Rethinking the Refrigerator Cabinet

Sometimes building a narrow floor to ceiling cabinet to one side of a refrigerator, instead of increasing the counter and cabinet size on the opposite side is a better use of space. 

Several months ago, I pinned a picture of a floor to ceiling cabinet running along the side of a refrigerator. Since then, I have been shocked at how many times this photo has been re-pinned. Cabinets/shelves running floor to ceiling along one side of a refrigerator are not a new idea however, I rarely see it done, maybe more of us should consider doing it.

I must admit, the picture made me think back to the first house I owned which had an awkwardly placed refrigerator. The side of this rather ugly ice box was directly in my sight line each day when I walked in the back door, While a quick and easy solution would have been to simply box in the refrigerator, this left a lot of wasted space on the side. So I chose to build floor to ceiling shelves on the side. It was a great place to store serving dishes and cookbooks. It was also a much nicer site to come home to each day. There are many great ways to utilize a sliver of space on the side of a refrigerator!

This cabinet is only 6" deep, but is all you need for a perfectly organized utility closet.

The narrow hutch along the side of this refrigerator, 12" deep, is just enough space for serving dishes, wine glasses, and dinner napkins. However, all you need for canned good storage is 4" of interior depth!