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Refrigerator Cabinet Installation
I watched the design information and purchased two side panels and a horizontal rail, along with the upper cabinet that goes over the fridge. Now, I’m wondering about the best way to install them. On one side is a base cabinet, and on the other is a base and wall cabinet. I am planning to secure the side panels by screwing from the base cabinets into the panels.
How do you suggest installing the horizontal rail?
Do you have any tips for installing the entire thing? I can’t assemble it on the floor and stand it up because the ceiling isn’t tall enough, so it needs to be installed in place.
One other question. The depth of the cabinet I ordered to go over the fridge is the same depth as the side panels. Is that OK, or will it look better if the cabinet is inset 3/4″ from the outer edge of the side panels, so the outer edge of the side panels will at the same plane as the outer face of the cabinet doors? I can trim off 3/4″ from the cabinet without too much trouble.
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3 Replies
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Sure, this is correct regarding attaching that tall end panel to the lower base cabinet for extra support. You should also screw into the tall end panel from the interior of the base cabinet, as well as from the interior of the wall cabinet above your refrigerator opening. This will allow the panel to be removed in the future if needed.
Same idea for installing the horizontal rail. While you could fasten it from inside the refrigerator opening, the screw heads would be visible in most installations. I usually drill down into the horizontal rail from inside the upper wall cabinet instead. This is preferable since the screws will not be visible, as they are above eye level, and that cabinet is rarely used anyway.
I would install the base cabinet first, then the tall end panel, then the upper wall cabinet above the opening, followed by the other end panels as you work your way along the wall. Make sure the tall end panels are perfectly plumb to prevent the refrigerator opening from becoming out of square.
We usually recommend having the end panels stick out proud by about 5/8″ to create a more flush look with the doors. That said, I have seen many people hold the face of the end panels back to align with the face of the cabinet case itself, which ends up being about a 3/4″ setback from the door face, and that looks fine as well.
Really just personal preference. No right or wrong way to do it.
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Hi Chad,
Thank you for the tips. The end panels I purchased are 2″ wider than the cabinets, so I don’t have to worry about flush or not. 🙂Is this forum new? I just noticed it the other day for the first time. It’s a great resource, but it would be much better if you could enable searching. It’s possible my question was asked and answered before, but I didn’t have the pages to scan through 9 pages of previous posts hoping to find it.
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Yeah, these forums are about a year old or so.
We had an older forum site that was based on the Joomla architecture, but it fell into disrepair and needed to be gutted and rebuilt, so here we are.
No issue at all with asking the same question. These forums are a way for us to connect directly with the end customer from the front-end management side. This allows us to keep our finger on the pulse and build the website and product offering around what people actually want, not just what is profitable or easy.
So far, we have launched multiple items that have made the line more appealing to the end customer, and we plan to continue this approach indefinitely.
