I'm confused. The cupboard casing doesn't add much. In the small kitchen get a counter depth refrigerator. Also some frigs are taller than others.

If the side of the frig is exposed it can get dinged up. Look at the dents and scratches seen in stores.

OP here. It is a very small kitchen in Burke. I'm sure that we would be one of the few with this feature if we did it. But I do want it to look nice, we could end up being here for 10 years, or out in 2. Many neighbors have remodeled our size kitchen, but usually that just entails removing the soffit and putting in tall cabs/granite.

PP, what is hard to clean?

Thanks for all the responses.

I would not sacrifice a bigger fridge for matching trim work. It depends on the size of your home and the number of people that it is likely to accommodate. If your property is larger and designed for a family, then the bigger fridge is probably more desired. Also, a more serious cook will probably want to have the larger fridge. If you have a "cook's kitchen", with a fancy stove, double ovens, and perks for cooks, then you probably want the larger fridge. If you have a kitchen designed more for show, go for the trim. If you have a smaller luxury property, like a condo or townhouse that has higher end finishes, then the trim work will probably be more desired. But it does depend on the likely target audience for your property on resale.

It's not a cabinet per se but rather a piece of 1/2 inch wood. I like the look, but it's not worth sacrificing if the alternative is a smaller fridge. People will understand at resale.

PITA for cleaning purposes.

I would go with the better fridge. We just sold a more expensive town house with a small kitchen in a historic district. We were in the same situation when we renovated. I think most would rather have the better refrigerator. In our case, the exposed side of the fridge was next to the stove, and not all that noticeable. If you were just renovating to sell, the answer might be different, but put in what you want to actually use.

I'll echo the idea to look at the pictures of houses & kitchens on the market in your area.

Personally I like stainless steal over a cabinet-encased fridge.

The more important question is how your house compares with other houses in the same price range in your neighborhood. Do the other 600s have renovated kitchens or other appealing features? If not, the wood probably isn't that important.
In our neighborhood, most of the houses in the 600s are old and cramped little houses with few or no renovations (trade off is a very good school district), so if we'd found a house in the 600s with any semblance of a nice kitchen we would have bought it.

We're in the 600 range in a suburb of DC.

Personally, I think it looks cheap if there is no cabinet around the fridge. As for resale, it would depend on what price range your house is in and what type of buyer you are trying to attract. I would never not buy a house I otherwise liked just because there was no cabinet around the fridge, however, if I were considering two houses that were similar and one had a kitchen that looked cheaply renovated and the other had either a nice or no renovation, I'd prefer that one.

We're getting new cabs in a very small kitchen. Designer thinks that we should put wood around our refrig that matches the cabinets. Unfortunately this makes it impossible to get a frig we really like.

We may sell in a few years-- so resale value is important. Do you think it is a good idea or not necessary? One side of the refrigerator would be exposed completely.

Thanks!