That's a really great idea. I have seen creative use for over the fridge for wine storage... but I'm not much of a wine drinker actually. In fact, the cabinet over my fridge currently houses my wine glasses, and as such, is rarely opened. :)

Can't wait to see what other ideas are posted, but I really like the idea of a display space.

Lis

We're working on this right now. Our old kitchen has the standard 12" deep over fridge cabinet which is, as far as I'm concerned, dead space - like most people, we wind up putting things on top of hte fridge in front of that cabinet, thus making USING that cabinet a total pain. I have some seldom-used serving pieces in there and that's it.

In the new kitchen we're going to use a full depth cabinet, and possibly build in some storage cubbies as well. Watch this space. :)

In my last kitchen, I had open space over the fridge. It was a real grime collector (with the amount of dirt, you could grow a plant up there, really!). Maybe it's cause it's electric that it attracts dirt? I don't know. But everything on top of that fridge became very dirty very quickly. For my current kitchen, I opted for closed cabinets flush with the front of the fridge. Like you mentioned, I keep large objects up there like platters and mixers. (BTW, do you have an alternate space to keep your food processor if you do not have that deep cabinet space over the fridge?) Another option that many on this forum have used for that space is to have a cabinet with vertical dividers to keep trays, baking pans, roasting pans, place mats and the like. It's perfect for that use, since the space is deep and usually fairly tall.

I am not sure about the wine storage, cause I would think that the heat from the fridge would not be good for the wine. Maybe someone can chime in on that option?

I also currently have a 12" deep cabinet above my frig and the space is useless. In my new kitchen I will have a deep cabinet flush with the frig. I plan to use it for trays and lids - its a good size for that.

I put a wine rack over the fridge.

but you really can't put any good wine up there - too warm. Not from the fridge, just the ambient air up there. Having a deep cab, flush with the fridge is better, IMO. You can put a thing in there for and keep cookie sheets, platters, trays, and cutting boards up there.

Here is a picture of my cabinet above the fridge. The spacing for those tray dividers is wider than usual which works well for some larger items. In hindsight I probably should have done one half with 2 wide compartments and the other with narrower slots (these dividers are fixed). There is another thread that discusses the use of cabinets above the fridge.

{{!gwi}}

Here is a link that might be useful: discussion on fridge cabinets

Where can I find dividers like that after buying my cabinets? Does Ikea, HD, carry something?

ikea sells the dividers-strong, look good and very inexpensive

I guess we drink the wine quick enough...as I haven't found it to go bad.

Here is ours...

We have a 12" deep open storage space. I'm 6' tall in the work boots I generally wear in the kitchen and can reach the things up there with just a bit of a stretch.

Like others here, we had the useless 12" depth cabinet over the fridge in the old kitchen. We also had a tendency to put stuff on top of the fridge in front of that cabinet, rendering the cabinet useless. So we went for a full depth cabinet over the fridge in the new kitchen: WOW. What a difference it makes. It's the storage place for holiday centerpieces, bakeware and such that I'd never had room for in the old kitchen, and there's still room leftover for the set that I got last Christmas but haven't brought down from the storage room yet.

I've included a link direct to the photo of my over-the-fridge cabinet, but you can look around that same page and find a more "head on" view.

DonnaR/CA

Here is a link that might be useful: Above my refrigerator

Ours is a regular depth refrigerator & we had the cabinet built almost flush & it goes all the way up to the 10' ceiling. It's huge - actually bigger than my sink base! We put narrow-spaced dividers for cookie sheets, etc in 1/3 & pull out trays (3) on the other side (mostly for seldom used things) - all behind double doors.

Although I still have to use a ladder most of the time, the pullout trays make it a lot easier to retrieve things without reaching. The edge of the baking sheets are within reach. No matter what you do to this area, it's not very user friendly except for storage & judging from the amount of dirt that accumlated on top of my last refrigerator, I'd think twice about open shelving.

We have closed cabinets (two stacked x two wide) above our fridge. We use the lower cabinets for cake plates, cake carriers, bread baskets (light weight stuff to pull down without injury). The high cabinet holds china and crystal that are seldom used (and requires a folding Rubbermaid stool to reach).

Cameron

Yeah, wine over fridge for anything longer than a few weeks wouldn't be a good idea. Also, take it down from there before you drink it and chill it (obviously for white, and even for red a bit).