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Seattle Area - Appliance Overlay for Panel-Ready Appliances

3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago

Hi all!

I’m having 2 panel-ready appliances for our kitchen but am having trouble finding someone who will make the appliance panel overlays or a store that sells the front panel overlay that would match our cabinets. Ours is a clasic White Shaker. Our cabinet company (and 2 other cabinet companies we reached out to) do not offer this. Two other custom cabinet companies I reached out also do not offer this service. The 2 appliances are a 24-inch dishwasher and a 15-inch ice maker.

For people who have panel ready appliances, please tell me: where did you get the panels?

Comments (28)

  • 3 years ago

    Well that’s just weird, sounds like too small job syndrome. the important part is to get the same size stiles and rails as your existing cabinets. maybe a site like cabinetdoors.com has a match for you?

    HU-678532181 thanked slupher
  • PRO
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    That is because this is normally the venue of at least a semi custom/ custom kitchen cabinet company, and most often planned/ordered with the cabinetry.

    I never use a panel on a dishwasher, they rarely hold up well to the daily onslaught of wet and messy hands. But, if you own the panel ready ice maker as well? Your only good option is to have them made by a local wood crafstman and painted to match.

    Both of these items are "spec specific........" To the individual appliance and brand of that appliance.

    Basically, these are planned TOGETHER, at the start of the kitchen design : )


    Try below?


    https://www.custommade.com/by/davidgetts/


    https://www.balfourwoodworking.com/

  • PRO
    3 years ago

    If you used a stock line for your cabinets they simply don’t offer the custom service- if you’ve already ordered or installed it’s too late and would make more sense to get standard appliances. If this is an existing kitchen you are trying to upgrade you may want to work with a designer- they will have access to craftsman who can accomplish this and can slip in your job with other larger jobs.

    HU-678532181 thanked HALLETT & Co.
  • PRO
    3 years ago

    IMO those would not be a what I would think should be panelled and I honestly do not like panelled appliances . Why those 2 things if the rest of the appliances are not panelled . I agree theDW IMO should never be done.

  • 3 years ago

    Dishwashers and ice makers are ugly. Panels make them less ugly. Modern dishwashers are not a problem for panels. I’ve had one on mine for 7 years without issue.

  • 3 years ago

    I had mine paneled for a more modern looking kitchen. I also really really dislike cleaning stainless. Those are just a couple of reasons people like paneled appliances.

  • 3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    A cheap RTA line can’t do this. And shouldn’t have paneled appliances in it. Appliances shouldn’t cost 10x more than the cabinets. Its the other way around.

    Any higher mid grade cabinet line and above has zero issues doing this. But the kitchen as a whole has to be built correctly to accept an integtated fridge. Retrofitting just never works. There are 117 details that go into this, that your kitchen designer has to coordinate.

  • 3 years ago

    Is this a new build or retro fit?

  • 3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    "Dishwashers and ice makers are ugly."

    But it's a kitchen. It has appliances. And appliances look the way they look. In particular, dishwashers and ice makers are fronted by just doors. @slupher - what do you do about your range or wall oven or microwave?

    It's not that appliances shouldn't be paneled if budget and cabinet company allows. But it is that the OP is not using a cabinet line that can make panels for her appliances. And furthermore, to have to jump summersaults to find paneling for her dishwasher and ice maker is going to be difficult and costly.

    @HU-678532181 - your situation as you described it is limited to two choices: exchange the DW and ice maker for ones that come with stainless steel doors, or change your cabinet line to one that can make panels for your appliances. So many of them do offer this, I am surprised you are having difficulty finding one.

    My cabinets were local and middle-of-the-road price-wise and they offered paneling, though I chose not to have them. I feel that unless the appliance is a fully-integrated style - meaning it will be completely flush with the adjoining cabinets - the appliance panels look tacked on, and not that great.

  • 3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    @M Miller, the OP states that she has two panel ready appliances. She’s also using white shaker. she should have no trouble finding someone to make two panels for her. my range and wall oven are beautiful as is, and the microwave is relegated out of site in the pantry as it should be.

  • 3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    Hi everyone, I appreciate all the feedback so far. I didn’t mean for this to become a debate between the look of stainless steel vs paneled appliances. I think everyone has a different taste and reasons, and they are all valid. After all, it’s your kitchen to live with :). My question is mostly about if anyone has any ideas or solution as to where I could purchase a clasic white shaker panel or have it custom made especially in the Seattle area that doesn’t involve having to work with a designer and going for a higher priced whole cabinet replacement just to have 2 panels made. I’m willing to pay premium for these 2 panels to be made as I understand they likely will need to be custom made. If anyone has any suggestions as to some of the names of cabinet lines that offer panels I would be happy to look into it as well! Thank you all!

  • PRO
    3 years ago

    Do you know what brand your cabinets are? Is it the original paint color or have you repainted them? I am very surprised you can't find one kitchen place that will order you a panel.

    The challenge you will face is matching the color. That may be why some people are turning you away - it is not worth the hassle when it doesn't match exactly.

    If you painted the cabinets, then just get the specs for the appliance panels and order unfinished doors, then paint them your self or bring them to whomever painted your cabinets.

    I'm curious to know the reason places don't want to order the panels.

    Good luck!

  • PRO
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    The reason nobody wants to do it ? There are a million shades of factory finish white , Cabinet companies are buried in orders, Shipping something as small as that could mean as MUCH as a 300.00 tab unless you get lucky and it goes by truck with another order close to your destination. Many companies, ship blanket wrapped, believe it or not, with their own truck.

    "There are 117 details that go into this, that your kitchen designer has to coordinate."

    That last line should be IN BOLD.

    You want what you want. and it should have been planned that way at the start. They are a lot more complicated than you think, and a Monogram is not a Sub zero, and a U;line ice maker is different than another.

    There is no "just make me this" in design. Actually " just " is a word you can eliminate from design vernacular

  • 3 years ago

    @JAN MOYER: "Shipping something as small as that could mean as MUCH as a 300.00 tab unless you get lucky and it goes by truck with another order close to your destination."


    A Whirlpool (for example) custom panel for a 24" dishwasher is 28.3" x 23.4" and can weigh no more than 15 lbs. 28.3" + 23.4" = 56.7". UPS will ship items up to 165" in length + girth, and 150 lbs. Why would a trucking company be needed to ship this piece of wood? IKEA sells 24" x 30" doors and ships them for $6. It certainly does not ship these doors with a trucking company.

  • PRO
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    You are going to have to trust me on this

    I recently tried to do very inexpensive Fabuwood, two little 30 inch upper cabs for a client's second floor laundry. Price to ship? 600.00 bucks. .........and that was LAST month, my friend. YES, more THAN THE CABINET COST.

    These folks just don't run into a local UPS?FEDX etc. ..........So that is why the panels would have to hitch ride on a truck......with another large order. That truck? It doesn't leave until relatively full, most of the time: )

  • 3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    Cabinet companies rarely ship UPS. FedEx is even worse. It’s a guarantee of arriving damaged. And since they reduced the overall package length, and you can’t even ship 8’ moldings with them at all, even if you wanted to. And the hazmat BS for a quart of paint? Which every smart designer orders. Everyone noped out of that. You just don’t do that to your customers.

    Almost everything gets shipped on the company trucks. So there’s very little chance of a cabinet company going to try 5x to get a door anywhere, when it can just go on that company truck that is used to cabinet logistics.


    In the end, this is is a 1-2K dollar project. And that’s if the OP measures and specifies the size right the first time for the cabinet maker to build. AND has the *exact professinal finish* that the other cabinets were finished with, and can find a painter capable of spray it to match the other cabinets. Because a cabinet maker is not going to come to the house and assume responsibility for all of that for even twice that price. They just say no, we won’t do it. As the OP has found out.


    And if that cabinet finish is over a year old, you might as well add 7-9K to the job to refinish all of the cabinets, so everything actually matches. Because it won’t match any other way.

  • 3 years ago

    @wdccruise this is what I was looking for. I will look into it, thank you!


    @Debbi Washburn my washer is Bosch. I can paint it to match myself, it’s painted in Dover White and the cabinet company could provide a sample for me to match the color. This might be the route I will go with, thank you!


    @JAN MOYER @User I appreciate the insight. I do not intend to downplay the important role of a kitchen designer. My use of the word ”just” is referring to the size of my project, not the amount of work of a kitchen designer. There is definitely time and place for kitchen designer, and they for sure would have made this a lot easier :).

  • 3 years ago

    @verbo:

    What you've written is just crazy.

    1. She's not shipping an 8' molding, she's shipping two small pieces of wood.
    2. "It’s a guarantee of arriving damaged." So everything in the millions of packages UPS and Fedex ship every year is damaged? Wow! How do they stay in business?
    3. Hazmat? The vendor would be shipping two painted pieces of wood.
    4. Specifies the right size? Do you think she's incapable of providing the sizes? Scherr's Cabinet & Doors will check the manufacturer's specifications if she includes the brand and model number of the appliance.
    5. Finish? Scherr's Cabinet & Doors will match a sample if she provides it.
    6. "...you might as well add 7-9K to the job to refinish all of the cabinets": Ridiculous.
  • 3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    Armchair experts shouldn’t pontificate on industry practices that they really don’t know anything about. We in the industry know about shipping cabinets, and what does, and does not work. Individual shipping for doors or other parts had a very very high damage incidence since 2020 and the labor shortage issue. This is why the majority of major cabinet companies have ceased to do that in 2021. Cabinet company logistics have trucks traveling all over the country with full orders, and that’s how those parts orders also arrive. Via cabinet company freight, to the dealer’s address. Not Ground. Not LTL. Nothing careless 3rd party. I still have ”lost” items from 5 different replacement orders that we’re still fighting for credit about. That's not the damaged ones. That’s WAY more.

    A ”white paint” is not a white paint is not a white paint. Even ”the same” color, in a different gallon, from the same tint machine, in the same order, will be slightly different. It’s why pros box their paint. Because if you don’t, you have to change gallons in a corner instead of the middle of the wall, where you will see the subtle differences in ”the same” paint. All pros know this. It is a fact.

    Multiply that difference by the completely different chemistries in different coating types, and different sources, and different ages. Ordering anything already finished, even if it is from ”the same” manufacturer as the original cabinets, WILL NOT MATCH. Not unless the cabinet installation is still very young in age, and hasn’t had time for light and dirt and wear to change it. This is why touch up paint you have in the closet doesn’t match the walls when you try to patch and paint the holes before you move. And you have to paint the whole wall.

    What's the cure for things not matching? Accepting a patchwork quilt of different whites. Or having it all recoated by a cabinet refinishing professional, so it all matches.

  • 3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    So you're telling me that Scherr's Cabinet & Doors is going to put two pieces of painted wood the largest of which is about 24" x 30" in a "truck traveling all over the country with full orders, and that’s how those parts orders also arrive. Via cabinet company freight, to the dealer’s address" even though its catalog says it ships "UPS/FedEx"?

    And you're telling me that this company can't paint these two doors -- it has to "box their paint" whatever that means -- even though it specifically states that it will paint the doors and will match a paint sample? But if the company does paint these two pieces of wood the OP will have to repaint every cabinet in the kitchen to match? Uh-huh.

  • PRO
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    Well. Have at it! All we can state is the 99% of the time. If you found the answer? GREAT!

    We give you 99% because for pro's..................it's planned UP FRONT., and not sought after the fact.

    We have also witnessed kitchen reno that went on for %$$##@ time frames, with one seemingly small goof on a single cabinet. Or a panel...or whatever!

    So......you have the answer, and may it result in perfection !

  • 3 years ago

    Just wait until you see the prices of the appliance pulls you're going to need.

  • PRO
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    The pulls...........which need to be installed , PRIOR to the panel installation on the appliance itself. I'd not worry too much about the price, worry about a match to what you have........in an appropriate 6 inch width. You don't need and out off sight price FRIDGE pull

  • PRO
    3 years ago

    I'm sure people are not going to agree but here it goes.

    Please measure from the top of one of your drawer fronts to the bottom of the door. You will want the panel to be as close to that size as possible. See if that dimension fits within the range of the appliance ( it usually does ) . Yes, you will need a handle but not an appliance pull.


    You clearly stated that the company you got your cabinets from didn't offer appliance panels. Shame on your designer. They should have looked up the size ( IF OFFERED ) of a base 24" full height door and a base 15" full height door ( or the door off a wall 15 w x 30 high - same for the base ) . I would bet that those door sizes would work. I have used them before when people are in companies that don't offer "custom" sized door panels.

    Your other option, since you are willing to paint them yourself. Take the dimensions, one of your doors ( simply for verifying stile and rail sizes ) , go to your local home depot or lowes and order an unfinished door from Kraftmaid. They will ship it ups.

    Good luck to you...

  • PRO
    3 years ago

    Usually there are some smaller local cabinet companies that might be able to help you out. I know I have an installer that also builds custom cabinetry for special circumstances that would have no problem supplying me or a customer with a custom door if I needed it. Reach out to some local carpenters as well. Usually if they are good or do cabinet installation, they should be able to make you a door.

  • 3 years ago

    So I ran the panel dimensions needed through the website previously mentioned, and the total, painted in Dover white, with shipping, is $658.00. $77.00 shipping, and subtract 200 if you want them unfinished. Something to compare to a local shop.

  • 3 years ago

    Husky Door, northeast of Seattle is making a panel for our Miele 36” fridge. Under $900.