September 8, 2021

Panel Ready Appliances

Sharing my opinion on panel ready appliances.

When we were designing our new house, having panel ready appliances was on the top of my list. No ifs, ands, or buts; this girl was getting them! I’m actually surprised I didn’t include it in my priority wishlist blog post! Six years ago when we built our last house, I didn’t know anything about integrated or panel ready appliances. I thought I only had two options for appliances…stainless steel or black stainless steel. I picked stainless steel, and I loved my old kitchen!

inspiration

Unlike the last house, this time I was well aware of panel ready appliances. If you haven’t heard of these, it’s an appliance that has a custom panel that goes over it to match your kitchen cabinets. When designing the new house, I would drool over kitchen images with integrated or panel ready appliances on Instagram and Pinterest. I loved how the appliances blended so well in the kitchen. Check out some of my favorite kitchen images with integrated or panel ready appliances. Try to find the refrigerators and dishwashers!

why I Wanted panel ready appliances

1. I love the seamless look and how it can blend in with the rest of your cabinets. Visitors might even have a hard time figuring out where your refrigerator is.

2. I love how you can customize the look of your appliances. Before I thought there were only 2 color options for appliances, but with custom panels you can have it in any color, finish, and door style. The possibilities are endless!

3. In addition to color and style, you can also add your own appliance hardware too. Think of it as jewelry to your appliances! You can do polished nickel, black, brass, etc.

At the end of the day, I wanted a more custom look. Just to warn you, anything with the word “custom” can cause your kitchen budget to increase.

hestan panel ready appliances

Choosing the right kitchen appliances for the new house with the right functions and features was very important to us. You can read more about why we chose Hestan here. We went with Sherwin Williams Dockside Blue for the kitchen perimeter cabinet color, and I wanted our refrigerator and main sink dishwasher to match the cabinets. The Hestan column refrigerator and freezer and dishwasher come in 12 color options; if only I could find the words to explain my level of excitement when I found out I had a custom wood panel option! Hestan was checking all the boxes for me! We didn’t do a custom panel for our other appliances like the wine cellar in the pantry and beer dispenser and refrigerator/freezer drawers in the pool house because these appliances are beautiful on its own. The option is there though if you want to do a custom panel!

The following are images of the appliances installed without the panels.

We worked with Waukee CabinetWorks for our panels and trim around these appliances, and they brought the vision to life! Here’s a rendering of the two areas. I was getting more and more excited for our kitchen when I saw these!

Here’s an image of Johannah opening the freezer door.

If you didn’t know, our dishwasher is on the right side of the sink.

Here’s a view of the Hestan dishwasher in the kitchen with the custom panel and the froth colored column fridge and wine cellar in the pantry.

I’m SO happy we went with custom panels for our kitchen appliances! No regrets over here! If you have any questions, feel free to comment on this blog post. Also, I would love to know your thoughts on panel ready appliances after reading this blog post. 🙂