Thirty-three inches, and the cabinet that goes over the refrigerator
Reviewed September 2026 · Captivating Cabinets
Thirty-three inches is a refrigerator number before it is a cabinet number, and the catalog treats it that way. Fourteen units are built here and five of them are 24 inches deep — the boxes designed to sit above an appliance and finish flush with it rather than a foot behind. The other nine are the ordinary double-door ladder, and between the two you have almost every reason this width exists.
Two families and nothing else
No corner unit, no blind, no doorless box, no wine rack, no open shelf. Just W3312 through W3342 — nine heights, $243.75 to $578.50 — and the five refrigerator units on the refrigerator wall page. That narrowness is a clue: 33 is not a width people build elevations around, it is a width people need because an appliance opening measured 33 inches.
The doored boxes carry the fullest height ladder the catalog offers — 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 30, 36, 39 and 42 inches — so at 12 inches deep this width can do the shallow work too. It is the depth, not the height, that separates the two families.
The five deep boxes, and the gap each one closes
All five are 33 inches wide and 24 inches deep; only the height changes. Pick it by arithmetic: measure from the floor to the top of the refrigerator opening, then to the ceiling or the underside of a soffit, and take the height that closes the difference.
| Code | W × H × D | Displayed price | The gap it closes |
|---|---|---|---|
| W331224 | 33″ × 12″ × 24″ | $455.00 | A shallow closer under a soffit, or over a tall built-in fridge |
| W331524 | 33″ × 15″ × 24″ | $461.50 | The common one: a 69″ appliance opening finishing at 84″ |
| W331824 | 33″ × 18″ × 24″ | $468.00 | A 66″ opening to 84″, or a 72″ opening to a 90″ line |
| W332124 | 33″ × 21″ × 24″ | $497.25 | A counter-depth fridge with room above, or a 9-foot room |
| W332424 | 33″ × 24″ × 24″ | $546.00 | A 72″ appliance running to a 96″ ceiling with nothing above |
Note how flat the pricing is — $91.00 separates the shortest from the tallest, so height is close to free here and there is rarely a reason to under-buy it. Doubling the depth from 12 to 24 inches, on the other hand, costs real money: W3315 at 12 inches deep is $253.50 against $461.50 for W331524.
Why the box over a fridge should be 24 inches deep
A refrigerator is roughly 30 to 33 inches front to back, sometimes more with the door and handle. Hang a standard 12-inch upper above it and three things happen: a wide ledge appears on top of the appliance that collects dust and nothing else, the cabinet front sits about a foot behind the fridge front so the elevation reads as unfinished, and the shelf you gained is too shallow to hold the tray you were going to put there.
The 24-inch-deep unit fixes all three. It comes forward to meet the appliance, gives a shelf deep enough for large flat things — platters, trays, the roasting pan — and closes the top of the bay properly. The trade is that its sides are on show and want a finished panel unless a tall cabinet is boxing it in.
The doored ladder: two sixteen-and-a-half-inch leaves
At this width the front splits into a pair of doors just over 16 inches each — comfortable, well within what a soft-close hinge handles, and modest enough in swing to work in a normal aisle. Prices run from $243.75 for the 12-inch-tall box to $578.50 at 42 inches, with the standard 30-inch height at $403.00, or about $12.21 for each inch of width.
That is essentially the same value as the 30-inch box and better than everything narrower, so if the wall gives you 33 inches, take them. Where 33 gets awkward is in pairs: two of them plus a filler is 69 inches, which is a difficult number to fit anywhere except beside an appliance bay.
Common questions
- How deep should the cabinet above the refrigerator be?
- Twenty-four inches, if you want it flush with the appliance and deep enough to be useful. The standard 12-inch upper leaves a wide dust ledge and sits visibly behind the fridge front. Deep units are made at 30, 33 and 36 inches wide only.
- What size cabinet goes above a 33 inch refrigerator?
- Measure the finished opening rather than the appliance. A 33-inch fridge usually sits in a 36-inch opening once you allow clearance, in which case the 36-inch box is the right one. Use the 33-inch unit when the opening itself is 33.
- How tall is the cabinet over a fridge?
- Twelve, 15, 18, 21 or 24 inches at this width, all 24 inches deep. Fifteen and 18 are the common ones because they land a standard appliance opening on an 84 or 90-inch cabinet line.
- How much is a 33 inch wall cabinet?
- The standard 12-inch-deep double-door boxes display from $243.75 to $578.50 by height; the 30-inch height is $403.00. The 24-inch-deep refrigerator units run $455.00 to $546.00.
- Are there 33 inch corner or open wall cabinets?
- No. This width carries only the double-door boxes and the refrigerator units. Corners are built at 24, 27 and 36 inches, and doorless display boxes at 15, 18, 24, 30 and 36.
Keep reading
The guides behind the numbers on this page.
- Kitchen dimensions guide
Appliance openings, clearances and the ceiling lines the height table above depends on.
- Wall and tall cabinet sizes and buying guide
How a deep refrigerator box relates to the tall cabinets that usually flank it.
- End panels, scribe molding and fillers explained
The finished panel a 24-inch-deep box needs on any side that shows.
- Fabuwood cabinet sizes and specs
The width and depth grid, including which widths carry the deep appliance boxes.
- Kitchen cabinet design service
Getting the refrigerator bay drawn before the appliance is delivered saves the expensive mistake.