The aesthetics will depend on whether you approach the fridge from the side (like mine) or from the front, where depth difference is less obvious. I minimized mine by sticking with a white fridge against white cabinets. It is not ideal, but I am okay with it. This is actually a "pre-existing fridge" which,when it needs replacing I planned to replace with a shallower one; will depend on how much it bothers me at the time. It doesn't now; if it was stainless, I think it might, though.

Like you, I didn't want to spend extra for a cd fridge, plus I already have a perfectly good ss Kitchenaid Superba. But the sticking out part does bother me, particularly with our new layout since it's a galley.

To solve the problem, we were able to make a 6" recess in the wall behind the fridge, so the front of the fridge will line up with the front of the cabinets. You might see if there is a way you can work that into your remodel.

We are down to studs right now, so this will only give you an idea of the situation. The first pic shows the fridge in place, the second pic shows the fridge pulled out so you can sort of see the recess. There will be a framed wall on the left side of the fridge, cabinets on top, and a panel on the right.

We had our contractor build around it.

{{!gwi}}

Similar to Jodi in So cal we built around our fridge to make it look built in but it does stick out past the counter next to it.

imgsrc+

I should have mentioned ... my contractor recessed the wall power outlet so that the fridge would sit back a little farther. He had planned to take all the 2"x4"s in that area and turn them so that we'd gain another ~2" but the water pipe for the ice maker would still be sticking out, so he left it as is.

Jodi-

Just a boring old Maytag (gets delivered Wednesday).

This space in the old kitchen was empty so we are pulling the 24 deep pantry and 24 deep over the fridge cupboard forward 6 inches and using a 30 inch deep fridge panel with that standard depth angled cabinet on the end. We are kind of psyched about how it worked out. Gives my Mom a bit of a landing spot - we also had a phone jack and outlet put in the angled cupboard so the phone could go there discreetly.

We enclosed ours with a panel and a bookcase. It sticks out a little, but I don't mind. I like having a big fridge!
I did make sure to choose one that had matching side and door colors so it wouldn't "stick out" to the eye so much...
{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

Thanks for your photos. This is really bothering me and I am not sure what we are going to do yet. We already purchased out cabinets....I never really gave much thought about the frig situation until after they were ordered (I'd blame my KD, but that's me...OK, I'll blame me). Cabinets are in the garage. Drywallers are coming tomorrow. We cant recessed the frig into the wall bc it is a load-bearing wall with plumbing in it. I wish I could post a picture but we do not have a scanner. I'll try to describe our layout...

U-shaped layout. When facing the wall with the frig we have a door to the basement, then about 6 inches of drywall, and then the cabinets start. We have a 36 inch wide, 24 inch deep pantry with roll-out drawers, then a 36 inch wide, 24 inch deep refrigerator cabinet with side wall on right side, then our uppers and bases start. We would be able to pull the pantry and frig cab forward about 5 or 6 inches, but then the side wall for the frig cab (next to our bases and uppers) would be too short in the back. I never looked into increasing the depth on this cabinet/panel. Not sure if that is even possible with Kraftmaid. Maybe if it is we can buy a thin wall panel that is 30 deep and put it on top of the existing panel which I believe is already attached to the upper frig cabinet by the manufacturer. We opened to the boxes to inspect for damage, but I am not certain how it is constructed. I guess we'll know more when we get ready to install...Maybe I will be able to post a photo by then. Thanks again.

How about seeing if they can somehow rig your cabinet above the fridge out by building a support, moving the panels out and just using a filler in the back for the gap? You can easily buy fillers and other stuff via Kraftmaid - we did and it was a quickship as we did it our cabinets came. Or build fillers in the front and trim somehow so if you have to replace the fridge you can just remove the fillers.

I could not fathom paying MORE money for a SMALLER counter depth fridge. Our fridge is at the end run of cabinetry and beside the stacked oven and microwave. So we pulled that cabinetry forward so it made the fridge look built in.

I don't have a good side view, but this gives you the general idea.

I forgot to add that we stole a few inches of spaces from the wall behind the fridge. So the fridge is recessed slightly into the wall behind it as well.

I didn't have room to recess mine - & 6 years ago there were fewer counter depth models & an even greater price differential. I console myself that because the sides are black, they blend with the cabinets.

i too have 2 small boys and just couldn't stomach the thought of a smaller fridge.....we did what redrose did....pull the cabinets out a few inches and also recessed into the wall. we also put a filler above the fridge to fill the space to make it look a little more "built in"...

oh yeah....we were able to go through the floor with our plug because we have unfinished basement below the kitchen....

antiquesilver....How deep is your cabinet and wall panel for your frig? It looks like it is deeper than 24 inches, right? Hard to tell bc of the black on black.

I'm not at home to measure, but I believe the frig panel is 27" or 28" deep. It was site built & I deferred to the cabinet maker's choice on this one. The base cabinets are 24" with the counter being about 25" & the frig panel is 2+" past that. My wall cabs are 12" deep & there is a 6"(?) wide wine rack next to the frig that is 18" (?) deep brought down to the counter level, mainly as a transition piece to lessen the big box refrigerator. If you want, I can try to get a better photo tonight.

For perspective, my ceiling is 11' & the cabinets go up to approx 10'; maybe one day, I'll decide on a cornice. The other side of the frig (next to the door) should have been a wall to make it look more built in IMO but there wasn't room without sacrificing part of the limited counter top/base cabs.

Thanks, Antiquesilver. I love how everyone recessed theirs into the wall, but I just can't do that. However, I think I could handle it the way yours looks. It may not be completely "built-in", but at least you dont have 6-7 inches of the side of your frig showing. So, maybe we'll pull the pantry and frig cabinet forward a little (maybe 3-5 inches). I dont want to pull it forward too much bc the peninsula runs perpendicular to the pantry and I dont want to make the walkway too narrow.

I promise I will post pictures soon. This forum has been a great inspiration and source of info for me. Thanks!

My DH says we should either buy the counter-depth frig or just get used to seeing the sides of the full-depth. He does not want to pull the cabinet forward. We'll see how things play out once we start to install.

if it makes you feel any better ...
we did not have that particular problem as our KD(or was it DH ?) recomended that we build out the pantry cabinets to 30" , we do not have counter near the fridge ,just pantry
However ... it was a big surprise to DH that the microwave was not flush with upper cabinets . The cabinets would have had to been pulled out as well . So lesson learned that if you want a flush microwave , you either need a small micro. or it needs it's own cabinet

My kitchen backs up into the garage. So I stole about 8 inches from there so it would sit recessed. I didn't like the cabnet depth ones at all. Too small. I hope you are able to work things out for you and your family.

It looks tilted in this picture. It isn't in real life.

Although I love our full depth Jenn Aire 25 CU ft, I even find it too small. We sunk our full depth into the wall and it looks built in. I don't think that I would like it sticking out beyond the cabinets and counter tops.

Our fridge is much like Jodi in CA, we built around it. It works well since the countertop opposite it works well for moving things in and out of the fridge (not too far apaprt). The wall helps too. If you think it will really bother you that much, then the extra $$ for counter depth will be worth it. Good luck!

Merimom,
I measured the side panel & it is 28". Here are 2 photos that may show up better than my previous post. I also remembered that we removed the sheetrock from behind the frig & recessed the electrical outlet on the studs to get every available micron of space.

a href="http://s191.photobucket.com/albums/z274/AntiqueSilver/?action=view¤t=NEwall.jpg"; target="_blank">
I'm really envious of those of you who had the space to build a wall around the frig - the scale is better - but when it's a choice between that & much needed counter space ..............

Thanks for the measurements, antiquesilver.

Lots of good ideas here. I really wish we could recess it, but that is just not possible in our house. However some nice DIYer will read this post and learn from our inattention to detail. This is just not like us...We sweat all the details, but this one just passed us by. Too much going on with a toddler and a baby!

We currently have a old "Kenmore 20" (as in 20 years old and probably 20 cubic feet). We are going to play around with that and the cabinets when we install to see what will work for us. On the positive side, at least I wont be downsizing if we decide on a counter-depth frig bc most of them are about 20 cubic feet anyway!

Here's a look at ours. We could push it back a little more but I'm a little worried about the plug and the water hookup. I'm going to measure exactly how much room we have and attach some kind of bumper to the back of the fridge so we can just push it in until it hits.

I know it doesn't look great sticking out like this, but for some reason it really doesn't bother me.

mrpandy....Thank you for posting a pic! This gives me a great idea of what I will be seeing in my kitchen. My cabinets are a similar color. I think a frig that is painted gray on the side helps minimize it a little (vs having a stripe of black). I am going to save this pic to show DH - Thanks!

merimom - I'm glad I could help! Since the picture was taken directly at the side of the fridge, it makes it look worse than it really is. That's a Kitchenaid fridge, and the gray paint rather than black is one of the reasons we got it. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm going to measure it when I get home and see how much more I can push it in. Why can't they come with a bumper already attached to the back?