I would look into removing the cabinet above the refrigerator. See if that is possible without removing the entire wall of upper cabinets. I bet there's a way to do it.

Can you take a photo with nothing on top of the refrigerator and a floor layout with measurements? I agree with daisies and butterflies to remove cabinets above. You may need to have some finish work done on the remaining cabinets.

All your appliances seem to be dated are you palnning on akitchen renovation any time soon? As fir the fridge IMO you will need to remive the cabinets above where it will go or at least have them modified to work with a 70" high fridge and I use AJ Madison for an easy way to compare sizes , prices and types.

Why not keep what you have, that fits, untill all of the rest is also changed out to work with modern standards and sizes.

Can you cut down that cabinet above the fridge and then remount it?

If you can find a good handyperson you can remove that cabinet over the refrigerator completely - even if it's built-in-place. It's not going to be cheap, cause it's also pulling moldings, making a new end, replacing the molding around the top and patching/repainting the wall and any new pieces.

My dad had this problem and was able to cut the cab above down to a better size.

Years ago, I had that problem when my fridge broke. I needed a functional fridge fast. I just removed the cabinet & molding above & painted the walls to get me by until I could afford a remodel..... IF.... your fridge cabinet above ia a separate cabinet, there are options. Remove the cabine delicately, unscrew & take down. You could try to alter the cabinet by cutting to a standard height & reinstall the new size. Best to keep to standard sizes from floor to under cabinet 72" for future standard height fridges. Check fridge installation manual for specs before doing. Be gentle to existing molding when taking down to reuse. The good news is the door style is flat. Which means easier to cut & make a new flat door. With that said, I am concerned the cabinets are not individual pieces but one unit, which will be more difficult to alter. Check real close in between the wall cabinet left of fridge to the fridge cabinet to see if there's a seam before doing. You could DIY or hire a finishing contractor or a cabinet maker to do this for you. If you attempt DIY & for some reason run into difficulties, then you can hire someone to complete the fix. Another idea, you may be able to hang some decorative shelving or kitchen art over the fridge if for some reason, the cabinet cut down, reassembly does not go as planned. Hope this info helps.

Thanks everyone. It looks like we should get rid of the cabinets. I’m not sure how much of a renovation we will do on the entire kitchen. When we first moved in, we added the marble counter tops and got rid of the 70s kitchen colors. We’ve been talking about what to do with the cabinets, repainting or replacing? We would also like to replace the floors.

Basically our whole house has non standard sizes of everything so it makes it hard and we have 30 non standard windows to replace!

Remove the cabinet above and get a counter depth fridge (less than 25" deep). With the things stored there, you can't open that cabinet door, so you won't miss the storage. A counter depth fridge will open up your kitchen.

Your microwave looks damaged, too. Since it's on an outside wall, it would be easy to replace it with a vented hood.

Great ideas! I have no idea what I’m doing so I greatly appreciate all of this advice.

Just adding that your refrigerator looks as if it what used to be called an "apartment sized" refrigerator which was meant for small kitchens.

I live in a high rise condo that was built in 1965 and the refrigerator opening was sized for that style and size of refrigerator. When I originally moved, it was not an issue since I was moving from an apartment and so it fit perfectly.

As an interim measure most people had a handyman type of person cut down the "cabinet" above so that the height would fit in. Your cabinet doors resemble the crappy thin "slab" doors of those kitchens so replacing the doors and then painting isn't an issue so there isn't any kind of door style to duplicate - you just need to trick the eye.

The width of the opening won't be an issue since typically the opening will fit a standard 30" refrigerator. However you might have difficult finding such a narrow counter depth refrigerator and/or would find that the interior space is not big enough even for moderate needs since typically counter depth refrigerators are a bit wider to make up for lack of depth.

The original kitchens in my building predated microwaves so the original stove when I moved in was a very classy Caloric double stove which had a smaller oven on top which was actually super functional. It also presented issues when people replaced the stove because one had to deal with issues of what to do with the upper half of the wall. I lived with it until I gutted the whole thing because the prior owner had also decided to encase part of the edge of the stove in the abutting wood floors they had installed. Mine wasn't green and was electric coils but I thought this ad was fun since it illustrated what was state of the art kitchen in 1965

remove the cab since it's basically useless. you can carefully cut it away, make the new ones I'm showing you, and use a trim scribe piece molding to 'attach' back to the other cabinets. It can be done.

get a regular, counter depth fridge, and build this around it with a more usefull top portion. paint it to match your cabinets.

Tutorial:

https://www.younghouselove.com/build-it-in-build-it-in/

other options for open spacing above it

and here's another good tutorial. (you can buy these ready to go, but really, these aren't hard to make if you have some basic DIY skills and tools)

https://www.remodelandolacasa.com/2012/01/building-refrigerator-enclosure.html

heck, while you're at it, make a little side pantry for the right side

https://www.thehandymansdaughter.com/how-to-build-a-pantry-cabinet/

you can easily do slab doors to match what you have.

you could do a broom closet, or a pet feeding station add on. a trashcan holder/cab, all sorts of things.

Hi Amanda, Since the existing kitchen has several non-standard size cabinets. An investment into new standard size kitchen cabinets would be an overall good investment for the future. That way as appliances need replacement, they will fit better. I have had some clients who did their kitchen in stages due to finances, but it usually ends up costing the same or more if you add it all up versus doing the whole kitchen remodel. Imho, you get more bang for the buck & overall satisfaction of a new kitchen when doing it all at once. As for the current fridge situation. IF fridge is not working & needs to be replaced now, I would do the most economical fix by just removing the cabinet & paint the walls to get by. Then start planning & getting quotes for a kitchen remodel for standard size cabinets & appliances. You may want to start another thread on doing the whole kitchen & post measures of the existing walls & see what good ideas come in. Wishing you success with your projects :)

what about removing the cupboards above the fridge? then you could get a taller (counter-deep) fridge and the cupboards above are hard to reach anyway