Best Fridge Style for Your Kitchen

Nowadays, there’s a plethora of refrigerators on the market. Fridges with curves – or not. Fridges with or without ice and water dispensers. Fridges in different depths, colorful or not, advanced or as smart as they can be, with lots of space or hardly any space.

When you think of fridge styles, you likely consider the home appliance’s design and color. What we often fail to consider is that each fridge style is designed in certain sizes. Consequently, not all refrigerators fit in all kitchens. Then, each fridge style offers a specific storage capacity. Which 6-member family can be satisfied with a fridge of limited storage capacity?

Depending on their style, fridges open in a certain way, some have the freezer below, some above, some on the side. When you choose a fridge style, you need to consider all these things – your height, your priorities, the family’s needs, the capacity you need, the kitchen space, if there’s sufficient room for the door – or drawer, opening, and the layout inside the appliance.

Let’s talk details about the main refrigerator styles.

French-door refrigerators

French-door fridges are some of the most popular refrigerators on the market. That’s because the fridge section is hidden behind the French doors at the upper part of the appliance and the freezer is split into drawer compartments at the lower section. The freezer is easy to reach. It provides lots of space and allows you to separate the frozen food as you like. The two doors of the fridge open widely, enabling you to have a panoramic view of what’s in the appliance. Two doors also mean less clearance space needed due to their smaller size compared to one-door fridges. Another advantage of this style is the wide shelves – hence, the large capacity. But the large width also requires lots of kitchen wall space. In their defense, the average height of such fridges enables the installation of kitchen cabinets over the appliance.

Side-by-side refrigerators

As their name suggests, side-by-side fridges have two doors. Behind one door hides the fridge and behind the other door hides the freezer. And the two sections stand side-by-side. These fridges are convenient for those who like to have a vertical view of what’s inside their fridge or freezer. Since the storage capacity lies vertically, you can decide where to place what in terms of convenience for easy – or not, access. They too offer maximum capacity and occupy quite some kitchen space. The disadvantage of such fridge styles is that the shelves are quite narrow – not always convenient for the fridge compartment.

Bottom-freezer fridges

The freezer is located down and the fridge is found at the upper part of the appliance. These fridges are usually high and narrow. They give you the advantage of easily reaching the freezer and not having to bend to reach the lower parts of the fridge – as it happens with the top-freezer models. Most fridge shelves are found at an adult’s eye level and so are easy to access. They also offer plenty of freezer space and thanks to their narrow size, they don’t need too much space in the kitchen. Due to their height, they offer sufficient space but only for small families.

Top-freezer fridges

Top-freezer refrigerators are the old-school model. They keep the freezer at the upper part and rather small. Consequently, this style is not recommended to those who store plenty of goods in their freezer. Made at average height, such fridges allow you to easily reach the freezer but make you bend to get things from the fridge – even more to open the fridge drawers down below. This is the model with the least capacity and nearly no technological advancements. But it’s also the most frugal choice for those who have no big expectations and just want a cheap fridge to do the job.

Freezerless refrigerators

There’s no trick with this model. There are truly refrigerators without freezers. Who needs them? Those who hardly use the freezer and already got a chest freezer down in the basement or in the garage. This is an excellent choice for those who keep lots of things in the refrigerator and there’s never enough room with other styles. The size of such fridges ranges from 18” to 42”. They also lack in height and so they are easy to access and enable you to use the space above for extra cabinets. Naturally, they have lots of storage space, from head to toe, and come out in a one- or two-door style.