How do people incorporate fridge freezers into new kitchens these days?

[Flump5]

Was planning on boxing in an American ff but reading the other thread worried about replacing in a short period of time and not finding a replacement that fits. Integrated just seems too small for our needs,free standing doesn’t look quite as streamlined….

Just leave a gap of the right size for a freestanding one. Looking streamlined is overrated IMO. Kitchens have to be practical first.

Function is more important than appearance.

We have an integrated fridge freezer in the kitchen and then another free standing fridge freezer in the utility room.

Whether they’re smaller, more expensive to buy, more expensive to run, I’d still always have integrated for the look.

Same with when we used to have the washing machine in the kitchen, I’d take a smaller drum for having it integrated.

As an American, this discussion always amuses me because what you call an American fridge, we call a side by side or French door style fridge, and they're not big sellers here.

https://www.kitchenaid.com/pinch-of-help/major-appliances/french-door-side-by-side.html

The most popular style fridge here is freezer on top, fridge below. They also tend to be the most energy efficient.

I'm currently redoing our kitchen, and we're going to keep our enormous, free standing LG fridge with the freezer compartment on top. Americans love a big fridge. Mine is 24 cubic feet capacity split between the freezer and fridge.

You can get an integrated one but without attaching integrated doors. We did that, so we have it boxed in BUT it is flush with the cabinets and the doors are visible.

I boxed mine in but has space so can go wider (in meantime the ironing board fits!)

Sorry just saw this, yes our cupboards are ceiling height, all the way to the ceiling.

Re ventilation our filler strip doesn’t fully meet the F/F, there is a small gap. This is also so we can slide the F/F out if ever needed.

Our fridge is 1780 high and seems there are a lot this sort of height? But if we got one taller we’d cut down the filler strip and it would still fit.

Not sure what you mean about opening circle. IME they are all much the same - they all need you to be able to open the door nearly 180 degrees so you can pull the bottom drawers out.