Not sure if this is the best forum for this question, but here goes!

this is a flood remodel, so whereas I had a semi-blank slate to do anything with, many things about the space have remained the same.

the space for the refrigerator has remained the same... without having really looked to much into refrigerators, I chose to do a standard space when planning for cabinets... I have 36.5" trim to cabinet width and 70.5" height floor to cabinet.

The issue I'm having is that the refrigerator is up against a wall (see picture) and that greatly reduces how far a door can open on the left.

On side by side refrigerators, that means the door cannot open fully to access drawers... the French door models that have the drawers within would not fully extend.

of course, the seemingly best solution would be to get a single door refrigerator that has the door open to the right... except that the ones I have seen that are 36" wide are all 80"+ in height!

I could do a 33" wide model with no problem, but I'd prefer to fill that space if I could.

so it seems my current options are to either: A. French door... would have to be one with a low profile handle and preferably not one with drawers spanning the width of the refrigerator, OR, B. Redo the cabinets above the refrigerator by either shortening them to gain a height to accommodate a 80" frig, or moving the entire cabinet up 10" and redoing the crown.

For what it's worth, my old refrigerator was a 36" side by side in presumably the same amount of space... I can't exactly remember but I believe the freezer door only opened at a 90 degree angle. ( I was only in the house 3 months prior to the flood and the old refrigerator came with the house)