[lmunsing]

Hi all -

I'm wondering how to fill out a refrigerator cabinet. We haven't ordered the fridge yet, but I'm pretty sure we're going with one that's about 70" tall by 33" wide. I like the deep (24") upper cabinet because we have a lot of serveware. I won't be able to fit a 24" tall cabinet, so I'm thinking of cutting the 24" down to 18", so that I can use 18" doors. BUT, I'm not sure what to do with the width. Here's a look at the plan:

Space around refrigerator cabinet - cover panels or plinth? 

Note: I've just colored the parts differently to make it easier to see, and I've fudged the fridge height, the cabinet won't actually be resting on the fridge - also, I'm not married to the end cover panel (birch in the screen shot), I might just leave that off if the cabinet looks finished without it.

Since a 36" fridge cabinet would extend too far, I presume that I get the 30" cabinet, and put 2" of filler on each side. But what kind of filler should I order ? Plinth, filler pieces, or lower cover panels? Which of those allow for cover panels to go over the top of them like so -
cover panel - 2" filler - 30" cabinet - 2" filler - cover panel ?

The fridge is stainless and the doors on the cabinet will be custom - aluminum frames like avsikt with white glass like rubrik, so my cover panels and any filler will probably be abstrakt white.

Also, does anyone worry about these 24" deep upper cabinets being too large and needing extra reinforcement (for example, drilling through to an adjacent cabinet)?

Thanks for your thoughts!
Lynn

[jakabedy]

A lot of fridges today are 36" wide, so you may want to have room for a 36" for later even if you have a 33" now. That would let you use the 36" upper cabinet with no filler.

But if you still plan to put the 30" cabinet in the 33" space, then use filler. We don't have filler there, but in the lower cabinet runs. We actually used a door from the as-is room to cut down for vertical filler. Since it is the same thickness as the doors/drawer fronts, it was easy to keep the filler flush with the doors.