My kitchen is relatively small and so my designer recommended a panel DW so as to not break up the run of cabinets.

What houssason said. I have a small kitchen with lots going on so we went with the panel ready to keep it from looking too choppy.

however, if you have a larger run of lower cabs, I like how a stainless DW will give the eye a chance to rest and break up an endless run of white.

My kitchen is not small (will be installed next week), but I still chose to panel the dw to hide it. No other paneled appliances .

As this relates to aesthetics it is completely subjective and there is no right answer. We can’t tell you what your opinion should be. Look at a bunch of photos that are comparable to what your kitchen will be and decide what you like best. If you have no opinion after doing that then just pick whatever is cheaper or easier.

Relative to aesthetics, I prefer paneled. I have a paneled DW, Fridge and freezer, looks great, imo.

Thanks everyone! I've decided on stainless as I do have a long row of cabinets. The main reason I think I'll stay with the stainless is (oddly) a silly practical one---we mostly do dishes by hand for daily dishes (it's just 2 of us) + only use the dishwasher on rare occasions + I like the long bar handle on the non-paneled dishwasher. The panel ready dishwashers require you to install some type of handle of your own + the one that will match the rest of our cabinet hardware does not come in a long enough length for the dish towels to drape over it to properly dry. And that dish towel gets quite wet/soggy! There are sooooooo many decisions when designing a kitchen, aren't there???!!!

I would go with the stainless steel dishwasher as your refrigerator for practicality. The panel ready will be part of the cabinets and does look very nice, but since you will be using the dishwasher a lot, the white panel is more delicate than having the stainless steel and the dishwasher will coordinate with your refrigerator.

it I is subjective but I find that it does help to review what makes one thing look better to your eye. sometimes It’s just a choice (eg. choosing green rather than red because you don’t like red), but often there is an underlying reason why one looks better than another (eg. choosing green rather than red because the floor is orange and red will clash while green will complement).

anyways, glad you got one more of those thousand decisions out of the way and choosing something because it makes a day to day practicality work, is smart not frivolous.