As you may know already, we used IKEA for our kitchen. Our fridge was not continuous with the cabinetry but we wanted that "built in" look. We were ready to use the $150 panel you can pick up from IKEA, but it seemed like we could save more money; as well the panel had a cheap shiny look to it I was not wild about. So we went with our good ol' friend plywood instead! After affixing the cabinets to the wall using the track system, and cutting a piece of plywood the depth of the fridge, we attached it "good side" out to the cabinetry. We were then left with this:
We then used extra trim panels from IKEA to fill in the space between the cabinets and the fridge, and some quarter-round to finish off the edge of the plywood. I knew I wanted to incorporate a chalkboard somewhere in the kitchen, and this seemed like the perfect spot! I wanted it to look "finished", so my husband picked up some trim to frame it in:
A few coats of CC-40 by Benjamin Moore and some chalkboard paint and it looks like the fridge was meant for that spot! (a quick tip; CC-40 is almost an exact match to IKEA cabinetry! We even saved more money by using a 7.99 tester quart from Sherwin-Williams that we colour matched)
