Hidden Refrigerator DIY with Panelling

Although they are necessary, appliances can take away from the overall design of a kitchen. This hidden refrigerator DIY with panelling is an easy way to turn something functional into something beautiful!

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In a recent post, I revealed our new kitchen design with reclaimed wood beams and a new range. I loved how everything came together, including our hidden refrigerator. Many asked how we hid it, so I decided to share this hidden refrigerator DIY with panelling tutorial!

I have shared our kitchen several times, not only in blog posts, but also on my stories on both Facebook and Instagram. I am in the kitchen a lot, so it is important to me that I love the space.

A while back, we hid our dishwasher in a tutorial here and I absolutely loved the look. At the time I immediately realized I wanted to do the same for our refrigerator. I hated how it looked from the side with the gray plastic, especially with the beautiful wood paneled dishwasher.

This may not be something that you have ever even noticed in my kitchen, but it bothered me and hiding it truly changed the entire look and design! I am so happy we chose to take on this project!

Hiding your refrigerator is not as difficult as it may seem! The materials we used are:

• Silicone Adhesive
• Wood Glue
• Tongue and Groove Panelling 
• Brad Nailer and Nails
• Wood filler
• Caulk

Once you have assembled all of the materials needed, simply follow these steps to achieve the same look we did in our kitchen!

Step One – 

The first thing my husband did was notch out a 2×4 and lay it down on top of the fridge to create a nailer for the panelling. You can see that he notched it to fit over the raised hinge portion of the refrigerator door, and continued with the frame all the way around the top of the fridge. 

For extra pressure, he laid weights down on the boards until the silicone dried. 

Step Two – 

We had some leftover panelling from when we hid our dishwasher, so we decided to use the same boards to hide the side of our fridge. I couldn’t find the exact brand online that we used, but I found something similar for you, here. You could definitely use something like bead board or even a 4×8 sheet of panelling, we just wanted to use what we already had on hand. 

The second thing my husband did was cut the boards to the right length and size in order to cover the side of our fridge. He then attached them all together using wood glue. 

Step Three – 

Once all the wood glue was dry, my husband applied silicone adhesive to the back of the boards and pressed them directly against the side of the fridge. He nailed the top of the panelling to the 2×4 nailer, and then used long boards to press against the bottom portion until the adhesive dried. 

In order to create pressure, the boards were long enough to fit in between our kitchen sink and the fridge. He even screwed extra boards into the long ones at an angle to apply even more pressure to the adhesive until it was dry. 

Step Four – 

Once the side paneling was attached and dry, he added another layer of 2×4’s on the top of the flat frame he had already created. This time he nailed them in using his brad nailer, and his reason for doing this was to create another frame for the “crown” molding we would add. 

He made sure that this second frame was flush with the paneling so that when we nailed the molding to it, there would be a bit of an overlap. 

Step Five – 

In order to create the molding, we simply used the same panelling. He cut a piece to the width I wanted and attached it horizontally, nailing it in with his brad nailer. 

For more detail, we added a layer of cove molding as well!

Step Six – 

You can see that the panelling we used wasn’t long enough to completely cover the side of the fridge, so my husband added more to the bottom following the same steps listed above. 

Step Seven – 

Once all of your boards are in place and secure, it’s time to fill any gaps or nail holes with wood filler and/or caulk. 

Then finally, you can either paint or stain the panelling. We chose to paint ours to match the rest of the trim in the kitchen – Revere Pewter by Benjamin Moore. 

And that’s it! I love how it all turned out. This project made such a huge difference and now our refrigerator truly looks built in to the cabinets. I hope this hidden refrigerator DIY with panelling helps if you’re looking to do something similar, and if you have any questions please let me know in the comments below! 

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