If you are remodeling your kitchen, you may not know where to put the fridge. Your kitchen is a room in your house that has to meet a lot of needs and fit a lot of important appliances. It should feel like home and be inviting, but most importantly, it should have a durable, practical, and functional design that fits your needs and way of life.
A refrigerator is often the biggest appliance to install and make room for in the kitchen. To help you improve your kitchen layout ideas, we look at the question: where should a refrigerator go?
There are, of course, some obvious things to do, like put the fridge near an electrical outlet and buy a fridge that’s the right size for your kitchen so it can be put in the best place. But these tips from experts will give you some other things to think about.
WHERE SHOULD YOU PUT A REFRIGERATOR?
When designing a kitchen, it’s important to know where to put the fridge. Even though you will be mostly guided by what is practical and what you can do, you should still think about these tips from experts.
1. Think about where to put the fridge in relation to the kitchen triangle.
First of all, you need to think about how your kitchen is set up. This may sound easy, but there are actually six different ways to set up a kitchen, and each one is different. Depending on how big your space is, there may only be a few places where you can put a refrigerator.
So where do you begin? The rule of the kitchen triangle. This rule says that the refrigerator, oven, and sink, which are the three most important appliances for your kitchen layout, should be set up so that they loosely form a triangle on your floor plan. This makes the room more efficient and easy to use. So, asking where the kitchen sink should go will help you figure out where the oven and fridge should go.
Adrian Bergman, a senior designer at British Standard by Plain English, says that the kitchen triangle’s purpose is to make it easy to move between the working areas of the kitchen. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but we recommend keeping it in mind, no matter how big or small your kitchen is.
2. Put the fridge close to your “food zone.”
You should try to set up your kitchen so that all the food is in one place. Keeping this in mind, putting your fridge near your pantry or cabinets where dried foods like pasta, rice, tins, and even cookies are kept can make it easier to put away groceries and get the things you need to cook and prepare food.
Instead of putting your fridge on the opposite side of the kitchen from your dry food, put them next to each other. This will save you from having to move around the room for no reason and make it easier to organize things like your fridge and pantry.
Whether you put your fridge in a built-in alcove, surrounded by cabinets, or in an open space at the end of a countertop near other places to store food, this can make it easier to get to the food you have stored and make your kitchen more useful and effective.
Evan Nelson, the creative director at Nelson Cabinetry, says, “Think about how often you use your refrigerator and what kinds of things you usually keep in it. If you find yourself opening and closing the fridge door all the time, it makes sense to move it to a place where it’s easier to get to. On the other hand, if you mostly use your fridge to store food that doesn’t need to be kept cold, like condiments and leftovers, you might want to put it in a less busy area.
3. Make sure a place to prepare food is close by.
Together, you should think about kitchen countertop ideas and where to put the fridge. Chef Aysegul Sanford of Foolproof Living says, “I like to have my refrigerator close to my prep station so I can get ingredients quickly.” This is helpful because it keeps you from having to keep going back and forth to get new things.
Putting your fridge near a counter can make cooking easier and give you a place to put groceries after you go shopping so you can quickly unload and put things away.
4. AVOID HIGH-TRAFFIC THOROUGHFARES
The kitchen is often a busy, multipurpose room that is used to cook, eat, entertain, and relax, as well as a path to the backyard.
Your fridge should be easy to get to, but you should try to avoid putting it in a high-traffic area where people often pass through or gather. You have to leave enough room for the doors to open all the way, but you don’t want them to be opening and closing all the time in a busy area.
Lucy Searle, editor-in-chief of Homes & Gardens, says, “If you have a big family that spends a lot of time in the kitchen or if you host a lot of parties there, make sure your fridge is in a place where you can get to it without making the space less useful.”
5. DOUBLE UP ON REFRIGERATORS
Lucy Searle says that the best thing for a larger, busier home is to have two refrigerators: one on the edge of the kitchen with all the ingredients you need to cook, and the other on the kitchen island, in the pantry, or on the utility room to store drinks, snacks for teens, and food you don’t plan to eat until later in the week.
“That way, it’s easy to use the fridge that’s really only needed for meal prep, and the less tidy members of the family (they know who they are) can always get into the other one without bothering the cook or stopping the flow in the kitchen.”
CAN A REFRIGERATOR BE PLACED NEAR AN OVEN?
Tradition says that you shouldn’t put a refrigerator near an oven or in direct sunlight. This is so that your fridge doesn’t waste energy and work harder than it needs to in order to stay cool, and so that it stays as cold as possible at all times.
But as technology and design have gotten better over time, many modern refrigerators have built-in cooling systems that work well and better insulation, which makes them safer if they are near or exposed to heat sources.
Jennifer Ebert, Homes & Gardens’ digital editor, says that if the fridge and oven are next to each other, there will usually be some cabinet space between them. This will create a space between the two appliances and help keep them cool.
MUST YOU KEEP YOUR REFRIGERATOR IN THE KITCHEN?
No, your fridge doesn’t have to be in the kitchen. It’s up to you where you put it. Many people have separate fridges and freezers in utility rooms, basements, and garages.
You should put your fridge in a place that makes sense for you and your family and fits in with the rest of your kitchen and home.
For example, if you have a big family but don’t want a big fridge in your kitchen, you can make room for a smaller design in the kitchen and keep a big fridge in a separate room, like a utility.
If you cook and bake a lot at home, putting your fridge near your main prep station, whether it’s an island or a countertop around the edge, will make it easier and more fun to get ready.
