[mucky]

I'm planning a kitchen and am leaving at least a 39" wide space for the 36" wide fridge, which has high cabs on either side. There will be a deep cabinet above also. My doors are Adel Med. Brown with birch boxes. Do you think I'll be seeing the birch color of the boxes and so need to add cover panels on both sides and underneath the overhead cab, or will the "hole" be dark enough to hide the birch color?

[personalshopper]

If you don't want to waste space used by tall cover panels, maybe you can plan to paint the inside of the refrigerator cubbyhole a dark brown so it's less obvious. I used Fusion spray paint (made for painting plastic) on some melamine drawer boxes, and once it's cured, it's fairly scratch resistant.

If you use a 36" refrigerator cabinet over a 36" refrigerator, there won't be a lot of opportunity to see the birch-ish cabinet boxes. If you're going to use filler overhead and leave a 39" opening for the refrigerator, it's probably going to be a lot more apparent and full length cover panels would probably look better.

[mucky]

Thanks for your reply; we are recessing the fridge into the wall so that the front is flush with the high cabinets, thus the need to leave enough room for door opening clearance. I like your idea of paint... we're buying at Orlando store.