I'm not sure about the recessed option, but I think it would be fine. I tend to think any gained space in the kitchen would be worth it, especially since it sits on the end of your run of cabinets. I would definitely go with white in your white kitchen. That big expanse of stainless always looks out of place to me, and I think it would look nice with the white sink.

I feel that it would be very awkward to have the refrigerator stepped back from the counter..........I would not recommend it.

However, I would recommend setting the refrigerator back just a bit (maybe 4") so it is actually flush with the counter. Most counter depth refrigerators do stick out a little bit from the counter, so making it truly counter depth would be very nice.

Hey Whit! I like the idea for space, but I personally would run into the jutted out countertop for sure. And the fridge door could get dented from accidental over opening from the growing people in your house? I'd say stay flush with the counters.
Xoxo

depends on how much space there is to move it into .. it will probly stick out from the cabinets above for sure... and possibly the counter .... unless you have a huge inner space to keep all inside to line up with the counters

Hey Cuz: Get the counter depth fridge and stick it in the hole. The only part that should stick out are the doors themselves, for clearance. It will stick out a bit, but not nearly as far as a "standard" fridge, which looks bulky and "unplanned." As for the color, I would match your other appliances, especially your high end stove! Your cool farm sink, being white, should stand alone.

I would recommend against a white fridge when other appliances are not. It will look odd.

And I have exactly this setup in my kitchen (ie the run of cabinets ending with a fridge the depth of the lowers). It works well. The other way, you gain what, two square feet of floor space (at most), but at the cost of a smaller fridge, a counter jutting out for you to bang your hip and door fridge against, and a smaller upper cabinet (the big upper over the fridge is usually the best spot for baking trays and such).

Finally, even though you've found a fridge with doors that open at 90 degrees, working with that fridge could be clumsy. Fridge doors are thick, with shelves on the inside. So it will be harder to put wide items in the fridge--the doors will be in the way and you'll only be able to use the centre third of the fridge's main compartment, for all but the smallest things.

Should be even with it's housing not recessed.

Recessed to the counter, not the upper cabinets. Definitely stainless to work with your other appliances. I think you'd regret the white decision terribly.

I too would choose the stainless steel rather than the white fridge (for both consistency with the other appliances and a nice contrast against the white cabinets), and I think it would look more seamless if it were even with the counters. Also, build the recess a few inches more than required so the fridge truly can be as flush with the counters as possible. Some counter-depth fridges stick out too far when they really don't have to for clearance, so build the recess with a buffer of a few extra inches at the back--both for air circulation and so you can see how it functions at different depths. Here's a picture of how we did that in our small kitchen.

Feeny, I agree with you 100%, and I love your kitchen!

We did the same thing, but are still shopping for the fridge :) I highly recommend a full-depth fridge with cabinets built out.

The rest of our appliances have arrived for our kitchen renovation, and I just need to deal with the fridge. I can honestly say I think my white fridge looks horrible, especially now that I have stainless other things. (See pic above)

Combine the two concepts.....keep the face per photos so the doors can open greater than 90 degrees ( you never know what the future holds and that style may not always be available when replaced). Then make a recess only as deep as needed to get a regular 3' deep model, and air space behind to fit nicely.

I understand that you think recessing a 24" deep unit would make the kitchen feel more open, but I'd have to go with: it would feel off. I think you would also need to finish off the 12" end of base cabinet that would be exposed. Youre also going to have an overhanging countertop edge that returns towards the fridge. This could cause problems for getting the door to even open to 90 degrees.

And my guess is, for a fridge to function with doors at 90 degrees, you are probably giving up some storage space/access.

Re: white v SS, I can see both and think it is a very personal choice. And both are "right". Do you have funds to go with a unit that you can cover with panels to match the kitchen cabinets? Just something else to consider. ;-)

Let us know what you decide!

Not horrible, pheebers! If the rest of your appliances were white it would look good. But if the rest are stainless then it is wise to pick out a stainless fridge for the space, just for a unified effect. :-)

Oh yes - I love white appliances (bought that white one when we moved here 10 years ago...) but now that I have a stainless range and dishwasher I'm itching for the fridge too. I mentioned myself because I'm living with the mix now that they're considering, and I really don't like it.

HI Whitney,
I don't think you would regret going with the stainless. I think the pivot point of the door needs to be flush or even come out an inch or two from the encasement. I attached a photo of how ours is and it works for us. Hope it helps. Your reno is looking good! We love Houzz too!!

I had the same thoughts and chose stainless. I don't regret it. The counter depth LG was perfect for this location. The dark hardwood and white subway all work.

Hi, Feeny--thanks for the picture. Very helpful. I am curious as to how you got the fridge to look so flush without having purchased an actual built in. Do the doors open to 90 degrees only? Most of the GEs that we have looked at seem that when they open past 90 the doors will hit whatever is next to them (which in your case and identical in our case), is that counter to the left. We have that huge cavernous space, so I want to make use of it and I am going for that completely flush look that you have without having to purchase a counter depth (both because of the cost and the fact that they are not as deep--we have the space so I want a deep fridge). I just don't love how the majority of fridges that are "counter depth" are really counter depth + a few inches to account for the door hinges.

whit - there are fridges that have "hidden" hinges. The front comes up to hide the hinge - goes a long way towards giving that built-in look.

Feeny's does look awesome - if you look closely you can see the doors extend past the face of the surround. It looks as if she selected her model and was able to build the cabinet surround to the minimum tolerance for clearance per manuf. Since you have so much depth to work with I bet you'll have no problem locating a fridge to make it look very similar to this! You can purchase trim material from your cabinet manuf. and put it under the upper cabinets to finish out the opening and close up the space above the fridge.

I had the same question with our kitchen remodel, and was told by the contractor that the only way it would look right is to have the edge of the counter at the edge of the refrigerator, rather than have it recessed and have the counter sticking out.

Catieb--the lowest "clearance" hinge we have found is a Whirlpool....do you know of other brands? I do see that Feeny's sticks out, but not nearly as much as most others I see. And yes, we will trim the upper cabinets to get as "tight" of a look as possible...I think that looks so nice!

As far as an update, we are planning to make it flush with counter rather than upper cabinets at this point based on the feedback. I just don't want to have to deal with the door hitting the counter if it is not going to get us the extra space we were considering when I first posted the question, hence the search for an appropriate hinge on a fridge.

Calidesign--I wouldn't mind the edge of the counter at the edge of the refrigerator...I would love that! I just don't want the fridge sticking out, so I would lean toward having the counter sticking out if I had to choose, but that is not even an option unless I can find a good hinge for a fridge. Does that make sense?

What do you mean by a good hinge for a fridge?

A hinge that requires little to no clearance on the side of the fridge for the door to move in any direction. Almost like a hinge that disappears on itself.

whitjank, I don't think the hinge on our fridge is any different than the hinge on any other counter-depth fridge--at least it wasn't featured or described that way in the specs when we ordered it, and I think if it were special they would have called attention to it as a selling point. BTW, just for others who are following this thread, I posted a detailed description of the measurements and strategies for making our counter-depth fridge look more flush on the questions page of the photo I posted, in response to whitjank posting her question there. Somehow I missed the question when posted on this discussion thread.

When we ordered our fridge we knew it could be recessed that far because there was a photo of it installed that way on the GE webpage for the model. The specs didn't explain how to do it, but our cabinetmaker figured it out.

Stickey outey fridges help hide cooking mess from guests.

Whit, it sounds as if you're looking for an articulating type hinge - something I've never seen on a fridge. Typically the specs talk about door thickness and/or where it is hinged when extolling the virtues of a fridge manufactured to take up the least amount of space, i.e., it doesn't need extra width in the opening for doors to be able to open and can be installed like feeny's.

Even built-in refrigerator systems extend past the face of surrounding cabinetry.

I feel as if you have a vision/solution in your head and that I'm not understanding critical parts of that vision in order to answer questions....could just be me!

But if I'm understanding correctly, I think the side panels of your fridge surround need to extend past your base cabinet by 1 1/2" - 2". Then find a fridge that requires minimum projection past the side panels to function. Can you recess the cabinets or is the extra space only behind the fridge?

Are you worried about doors banging against the base cabinet? Really not a worry with a french door style.

Is the kitchen so small that you need to keep a fridge flush with your cabinets? I did a very small kitchen last year and she couldn't afford to buy a new fridge, so we used the old behemoth....to this day I'm amzed at how much SMALLER and less intrusive it felt once we put it in a surround.....will try to hunt down photos.

I know this thread is old, but I stumbled across it because I'm looking for the holy grail -- the affordable fridge with a hidden, zero-clearance, articulating hinge!
Yes, they exist. I was at an appliance showroom tonight and of course SubZero and Jenn-Air have the very very awesome articulating hinge that allows the door to open 90 degrees and stay exactly flush to the width of the fridge.
Did I say awesome?
I am trying to find a manufacturer that I don't need to take out a small loan for. I'm not giving up yet!
Thanks for this thread.

Thank goodness for Houzz. Old thread, I know, but I am trying to replace an older Maytag that has exactly that; the elusive articulating hinge that allows the doors to remain the same width as the fridge so that it can be truly flush, no thick doors encroaching into the kitchen space. Did anyone ever find such a thing? For less than 10k??