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patrick_ritchie

Gap under single wall oven- filling the gap advice

8 years ago

Greetings all, I recently had an oven installed and I need some guidance on how to best fill the gap. Here is the situation. The gap is approximately 3 1/4 inch in height and 29-30 inches in width. I'm trying to decide whether to do buy a custom aluminum piece for $45 from MicroTrim.com to match stainless similar to second picture (it is black in picture but the idea is the same). They will also do a stainless steel piece for around $230 that has a smooth finish and matches the depth of the oven. OR, have a piece of wood put in and try to match the cabinets which were painted maybe 20+ years ago. I would totally go for the wood option if somebody could get it really close to seamless and make it look like it's basically always been there. What do you think? Has anyone used Micro Trim and bought their standard or custom stainless steel oven fillers? OR, have you done the wood option and the match been close enough? Thanks in advance.





Comments (26)

  • PRO
    8 years ago

    Before you go to third-party vendors, see if the manufacturer of your oven (can't quite see who makes this one from your photo) makes a trim kit for this unit. If so, that would likely be the best bet and would match the best. If not, I'd put a dummy wood panel there similar to what you might see below your kitchen sink and above the sink cabinet doors. Your cabinets look to be a pretty standard white which shouldn't be hard to match.

  • PRO
    8 years ago

    If you don't know the paint color of the cabinets I think I would go for the metal pieces to fill the space.

  • 8 years ago

    Whirlpool doesn't make anything. I forgot to mention that, But, I was surprised. They make a trim kit for the sides only. Which metal piece ? The cheaper $45 or the $230 smooth stainless steel one?

  • 8 years ago

    I can take a door off and take it to get paint matched. Only way I would know to obtain it.


  • 8 years ago

    $45 trim solution sounds perfect to me.

  • PRO
    8 years ago

    You'd have to get finish samples of the stainless to see which looks best. Sometimes appliances say they are stainless when they actually just have a stainless look. Everybody's "stainless" finish is actually a bit different.

  • 8 years ago

    I'd paint a piece of wood. It's amazing what a good paint store can do with matches these days.

    Ideally, you'd get a drawer front type piece with the same edge routed into it as the cabinets and as wide as the cabinets and stick that on. Even ideallyer, attach it with concealed hinges so you can keep potholders in it.

  • 8 years ago

    Even tray or cookie sheet storage could be useful. But if you get a wood panel, i'm sure it could be caulked and painted into a seamless result.

  • PRO
    8 years ago

    The "stainless" insert would look better than a flush wood panel, the space will look too big if it's all at that plane. If you could get a "drawer front" piece with a recessed panel, that would look good- but at 3-4" the space is too small for the panel. I think a grille would look better than a flat stainless piece, and is more forgiving than a flat if the stainless isn't an exact match. Dare I say it- even a black false grille like your example would look okay.

  • 8 years ago

    I agree with Beth H, and paint the inside, or line it well to clean easily. Perfect place for cookie sheets or shallow pans!

  • PRO
    8 years ago

    The metal is the best option. If you put a wood filler it will not look good, they cut they made is too rough and uneven, if you use calking or filler it will stick out like a sore thumb. If you put a drawer, every time you open you be looking at the 2x on each side.

    The pictures Beth shows are nice features, but all that was planned done by the kitchen manufacturer, the top picture also, the drawer is part of the oven unit.

    That being said, I don't know why they made the cutout in the cabinet that low... Since there is no Mic Trim kit, they should have made the cabinet opening just enough to fit the oven and modify the oven support on the inside (this is how it's done all the time), so when you have everything installed and you slide the oven in everything is closed up and finished on the outside.

  • 8 years ago
    I would reset the oven so that it was centered, do a 3/4 thick picture frame with the same door edge detail.
  • PRO
    8 years ago

    Metal. You'll never match the wood finish as cost effectively.

  • 8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    A cabinet make should be able to make you a shallow drawer to fit that space.

    A qualified metal worker -- the kind that make stove vents and ductwork that is to be seen - could cover the space with a stainless steel panel. If you're looking for a sheet metal worker, contact a local roofing or heat/ac company.

    If this is to be a DIY project, you may be able to find flashing to cover the space yourself or you could probably find a metal duct vent you could paint black to fit there and it could look as if it is part of the air circulation for the unit.

    You might consider a board w/a hinge to cover the space and yet enable you to access the area beneath the stove as a "hidden" place to store ... something ... perhaps long BBQ utensils that don't seem to fit anywhere else.

    If matching the other cabinetry is a problem, don't try -- use stainless steel or painted metal or either leave any wood board a natural wood finish or paint it black or some other bold color or cover it w/wallpaper trim strip.

  • 8 years ago
    Nothing obvious about a 4" flat piece of metal
  • 8 years ago
    Thanks everyone. I think the suggestions on the grill were the best ideas. Nobody wants to look at 2x4a every time they open a drawer. Plus, we have a very large cabinet for pans above the oven. If I filled it with a piece of wood, there would be too much separation between doors and oven. So, I’ve decided on below from micro trim. $50-60. Problem solved. If I spent $400 on a 3 inch by 30 inch oven filler, I have either A) lost my mind or B) have more money than sense. Also, comment about black grill was funny! Thanks for the thoughtful comments all!
  • 8 years ago

    I'd rather look at some 2x4s when I open a drawer than to not have a drawer at all. Especially a secret drawer. But I don't fold my underwear, either.

    Yeah, the grill is probably the cheapest and easiest.

  • 8 years ago

    Patrick-

    In decades of fixing things around my house that weren't perfect or a problem like yours resulting from a remodel, I've found that the best approach is often to embrace the flaw by making it appear to be a design feature, rather than trying to mask it. I think that grill is a perfect solution.

  • 8 years ago
    Thank You for posting this! I am experiencing that same problem and the website you mentioned was exactly what I needed!
  • 6 years ago

    Same issue here. Thanks for the much more inexpensive solution. Will post a picture when I have it installed.

  • 4 years ago

    Home project newbie here. Have the same problem. Since you went for the cheaper option on Microtrim, what did you use to prop up your oven with? 2x4s it looks like from the picture? Just trying to figure out what we can use to prop up our oven so that we can do the below-oven grill.

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    Old thread but let us be realistic about adding a drawer. 2 2.x 4's stacked is only around 3" of space. 3" minus clearance allowance for the drawer bottom. Minus 1/2" thickness of the drawer bottom. You might get a 2 1/4" deep drawer in there. Using side mount slides. And a drawer with a planted on plywood drawer bottom. Forget using those fancy Blum bottom mounts. Those require drawer bottoms that are recessed.

    'In there'--means you have to pull the oven out of the hole in order to mount the drawer slides. After you get the 2 x 4's fastened down and square with the cabinet. Those 2 x 4's cost you at least 7" of potential drawer width. Then you have to come up with a drawer front that matches the cabinets.

    Not. Worth. It.

    And dang, I forgot all about needing to use at least a 3/4" wide piece of material at the top of the opening--face frame construction. Your drawer just shrunk by another 3/4".

    The metal trim is a good idea. Another solution is to glue and pocket screw a filler in place to cover the gap before installing the oven.

  • 4 years ago

    We had some smaller wood strips cut to fit under our oven. We were replacing a built-in wall microwave oven with an GE Advantium. We wanted to attach the grill trim piece we got at Lowe's somehow so that we could use that few inches of space to store the metal tray used with that oven. The grill is now made of plastic (no metal}. After measuring for the corresponding locations so that parts were hidden behind the grill, we used 4 metal tabs from cabinet magnetic latches (they have a hole in the center for a screw) and screwed them into the wall cabinet below the opening and then glued some round magnetic "washers" to the back side of the grill to hold it. It works great, holds tight, easy to pull off and back on and hides the tray and other things. It was a kind of a wonky job but I wanted that storage space. I stood staring at numerous items in various aisles at the store for quite a while and then I tried this.

  • 3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    I'm coming to this post years late, but for others in a similar situation, you could do a hinged drawer front that operates like the door to a false front sponge tray in front of a sink (but without the tray). It could either lift up or drop down. You could then use it to store sheet pans.

  • PRO
    3 years ago

    Try to order a drawer face from a cabinet manufacturer with a similar profile matching your cabinets it shouldn't be hard to find on sites that sell unfinished cabinet doors and make a drawer, or like others suggested a tilt-out face front or just a false face front, use it as a stash :-)