ᐅ Issues with external devices, trim strips, and baseboards

Hello everyone,

I would appreciate your help with a few issues concerning an IKEA Metod kitchen.

I need a tall cabinet to accommodate a refrigerator with a niche height of 103 cm (41 inches) and a freezer with a niche height of 60 cm (24 inches).

I only found this one:

METOD
Tall cabinet for fridge/freezer, white, Sävedal white

It has doors that are 120 cm (47 inches) and 100 cm (39 inches) high. Unfortunately, both are much too large for the appliances. There would be large gaps inside the cabinet. Do you have a better solution for this?

The refrigerator has fixed door installation. At IKEA, everything is mounted with an overlay door system. Is it possible to convert the fridge to an overlay door? I’m not sure if the oversized door would be too heavy for the fridge hinges if I attach it as a fixed door directly to the fridge.

Another issue is the filler strips and toe kicks for the white Sävedal fronts. I can’t find them on the website. I don’t see any filler strips at all and only toe kicks for other fronts. They should be available, right?

I’m really grateful for any advice.

The matching baseboards and side panels are called "Förbättra".
Why not go for a 200cm (79 inch) cabinet with a 120cm (47 inch) and an 80cm (31 inch) door!

Which fronts are you using? For example, with Ringhult, you could have them cut to your desired height at a hardware store, and for white fronts, they also offer matching high-gloss edge bands. For Veddinge, there are still some items available through the Faktum reorder program as Applad components. Otherwise, you could work your way up to the next larger front size using 10cm (4 inches) and 20cm (8 inches) high drawer fronts in 10cm (4 inches) increments, to avoid having a too large unnecessary extra compartment behind the appliance fronts. Admittedly, this is not to everyone’s taste and may not always fit the design lines of the kitchen gaps or adjacent cabinets.

I wouldn’t recommend trying to convert a refrigerator with fixed door hinges to an overlay door system. There are too many details to consider, such as whether the fridge door can even be drilled to attach the plastic rails, and whether the door is thin enough to allow the necessary movement space for the overlay door slides.

Maybe an IKEA kitchen or these appliances aren’t the right fit for you. If you customize niche heights following these tips, please make sure to use standard niche heights so you can easily install replacement appliances in the future.

My personal solution for a case like this would be: until the current appliances you absolutely want to keep no longer work, leave the unused storage space and work with the next larger fronts, so that when you replace the appliances, you can better take advantage of the niche heights. You can always find a few unnecessary items for those extra compartments, like a cake dome, extra baking trays, or kitchen appliance accessories that are only used once a year or less.

I would suggest checking the appliance manual to see how heavy the door fronts are allowed to be.
I don’t think it will be a problem.
I just checked with Miele, and for a 102cm (40 inch) refrigerator, a 13kg (29 lb) door is permitted. The 120cm (47 inch) Sävedal door weighs only 7kg (15 lb).

Sorry for the late reply, I’ve been in the middle of moving.

Thank you very much for your tips.

If I choose a 200 mm (8 inch) tall cabinet instead of the 220 mm (9 inch) one, I would at least have a more suitable door for the freezer, but then I would have to use 600 mm (24 inch) wall cabinets instead of the 800 mm (32 inch) ones. That wouldn’t look so good.

I looked at the Förbettra fronts and plinths. Unfortunately, the ivory white color doesn’t match very well with the white Sävedal fronts. So I’ll probably have to make something myself from laminated particleboard. I find it a bit disappointing from Ikea that they don’t offer plinths and side panels that really match the color.

It’s a shame that you can’t simply convert the fixed door into a sliding door. I checked the user manual of the AEG refrigerator. Unfortunately, there is no information about the maximum weight of the door panel.

I will probably install the refrigerator at the bottom of the tall cabinet, with a 400 mm (16 inch) microwave above it, and a 600 mm (24 inch) storage compartment on top. The freezer will go into a standard 800 mm (32 inch) base cabinet.

A different problem has come up regarding the cabinet selection. For the oven, I wanted a built-in cabinet with a 200 mm (8 inch) drawer at the bottom. Unfortunately, on the German Ikea website, I only find one with a 100 mm (4 inch) panel at the top and a 100 mm (4 inch) drawer front at the bottom.

Are the cabinets with the larger bottom drawer no longer available?

Förbättra is available in both ivory white and standard white!