We learned with our first kitchen that building in your fridge makes a kitchen look far more finished. At the moment, our floating refrigerator was doing the opposite.
A $19 cabinet from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore (mentioned yesterday) came to the rescue. It was 12″ tall and 36″ wide—exactly the same width as our fridge. Once we removed the mismatched doors (we plan to retrofit matching doors later), the cabinet started to look like a practical piece of built-in cabinetry to sit above the refrigerator.
For the sides of the built-in, I picked up two 4′ x 8′ sheets of cabinet-grade plywood recommended by the Lowe’s associate. He noted it’s the same material pros use when installing built-in cabinets. They cut the sheets to size in the store, which saved a lot of time. The pieces were still too long for our car, so I rented Lowe’s small truck for $19 to bring everything home. Between the truck rental, plywood, and a few 1×2″ pine trim pieces, the side panels cost about $90 total. The inexpensive ReStore cabinet made the overall project budget-friendly.
The pine trim gives the front edge a cleaner, more substantial appearance. I used my Kreg jig to drill pocket holes along one edge of each plywood panel, then sanded both sides until they were smooth. I also sanded the front of the ReStore cabinet so it’s ready for primer and paint when we’re ready to finish the rest of the kitchen cabinets after the countertops are installed.
Next I clamped and screwed the pine trim to the plywood so the edges would be flush. With experience using the Kreg system, I sometimes drill an extra hole to accommodate the special Kreg clamp—little tricks like that save time and headaches later. Attaching the trim to both plywood panels took about an hour, but the result was worth it.
Mounting the cabinet to the plywood required some forethought. Because we wanted the cabinet face to sit flush with the trim and needed the opening to be slightly wider than the fridge, I added filler pieces—scrap wood stacked at the front and back of the cabinet where they wouldn’t be visible once installed. I also added a wooden shim to ensure the cabinet sat perfectly level.
We didn’t permanently attach the cabinet until everything was back inside the kitchen; maneuvering the assembled unit through doorways from the patio would have been difficult. Inside, we screwed the cabinet to one of the plywood sides and positioned the second side, using a camera tripod as a temporary jack to hold it while we fastened it all together. We checked square and level repeatedly as we went.
Before standing the assembly upright, we added a spare board across the back to maintain front-to-back support and to serve as the structural member later used to anchor the unit to the wall. We also attached a plank across the bottom to keep the sides square and allow us to screw the whole assembly to the wall. Safety first—anchoring prevents any risk of tipping.
Once we lifted the structure into position, we slid it over the refrigerator. We temporarily removed the lower support slat so the plywood sides could slip into place like a cover over the fridge. The fit is functional: the fridge still projects a bit from the wooden sides so the doors can open fully and allow access to slide-out drawers without hitting the frame. That small offset keeps the fridge usable while the sides hide the black finish, leaving the stainless front and a sliver of stainless on the door edges visible, which looks much cleaner.
There’s still finishing work to do—priming and painting the cabinet and the surrounding paneling, adding matching doors, and installing crown and base moldings—but the built-in sides make a significant visual improvement already. Compared to the previous above-fridge cabinet, which sat about six inches back and was awkward to access, this new setup feels custom and much more practical.
Next up is finalizing the peninsula placement; one more cabinet is needed to complete that area. Once the peninsula location is set, we’ll confirm the placement of the new eight-foot doorway to the dining room that a professional will help cut next week. It’s exciting and a little nerve-wracking, but steady progress like this is making the kitchen feel more finished every day.
Psst—We’re also over on BabyCenter sharing how we organize Clara’s outgrown clothes. We’d love to hear your storage tips too.