For some people looks is the most important thing of all. I've always admired the Duesenberg, one of the best and most beautiful cars ever made. They designed the works first, then designed the beautiful carriage to fit over them.

Thanks everyone definitely some food for thought. I will say that our handle on our FD freezer is loose b/c of how full it gets and how much we use it. Our fridge part has never been close to overflowing. I do love the french door fridge part. It's the freezer part driving me crazy. I went to look at them today, big mistake of taking my 2.5 year old. She loved how her sneakers made a noise and echoed when she ran around, which led her to becoming a maniac and sprinting around the large warehouse and screaming every time I picked her up b/c she wanted to make the noise. So embarrassing, she is usually fairly well behaved. So we had to cut the trip short as I carried my screaming child out, again so embarrassing. They did have the DCS range and refrigerator out. I ordered the DCS a while back when they had a great deal going so it was nice to see in person. The stainless is definitely a bit different so it probably makes sense to order the fridge in the same stainless (nothing like ordering appliances based on appearance). The have a sxs in our budget, the FD exceeds it. It is one of the few SxS that does not have water/ice in the door (what I prefer). Pretty sure we are going to do that. It was so nice to hear how many people hated the sxs because a lot of the reasons will not pertain to us or can be solved thought still will miss the FD fridge. My kid is still young so we don't really eat that much frozen pizza, when she gets bigger she can make a trip to the basement to pull it out of the freezer, LOL. As for tray storage/sheet cakes we will just have go into the basement and use the fridge down there. It seems like there is no perfect solution (other than a 48" one haha). If we hate it, it easy enough to switch out in a few years....

Our refrigerator only has water in the door...no ice (but, there is an icemaker in the freezer). Our old refrigerator had an ice dispenser in the door and constantly froze up until, in frustration, we turned it off. With cold water in the door, we find we don't use the ice as much b/c the water is always cold. Yes, for other drinks we use ice, but since we drink mostly water the dispenser works for us. Another reason I didn't want an ice dispenser in the door is that it takes up quite a bit of room in the refrigerated portion....where we already lost the most space by switching to a CD refrigerator. Our freezer drawer is one drawer, but it has two pullout baskets inside it...so there are 3 areas of storage. Things rarely get lost in it and, like someone else said, nothing falls out on you! +++++++++++++++++++++ The carcass/box of a counter-depth refrigerator is approximately 24" deep (it varies by a couple of inches depending on the specific model). In all cases, though, the doors & handles stick out beyond that...in some cases up to 6" more (door depth + handles). The carcass/box of a standard depth refrigerator is anywhere from 30" or more deep (depending on size). Like cabinet-depth, the door(s) + handles stick out another 6" or so. The entire refrigerator (carcass + door(s)) of a built-in refrigerator are approximately 24" deep. These refrigerators are also usually very tall since the mechanics are above rather than behind the refrigerator. Cost-wise: Standard depth are the least expensive; next are the counter-depth; with built-ins the most expensive (often by a lot). Note that counter-depth can be made to look built-in by surrounding it with 3/4" finished end panels & a putting in a full-depth cabinet above it. Standard depth refrigerators can be made to look cabinet-depth if you recess it into the wall and room behind it. If you do that, then you can also make it look built-in as described above. [Note that in most cases you cannot recess into an outside/exterior wall.]

Thanks 3katz4me and nightflyer. I took a look at some kitchen layouts and it appears that coming from "behind" makes the most sense anyway if one is doing a lot of loading and nightflyer I had thought of dividing the refrigerator into zones of what I accessed most frequently and it was reassuring to find out that this is actually what real life people do :-) The reason I had thought about it as an issue was because I am short and therefore I am installing a side opening wall oven. A standard wall oven that opens from the top would not have increased functionality for me that much because I would still have to access from the side like I do with my current stove - not to mention that with my narrow galley, I wouldn't be able to stand in front of the oven with the door down anyway. I had thought about the French Door oven configuration but my designer pointed out that when the door is open, it would seem to be in my face if I am trying to put a pan on the landing spot (to the right of the wall oven). So a wall oven that opens completely to the left would enable me to stand directly in front of the oven with my short arms :-) as well as move directly to the side with a pan. But I realize that a French door refrigerator doesn't present the same kind of safety and ergonomic issues. And yes nightflyer, having always lived in urban areas - even as a child - I have never had to downsize my cooking habits as I don't know what it is like to cook without having to figure out where to move something in order to do something else on the counter. It is going to be a luxury to me to NOT have to store cookware in my oven which means that I have to take out two racks of heavy cookware and find somewhere for it to squat while using the oven - Since I cook, I haven't used the oven for shoe storage like Carrie Bradshaw :-)