I would do a side wall and attach it to base cabinets on that open wall or a counter bar with a stool under it.

Although you didn't ask the upper corner cabinet b/w the range & sink I think should be on angle to complement the other angled little upper cabinet. Omit the open shelfs by the range. Use some glass doors on 1 or 2 upper cabinets to create visual space.

Good luck

I think a side wall would give it a nice finished look.

I also remember someone on this forum once pointing out that a refrigerator side should never be left exposed visually, because a lot of interesting stuff gathers behind and through an exposed side, one can see it!

If there is a side wall, then it should be properly fitting for your fridge. If the future owner wants a wider appliance, let them figure out how to fit it (IMO). For all you know, they might decide to change the entire arrangement!

That's funny--since these drawings were first done, we did remove the two shelving pieces beside the pass through. Also, the corner cabinet cannot go on an angle due to space constraints--the window is not to scale in the rendering. Angled was our first choice, but the space doesn't work for it.

We'd rather not attach the fridge wall to base cabinets. The angled windows in the nook start from a rather low position, so the shelf you see there is not waist height, but rather just a low bookshelf cabinet for our cookbooks. I think extending those around to the fridge would be awkward due to the low height.

2 for 2 on the "yes" to the side wall. I'm sensing a trend. Thank you for your opinions--this is really helping. That's a great point about hiding the stuff that collects behind the fridge!

Definitely a side wall! It makes it look more finished. I think no sidewall looks like it was just stuck there b/c there was room. And w/no sidewall, the upper cabinet seems to be just hanging in mid-air w/no connection to the rest of the kitchen. Does this all make sense?

HTH!

My vote is for the side wall. I just like the more finished look.

You said:

2. We have a stainless fridge with black sides. Will the black look too dark against the white cabinets and light wallsÂwould it look better to have the black sides more covered?

I vote for the side wall. We had a fridge like that in our last house (ss front, black sides) and I always wished there was a side wall to make it look more polished. I also think it will make your wall look more balanced and finished.

Good luck,
try_hard

Another vote for the sidewall for the reasons already mentioned. It will flow better and look more finished. Also gives you a "wall" for a piece of art if you want that.

Could you not scoot the fridge over to the left a little (as you are facing the fridge) and place a pull out/broom closet/whatever on each side? Upper cabinets could straddle the top of these two units, making it slightly more "built in"? My concern is, as you stated, the fridge looking homeless. Sorry to stick my nose in, but I am facing the same sort of dilemma in my own floor plan.

i went from no wall and 12"d o/h cabinet to boxed in/24"d cabinet and it was the right decision. even though it is not cab-depth and sticks out a bit from the box. i used the measurements for the cab depth one i'll probably replace it with eventually. it nneeds a 3" cab, while mine would technically fit in a 30" cabinet; it looks fine. also consider that the next fridge could be taller as well as wider when you do your measuring.

sorry -that should read that the new fridge would need a 33" cabinet!

I think a side wall will chop up your nook. Will you have a table in there? Or a prep island? I wonder if that's the only possible location for the fridge--what's that pantry-looking thing in the drawing (above and to the left of the fridge in the layout?) Could you put the fridge there and build it in or recess it? 12" or 15" deep pantries in the nook wouldn't take up too much space.

Another note on the side wall - we were in a similar situation with our layout, with the fridge on the side. One thing that swayed our decision to have the wall (and I can't tell whether this is the case from your overall layout) was that the area there was the perfect place for light switches for the kitchen. So one benefit of having the wall is that we could put a light box in there for the light switches.

I vote for no side wall. We're just moving into our kitchen and I SOOOOO miss being able to stick something on the side of the fridge with a magnet - mainly the grocery list pad. I wish I had left the wall out.

What if you made that area in front of those low windows a window seat and then when the windows ended, went into a regular height base cabinet. I think it would help to tie the frig together better. The way it is right now looks like you forget some cabinets. Particularly, since you are putting a cabinet on top of the frig. It seems misplaced.

If you don't want to run the cabs all the way around, my suggestion is to eliminate the over frig cabinet and just frame the entire frig out in drywall. You could leave a cut out section on top for some display possibly. At least that way, it looks like the frig was meant to be by itself. By putting a cabinet up there, it just looks lost to me.

Just to answer about the side wall, I would definitely frame the fridge in with at least a panel. We just did that in our space (upon recommendations from this forum). There is a post somewhere with some nice pics. If I knew how to post pics, I would show you mine. One side of the fridge is against a wall and the other has a panel coming all the way out to the doors of the fridge. So it has the appearance of a counter depth when it really isn't. That also allows for the above fridge cabinet to be a little deeper if you want. And it totally makes the fridge look nicely finished. I really didn't want the black side of my stainless fridge showing. I think it's goofy that they even make the sides black! If you miss being able to hang things with magnets, just mount a nice bulletin board or dry erase board there.

And on that note, I've seen some cool slim cabinet message centers and that might be a perfect space for that for your kitchen. Just a slim cabinet that would open on the side of the fridge and could have little key hooks, a bulletin board, note pad, etc. I'm attaching a link to the one I'm thinking of. If your cabinets are custom, you could design one that's bigger for the space.

Or the broom closet idea is great! If you could build in a little thin slide out broom closet that could easily be removed in the future without damaging the cabinets, that could leave open the possibility of a bigger fridge someday without major demo.

I also agree with skypathway too that it looks like you could maybe switch the location of the fridge and those other cabinets and get the fridge closer to the rest of the triangle and give yourself a landing place which is really nice to have for loading and unloading stuff.

Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen Message Center Cabinet

Maybe you've already checked out this link, but it has some good pics of fridges with side walls/built in look. There's also a good recent thread about broom slide out cabinets.

Here is a link that might be useful: Built In Fridge Link

I posted some photos a few minutes ago that might show a solution to a problem that some people have putting a fridge in a corner. See the link below in another thread.

Here is a link that might be useful: refrigerator next to wall issues