Fair Valley

Reply to: Update on my end: the cabinet fabricators and I have come up with a design for the truly custom panels being affixed to samsungs panels. I would suggest anyone considering this option to spend the few extra thousand dollars to get truly panel ready appliances. Unfortunately it is a high end look for a reason - to achieve it for real costs a lot of money. These samsung panels are so thin that having real wood affixed to them will cause the wood to sit proud of the fridge by basically the entire thickness if the wood. if you have reveals between the freezer and fridge (3 door model) that will show the thickness of the wood. also, the way the doors open mean that side panels will be extremely complicated. the hinges of these doors arent meant to be concealed. the fridge is meant to sit a few inches proud of your cabinets (not truly counter depth, but almost all fridges are the same way). Truly built in fridges have hinges designed to open ”in place” and not add width to the fridge when it opens. Its a look Im dead set on but unfortunately not able to afford without a nonideal workaround like this. please do not tell me that an image of wood grain printed on a metal panel looks the same as a real wood panel - it doesnt. Any architect in the world who couldnt pick out one over the other would be fired on the spot. I will update with pictures of the installed project as soon as it is finished.

Q

Reply to: Architect here. I'm about to embark on this journey. Got duped into thinking this was custom panel-ready by vendor despite it being only Samsung panel ready. My cabinet fabricator has said they are willing to try to fabricate panel that will fit. I spoke with Samsung and the only answer they gave me after a lot of chasing was "Okay you can put on your custom panels" (literally a quote). My biggest concern is that the Samsung panels look considerably thinner than what you could safely achieve with wood. It'd probably be safer to do wood veneer applied to a substrate - possibly even metal or plastic similar to how their panels are designed. It will almost certainly void the warranty, though I will argue the opposite given their blessing. I can report back after the process is finished if I remember. For now, I'm still waiting to hear back from appliance vendor on when I will get it.

Q