I've seen the KitchenAid Built-in 42 inch (French Door) with panels in showrooms at Home Expo and the Great Indoors (both in NJ) and they are beautifully integrated & don't stick out at all. I assume the 48 inch is the same. You really should go to a showroom that has it set up and just look for yourself. I'm doing that with everything. It's just too much money to get a rude surprise on installation day.

Usually, if it's a distance away, I call ahead to ask if something in particular is set up on the showroom floor. I also find that talking to the salespeople can be very helpful. You'll know pretty quickly if they're on the ball or not. If I see that I seem to know more than they do, I just find someone else to help me.

The part that extends beyond the countertop is just the frame that holds the wood overlay, which is just a fraction of an inch. It has to extend, and I would guess this applies to every make, because if it were flush, you could only open the doors 90 degrees before you would mar the overlay on the adjacent counter. In other words, when the door is opened wide, you don't want the wood front to be dinged up by contact with the counter. The door needs a small amount of clearance.

The only fridges I've seen that have a true "integrated" look are Thermador and Sub-zero. Their doors have a special hinge to avoid the problem discussed by suska with the KitchenAid. My understanding is that the Thermador integrated is more money than the Kitchen Aid.

Here's mine - this is a three year old 42" SxS KA - built-in with the full overlay panel.

{{!gwi}}

I have one sitting in the dining room waiting to be installed in the rental kitchen so I took a picture for you.

{{!gwi}}

This is a SS model, but from our shopping expeditions we saw that aside from the door being panel ready, verses finished like this one, they were the same size. We did care about the part that sticks out because we wanted good access to the inside of the fridge when it was slid back into it's brick enclosure (which we will have here).

So the door does stick out and as you can see from the upside down ruler it sticks out one inch. Not a big deal, and what it takes to get the door open further than 90 degrees as noted above.

We have a subzero in the main house. It does not stick out at all because of the unique hinges, but it was another $3,000 or $4,000 (I can't remember exactly). Personally with SS door fronts I don't care about the little bit sticking out, but with a panel door, I would want it to be even with the other cabinets myself :) But you have to pony up the bucks for that unfortunately.

As to the KA itself...it works great (far better than our old fridge) and was a great deal better priced than our subzero, but I do notice the difference between the two and am glad we went SZ for the main house.

Gibby3000, how deep is the cabinet that your microwave is in? It really looks nice. Is the outlet in the cabinet above?

I wasn't keen on the SS edging, but I don't really notice it now. I would have extended the end panel, if I had realised.

Here is a link that might be useful: KA French Door

whoooosh, your paneled KA looks gorgeous. I don't think the little of what you can see of the ss is bad at all. Now you won't have people blindly searching through your cabinets and pantry looking for the frig, there is a teenie tiny clue.

Whooooosh, what's that above the top of your KA fridge, right below the crown molding?
It looks like a shallow drawer with a pull in the middle. If it is, what could you possibly put in there?

I'm thinking the SS trim on the KA would be a whole lot less noticeable if the cabs were off white or something similar.

zoey - the microwave cabinet is standard upper cabinet depth - whatever that is - 12 inches? Yes the outlet for the plug is in the cabinet above.

Whoooooooosh,

If you would have extended the end panel to cover the SS, wouldn't you then have the problem of not being able to open the door completely? I thought that's the whole reason that the KA sticks out a little bit - because it doesn't have the hinges like Sub-Zero, and needs a little bit of swing room.

I'm planning to have the KA at the end of a run, and I would make the end panel a little bit wider, but I don't want to run into a problem.

I have the KA 42" in paneled in white. The stainless iss less noticible