You have to do what works best for you. I used to put thinks like baskets and watering pots on top of my old free standing fridge, but I agree about the little cabinets. Even in kitchens that lacked storage I never found any use for those, except for hiding things I pretty much didn't see between moving in and moving out.

Since it sounds like what you really want to do is put a TV up there, how about making an alcove for it. That is, do the cabinetry surround as if it were the little cabinet, but painted or finished on the inside, and without the doors. That gives you a nice finished look for behind the TV, without making it any harder to clean, and if you decide you want them, you can add the doors.

If things are on a roll out tray, they are not very hard to reach. I keep cereal, thermos, travel mugs up there.

We just finished our kitchen, and put our over-the-fridge cabinet on a rollout too. I have my punchbowl, holiday serving pieces and chafing dish up there.

Did you guys get the 12 inch to match your walls or the deeper one to cover the fridge?
The only reason I didn't want to go with a TV cab there is it's so much easier to take the dust cloth and swipe over/under/around the tv when it's just sitting on top of the fridge. If I put it inside a cabinet, I'll have to do the inside of the cab, the tv and the converter box. And then wipe the top of the fridge, too, if I can fit something between the bottom of the cab and the top of the fridge. Double work as I see it.

Here's mine...and there's no place to dust. If you put doors on the cabinet and only open it when you're watching TV, then I think the dust will be less of an issue. Mine is right next to a 12" deep upper cabinet and I think it looks fine, better, IMHO, than a shallow cabinet, regardless of adjacent cabinets. (BTW...I did need 1/2" filler b/w the refrigerator & the adjacent cabinet to allow the adjacent cabinet's door to open a little more than 90o.)

There's a thread right now asking about TVs over the refrigerator. Zelmar posted her pictures.

One thing, I would suggest looking into getting doors that slide into the cabinet when opened for that cabinet over the refrigerator. Then, when the doors are open for TV watching, they won't be "hanging out" in the way of someone tall walking by or just in the way in general.

Here is a link that might be useful: Thread: TV over refrigerator question

I don't remember who has the cabinet that has the doors that will open and slide inside the cabinet and I know it's been covered at least twice. I'm ordering cabs Saturday so I need to make up my mind soon, real soon.

This is just my humble opinion, but the 12" cabinets above fridges are totally useless and look weird. I'd do a full depth cabinet like beuhl has, and do the doors that slide back into the cabinet and put the TV in there. Or, do a full depth cabinet and leave the doors off like plllog suggested, or get a TV the right size to fill the whole space of the front of the full depth cabinet so the TV looks built in. Either way though, I'd incorporate a cabinet to surround the fridge into the mix, because I think a stand-alone fridge with a TV plopped on top doesn't sound too elegant, KWIM?

I have doors that slide inside my cabinets. It works extremely well for us.

My GC replaced the 12" cabinet over the fridge with a deeper one that is very useful for me. I keep cereal and a box of baking supplies that I don't use very often up there. The inner depths are pretty much empty, but at least I can reach what is up front without a stool.

We decided not to get the doors that slide inward for 3 reasons:
1. I wanted the tv on an arm that allowed the tv to telescope out of the cabinet so that it could be tilted in different directions. The arm needed to be on the side of the cabinet.
2. I didn't want to lose any interior space---I wanted as much storage next to the tv as possible.
3. My cabinet company charged quite a bit more for the doors that slid inward.

The doors going inward is a nice feature but the open door doesn't bother me at all---not even the slightest bit. Maybe it's because the tv's on when it's out and the eye is naturally drawn to the tv rather than the cabinet door. Plus the cabinet door is a nice backdrop to view the tv against.

fwiw---our house tends to get dusty quickly but I haven't felt the need to dust the cabinet over the fridge (in 4 years!)---stuff in there doesn't get dusty. But the doors are usually closed since I don't use the tv a lot.

Pictures of our tv set up are on this thread:

Here is a link that might be useful: tv over the fridge thread

The cabinet above my fridge is the same depth as the fridge, but it is open. It is sort of a bookshelf with uprights so it is divided into 4 squares (the fridge is 48" wide, so the squares are large enough). Each one holds a nice piece of china. There is a lot of empty space behind them, but you can't see that. I got the idea from the KA website.

That deep cabinet above the fridge is one of my favorite features of the new kitchen. Besides being rid of the useless little cabinet and all the accumulation of junk that found its way to the space in front of that cabinet, I love the deep cab for the enormous amount of storage. Yes, I need a stepladder to get to the things on the top or in the back, but those are things that don't get used much anyway. The front bottom part holds all my large bowls (mixing, popcorn, salad, etc.) that I use all the time, and they are easily accessible.

I installed dividers in half and have my serving trays and additonal baking sheets there. the ohter half is full depth and like holligator, have oversized bowls and baskets stored.

This is very timely - I have only about 7 inches available over my built-in fridge w/ 8ft ceilings. so I am told that it is useless and can't do much there. Any ideas?

dcfixerupper, I have 8' ceilings (just barely) and a tall fridge. We went with a very simple shelf up there and I love it for storage.

We too got rid of the old 12" one for a deep cabinet there and it really holds a lot of stuff. I have to stand on a chair to get to the back and second shelf, but the stuff lined up in the front I can reach.

I put vases on the top (half) shelf as I'm never using more than one or two at a time. In the back are 'party' and holiday serving/candy dishes and candles. (Just climbed up the other night and got all the xmas stuff down.) In the front row I keep my lunch bags and teapots. I don't make a whole pot of tea all the time, but often enough that I wanted to be able to grab one without a hassle. The lunch bags are my collection of patterned ones by Cool Totes in different sizes (gotta have a big one to hold that salad container!)

I'm 5'4" and able to grab the front edge of these items with one hand to pull them out. It's as though the stuff were sitting on the top front edge of the fridge. That other little cabinet WAY back there was impossible.

A TV would be nice too, it depends whether you want to extra storage.

dcfixerupper,
we have 9 ft ceilings and I'm doing a 12"high, 24" deep, open (finished interior) cabinet over the fridge and an 18" 24" deep cabinet over that. I plan to use the open space to stash my stack of serving trays. Sounds like your opening could be used in that way as well.

I'm going to order the 24 deep cab. I can find something to put in it;-)

This thread:

"How far does your dounter-depth fridge stick out?"
has a great photo in it of a TV over the fridge.