I am happy with my paneled Bosch dishwasher. The cabinet maker just followed the specs provided by Bosch and it was a perfect fit. My door panel is 30 1/2 inches high and I have a 4 1/2 or 5 inch toekick. I can't believe a manufacturer would make a paneled dishwasher with a door that would be too tall. Sounds like some kind of lame excuse to me.
There have been no issues whatsoever with the panel. I used a cabinet pull on my panel. It is oversized but that is because all the pulls in my kitchen are oversized. My dishwasher pull is 13 inches wide. Appliance pulls are generally a little bulkier and more expensive than cabinet pulls but they can certainly can be used. There have been lots of posts about panel dishwasher on this forum which you should be able to find by doing a gSoogle search.
Here is how mine looks.
{{!gwi}}

we paneled our and everything was fine..just give the specs to your cabinet maker. we told our cabinetmaker what brand and model # and they did the rest from there.

i love it and would do it again. i like not seeing the DW and i am not a fan of SS. i like the more uniform look, not having the DW break the view.

we used a cab pull for our handle and its been fine. it is a little bigger than the ones on our drawers.

I also have my Bosch paneled and it looks great and no problems so far. Going on four years.

I have a panelled KA dishwasher. It sticks out about 3/4 inch, but I knew that before it was built. Euro dws, such as Bosch, Miele, Asko, are flush but for other reasons, I chose KA. KA has heated dry and a larger capacity.

My panel is also slightly askew but I have done nothing about it.

I do love my dishwasher, tho. It runs perfectly.

We had a paneled KA for over 20 years, and loved it. It died a few years ago, on a holiday weekend as I recall, and I found a quick scratch and dent replacement LG that has worked surprisingly well. It has the SS front though, and is a PITA to keep clean. Will go back to K-A wood panel for sure next time...

I have a paneled Bosch. Because of the European metric dimensions, my DW panel has gaps between the door and adjacent cabinets. It bothered me a lot more the first week or so, but now i don't notice it as much. I'm really glad we did the panel instead of SS. I used an 8" drawer pull (coordinates with my other 4" pulls) on my panel, and I'm happy with it. I like having a big handle to grasp.

I am still not thrilled with my Bosch. Wish I would have gone with a KA instead.

We paneled ours and used a cabinet pull for the handle. One of the things on my pending list is to call Miele to see whether they have a white 'gasket' vs. the black we have in place. I'm sure I'm using the wrong term; it's the seal between the dw and the door. Since we have white cabinets, the black background is quite visible from certain angles. You can't see it from this shot, but if you were to take a few steps to the right, then you would.

Good luck!

I paneled mine, but my kitchen is very traditional with beaded inset, so a stainless would have stood out too much. I did a handle cabinet pull, not a knob. I had knobs on my last one and one screw is not enough. I also have a miele and gave the specs to the cabinet maker. It is totally hidden because I had the panel have a fake drawer/door style to match the sink next to it.

on a holiday weekend, as I recall

Ah, yes, that immutable law of physics . . .

We have a panel on a Bosch in our tiny summer cottage kitchen. We used a knob that matched drawers. If we had it to do over again we would have used a pull as the knob keeps getting loose and one day the hole will be too big to screw it back in again. Love the look of the panelled door though!

Thanks for the pix badgergal and oldbat2be! That makes me feel so much better--cabinets already ordered and arrive after Christmas. I am finding that these people who are suppose to be experts on products have not researched their products like I have. I'm often telling them about features or showing them how their product is suppose to work!

Oldbat, your dw is gorgeous. Makes me wish my Miele was paneled. Which model is that?

Also, I'm wondering if a very skilled painter or faux finisher might have a trick to paint your toekick...or if a carpenter might be able to put a thin white painted wood veneer on the toekick...?

I am planning to panel my dishwasher if I ever get to that stage LOL :)

The appliance installer put the panel on our dishwasher on Saturday. It's a Gaggenau but looks identical to the other Bosch labels (Bosch and Thermidor). I then went to add the toe kick that the cabinet installer left for me. Our toe kicks are 4 in. and lo and behold your Thermidor distributor is correct. With a 30 and 1/4 inch panel which lines up perfectly with the cabinets, the door has only a 3 and 1/2 inch clearance above the floor. Put simply, the maximum height for a toe kick is the 3 and 1/2 inches.

My solution was to just reduce the height of the kick so the door clears as it is in a spot that it won't be noticable. I went back to look at what solution badgergirl's installer used and you can see that a matching wood toe kick was not applied. The low black plate that comes with the machine is visible in the picture.

Used the Gagg handle as the only other handles in the kitchen are the fridge and oven so all are very slim and matching.

The machine came as part of a deal and I was a bit sceptical but it turns out a great wash and it's amazingly silent. We've used a number of machines including a recent Miele but none approach this quiet.