Elevate The Exposed Side Of Your Fridge With A Wood DIY

If you are trying to achieve your dream kitchen, you know how significant the little details can be. Decorative elements give your kitchen a sense of cohesiveness and elevate the whole room. When looking for places to incorporate these finishing touches, one place to start is the biggest appliance in the room: the refrigerator. Even if you chose a great finish, the bulky sides of your refrigerator may be throwing off the look of your kitchen. When a refrigerator is placed at the end of a row of cabinets, you expose a boring and bulky side of the appliance. While this can look alright in a home with an industrial-style influence, it often stands out in a kitchen and takes away from the aesthetic. This is especially true when the side of the fridge faces more living space or a dining table. If you are looking for ways to refresh your kitchen by adding texture, then hiding the side of the fridge using slats of wood may be the perfect solution.

With some basic supplies and planning, you can DIY a covering for the side of your fridge that is simple, looks great, and better fits the aesthetic of your kitchen. This DIY involves installing vertical slats of wood, from the floor to the ceiling, to create a kind of wall that separates your kitchen space from the rest of your home elegantly. At a minimum, you will need wooden slats, brad nails, wood filler, and wood glue, but you may also want some plywood or melamine panels and paint or stain.

To begin this DIY and spice up your boring fridge, start by measuring the distance between the floor and the ceiling next to your refrigerator and the depth of the refrigerator. Next, you will need to decide how wide you want the wooden slats to be and how much distance you want between each slat. Once you know this, you can determine how many slats you need and cut them to size. 

You'll also need to decide how to mount the slats in place. One option is to build a cabinet surround for your fridge using plywood or melamine. This will give you a nice built-in look, hide the side of your fridge, give you an opportunity to add more storage above the fridge, and give you an easy place to mount your wooden slats. 

The process involves measuring the refrigerator and cutting panels to your desired size to create a surround on the sides and top of the appliance. When measuring, make sure to include room for the doors of the refrigerator to open. Leave at least 1 inch between the top of the fridge and the cabinet surround and 1/8 inch between the sides of the fridge and the surround for proper ventilation. Once you assemble the surround, paint or stain the material, and move it into place in the kitchen. Then, measure and mark where the slats will go before gluing and nailing them into place. Fill the nail holes and paint or stain the slats if desired.

With the cabinet surround option, you get the ability to better hide the side of your fridge and customize the color of both the wooden slats and their background. The cabinet surround can match the other cabinets or stand out, and the wood slats give a nice contrast that elevates the look. Whether you mix natural wood, black, or white for neutral color combinations or incorporate a bolder color in the slats or cabinet surround, the design will stand out. Experiment with unique kitchen color combinations to get the perfect result. Additionally, the effect of this DIY can change based on whether you bring both cabinet surround and the wooden slats all the way to the ceiling. Extending only the slats to the ceiling can make the space feel more open.

If you like the look of the wooden slats but are not interested in building a cabinet surround, you can still personalize this DIY and make it work for your home. Rather than securing the slats to the wall of the cabinet surround, you can create a frame for the slats with additional pieces of wood. The frame will include a beam on the top, bottom, and at least one side to hold the slats in place. Then, you can slide the frame into place and secure the frame to the wall, floor, and ceiling. You will still achieve the elevated look of the vertical slats, but your fridge will be visible. No matter how you choose to mount the vertical slats, they will make your home look clean and balanced, elevating your whole space.