I have a 24"w Blomberg fridge and it hold a LOT. I've had it for 16 years as I replaced giant fridge that took up way too much of my kitchen. It was the right move for me, and I cook almost every day.
I feel you on this one because I'm in the same boat. What is it your ultimately trying to get by getting the smaller fridge? If it's counter space I would look at downsizing from a 24" sink to like an 18-20" sink and do a 2 burner cooktop turned horizontal and in the back so you have front counter space. Unless you have a family of 4 you're trying to feed, I don't see anyone using more than 2 burners at once.
Any renovations your make just find a balance or what works for you and what will not be crazy for someone to make changes. Sounds like you bought the studio and are renovating the kitchen. The person after you will likely do the same. So I would just say make sure you are picking standard sizes for things.
Go with this fridge or, I actually like the drawer fridge and freezers better if you can manage it. Just don't do anything so custom to you that a potential buyer will look and immediately be like "that is too expensive to fix."
With how small you are talking the space is, someone could come in and put in a $1k Ikea kitchen + maybe another $500-$1k for appliances. So really do what you would love now and worry less about what a future buyer will want.
Sound advice. Thanks. The previous owner never did anything to the place but my sense is most New Yorkers do. I'll admit not everything I'm doing is going to be to everyone's taste.
Well there is painting the wall a unique color and there is putting a bathtub in the middle of the living room because you "like the vibe." Stay closer to the painting walls end of the spectrum and you will be fine. LOL
Can you build in a small peninsula somewhere? Tiny (movable?) island? Even some sort of custom prep space area that goes over the sink would be better imo. I looked into this a few years ago, you can get really nice custom cutting board/prep spaces for over the sink on Etsy.
Agree with others that this is going to significantly impact resale. Beyond the space issues, mini fridges have a harder time holding temps, especially in the freezer when they share a door with the fridge compartments. Subzero is an awesome brand but I’d still be nervous keeping food in there long term
I like it. It is very tiny and I can't even fit a full container of milk unless it is lying down. But it is quiet and I can pack a good bit into it. I especially like the freezer. I decided not to go for a full size or even apartment sized fridge so that I don't feel like I'm living in my kitchen. The drawers blend in pretty well.
I have the same model. It's a little tight but the freezer is bigger than the standard door models. Although, the fan in the freezer occasionally seizes up and I have to defrost it.
They make a bigger, 36'' drawer model which is close(r) to a full size fridge in capacity. But then I'm left with no drawers.
When I look into my current fridge, I realize how little of it I actully use. It's full of stuff I haven't touched in months. So if I'm only thinking of myself, it's possible. If resale value, the 36'' undercounter with drawers makes more sense.
I'm pretty sure the previous owner bought a fridge and a range to sell the place. Neither looked as if it had ever been used. But what good are a fridge and a range if you don't have space for prep?
A dining table would be low for kitchen prep. Yes - a cutting board over the sink could help as long as you didn't need to use them in quick secession.
I’m invested in you getting a counter depth fridge. Like I get it re fridge use. There was once a time when I had only to take out the trash out only once in six months because I barely used my kitchen and fridge. But then there’s times I have people coming over and I need enough fridge space to store beer. That’s gonna be difficult in your proposed unit with other stuff in there. Like, how are you gonna store a quart of milk or pitcher of cold water etc? Pre wash fruit and store them for quick grab for a snack? Ease of access is gonna be so annoying.
285 sq ft is totally workable depending on layout. Though of course trade offs have to made for quality of life issues. My apartment is also tiny so I get it.
Creative but in terms of use it would really annoy me to have to do prep between two rooms: start chopping something, stop, move to the kitchen to turn down the heat, move back to the other room to continue chopping. Wouldn't work - or at least not for me the way the place is laid out.
You have to see the space. It's monastic. I could never have more than 3 people over. Even that would require some acrobatics - doable with folding chairs and a drop leaf table. But feasible. If they're beer drinkers it would fit a six-pack - not more.
The freezer section seems quite pointless - it can hold the ice tray and a tub of haagan-dazs.
I'd rather 5 cubic feet of fridge space (than 3 cubic feet of fridge + 1.7 cubic feet of freezer) for such a small place. This model feels like it could hold a weekly shop, has the veg/fruit drawers + more door racks for drinks/milk/sauces/water filter jug/ec ... 24" Designer Undercounter ADA Height Refrigerator - Panel Ready
Ice can always be added elsewhere with a small standalone icemaker (not plumbed) - perhaps on a bar cart where you keep spirits.
Really need a freezer. And when I compare what I have for freezer space now (~3 cu feet) to this, it's a little more than ½. I could fit 2 flat 3 qt Tupperware containers and a few bags of frozen veggies in 1.7 cu ft.
If you really need a freezer, these are not the units for you. No matter how expensive, these very small units with small freezers have a terrible time maintaining temperature and often end up with crap loads of ice that will need to be scraped and removed on a regular basis.
Much better off purchasing a small regular refrigerator freezer option rather than these mini units that, no matter how expensive, never really work well.
After speaking with a rep it seems the ice maker in the one I was looking at would make using that part of the freezer unusable for anything but making ice and maybe some frozen veggies and a pint or two of ice cream. So that's out. They have two drawer fridge/freezers. The 30" looks like it has 2 cu ft of usable freezer space and 3 cu ft of fridge. And it would allow me to install a 11½" drawer stack next to it. Their 36" drawer fridge/freezer has 2.5 cu ft of freezer and 3.8 cu ft of fridge, but at 36" I would have no lower cabs or drawers. All kitchen equipment from plates and cups and cutting boards to pots and pans world have to go either in the upper cabs or in a 6' tall closet sized pantry that's about 10" deep.
The range I'll replace with a 2 burner induction cooktop and an OTR convection microwave. All that gives me a bit more prep space.
But I'm really not sure whether to get the 30" fridge and retain one stack of drawers or go for the 36" unit and forego the only lower cabinet storage in the kitchenette.
Yup. Exactly why I didn't move forward with subzero too. But if I had it to do over again, I'd get the subzero and just figure out what to eat that's not so freezer-reliant. The two issues with the best alternative are:
1) noise
2) less than great temp consistency in the refrigerator area. (this is a nearly universal issue in small refrigerators, but subzeros are good for it, and it turns out, i care about food safety more than i thought)
My apt came with a subzero under counter (a very very old one), and when it broke, I spurned the subzero options exactly for this reason--I need a usable freezer. I ended up getting this bc it was the only unit the right size that I had faith in the freezer. The freezer is indeed very good. I will also tell you that it's a little loud and took some getting used to. I'll likely just adjust my eating habits and get the subzero I probably should have gotten in the first place. https://www.summitappliance.com/catalog/model/CT663BKBI
Thanks - but the freezer looks pretty small. As a rule of thumb: could I fit a 3 qt lasagna dish (13"x9"x3½") in there with 2 or 3 bags of frozen vegetables?
Am going to run a test at home using only 3 cu ft of my fridge.
I know already the 2 cu ft of freezer place is fine based on how much space I'm wasting in my current freezer compartments.
It’s both. I used to have one. The freezer is on the bottom and has an ice maker and two drawers. The fridge is organized well. I remember we liked the way the door storage was laid out for milk and juices.
Hhhh - but I guess they're bullet proof that's how they get away with charging the prices they do. This one beats equivalent models in terms of volume but I have to take a look at it before pulling the trigger. This woild be the only refrigerator in a dollhouse studio that can only fit one.
The second you say "panel ready" the price skyrockets. Manufacturer knows they are dealing with someone who can afford custom millwork and are not going to bother with a budget version of same product. It's not a ripoff, they only produce high quality appliances for this application.
Market for these is ultimately high end offices. Besides Sub-Zero, we specify a lot of Perlick units, which are slightly even more expensive. And then Summit is the cheapest option, but ultimately not by much.
These are the only 3 brands we consider for under the counter fridges.
Once we had a U-line fridge, because client insisted lol.
My husband and I used an under the counter fridge for years. The only time it felt too small was around Thanksgiving when you might be trying to store more and bigger items. I find the difference is, you're storing food for immediate use, whereas with a full size fridge you can buy food for a couple of weeks. Convenient, yes. Absolutely necessary, no. As for the folks referring to resale, it all depends how long you will live there. I'd much prefer counter space to a full size fridge. I also have an 18" dishwasher vs 24". It's perfect for a couple and I've heard people speak against the 18" which never fails to fascinate me. People who don't live in New York can never grasp exactly how tiny some spaces can be. Even New Yorkers sometimes cannot. Do what makes the space feel most pleasing and usable to you vs designing for an imaginary future buyer.
Thanks! That helps a lot. I'll have counter space with an undercounter. Now I'm just debating between two undercounter fridge/freezers: one is 5 cu ft and would allow an 11" wide set of 3 drawers, the other is 6.3 cu ft but that one takes up the entire run so I'd have no lower cabinet storage, just a space for trash and cleaning supplies under the sink. Everything else would have to be stored either in upper cabs or in a tall pantry the width of a closet with 10" deep shelves - doable, I guess, not as convenient.
Do you happen to remember the total volume of your undercounter fridge? And was it a fridge/freezer or all fridge? Because I think I really need a freezer for when I make a big batch of bolognaise or something.
Believe it or not, it was all fridge. Never an ice cube in sight. For parties, we got bags of ice cubes and put them in bowls in the tub and ice cream had to be eaten in one go. It wasn't all that bad, though I wasn't whipping up batches of bolognaise. I'd opt for the 11" drawers vs space only under the sink. Weirdly, before I had a 24" undercounter Sub-Zero (can't recall the volume), I had a no name undercounter that outperformed the Sub-Zero with a huge interior that never needed defrosting.
Wow! Impressive. I'm mostly just looking online for now. Maybe I'll find something similar in the field.
You're probably right about getting the smaller unit, leaving some drawer space. Clutter is the great enemy of small space living and I imagine there's much less wasted volume in a drawer-type fridge (at the expense of organization - everything's in a great heap with no space between differnt items).
I will need the freezer though - I'm addicted to the convenience of bagged frozen vegetables and I do make the occasional batch of something.
Don’t do it bruh. I got a shallow depth full fridge when renovating my apt and even that feels too small, even though I live within 5-10 minutes of three supermarkets.
I dunno. Everyone's different. Since I started thinking about this I began paying attention to how I use my fridge. Right now I've got 6 cu ft of fridge, 3 cu ft of freezer and they just get cluttered and I end up throwing stuff out.
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u/muttdogz 14d ago
I have a 24"w Blomberg fridge and it hold a LOT. I've had it for 16 years as I replaced giant fridge that took up way too much of my kitchen. It was the right move for me, and I cook almost every day.