Choosing the best fridge location for your kitchen

While renovating a kitchen can be the perfect opportunity to do away with a dysfunctional floorplan, there's no point changing a layout just for the sake of it. So think seriously about whether your refrigerator's current position would be viable in the new room.

1. Consider other locations for the fridge

If you do decide the fridge would be better off elsewhere, start considering other options. A good idea to help you in the decision-making process can be to draw up a plan to scale, complete with paper cutouts of appliances, which you can then move around to see what will work where.

2. How will it fit within the kitchen space?

One of the most important considerations is how your fridge area will interact with the other two sides of the kitchen work triangle, i.e. the sink and the cooktop. Make sure there is at least 1.2 metres between each two points and that the entire triangle doesn't exceed eight metres. 

3. Will the fridge be easily accessible?

It's important that the refrigerator can be accessed without people having to actually enter the kitchen area. Otherwise there will be unnecessary foot traffic in and out of the room when someone is trying to cook. So try to position the fridge as close to an entry point as possible.

4. Can the door swing freely?

Once you've settled on a spot for the fridge, double check that there are no obstacles in the way - like other kitchen cabinets, drawers, benches or even an open dishwasher door - that will prevent you from being able to open the fridge door as wide as possible.

5. What about unloading groceries?

Your fridge will get the biggest workout when you've just been grocery shopping and need to restock. So make sure unloading is as easy as possible by ensuring there is plenty of bench space next to the fridge.

To get the most out of your kitchen design, have a chat with a kitchen renovator in your area: