Thom Vernon remembers the days when defrosting the freezer every two weeks was just something you had to do.
Despite his affection for all things retro, the 50-year-old entrepreneur behind the Boulder, Colo.-based Fresh Produce clothing brand says he had no intention of letting his wife talk him into dragging one of those old iceboxes into their newly built California bungalow.
“I don’t think so,” he retorted to the very suggestion.
But the more he thought about it, the more he couldn’t let it go.
After several brainstorming sessions with his nephew, the two came up with a line of refrigerators that combines nostalgic design and color with modern efficiency.
And Big Chill was born.
In recent years, retro appliances like Big Chill and Northstar by Elmira Stove Works have been carving out a small but unique niche in kitchen design, gracing the glossy pages of Dwell magazine, the set of “The Rachael Ray Show” and chic new luxury lofts.
“People like vintage,” Vernon says. “They want it simple, easy, uncomplicated, and I think that’s becoming a trend.”
But vintage can be just as pricey as the more conventional brands – sometimes even more so.
Elmira Stove Works, the generations-old Canadian business originally founded as a supplier of stove parts for Mennonite families, now offers its Northstar line of 18.1-cubic-foot refrigerators and stoves in nine splashy colors.
The stove and refrigerator start at $3,695 each, depending on the model, color and choice of options. Range hoods retail for about $1,100.
Made here in Colorado, Big Chill refrigerators start at $2,700. An ice maker adds $150, and an ice maker and water dispenser package adds $300. And then there are shipping costs.
“It was definitely expensive, but it was the only refrigerator we could both agree on,” says customer Vanessa Nilsson.
She splurged on a classic white Big Chill at L.A. dealer Sonrisa after looking for a refrigerator to go with the O’Keefe & Merritt stove that she and boyfriend James Ellsworth bought for their 1936 Spanish bungalow.
“We actually considered getting a 1950s refrigerator, as well, but they’re not energy efficient,” Nilsson says, adding they’re also small on storage space.
And then there’s the task of having to defrost it.
Burbank, Calif. business owner Marsha Stonecipher, whose SAVON Appliance specializes in selling and restoring vintage refrigerators, stoves and more, says the upkeep is a small price to pay for “real character.”
“You open up these new refrigerators and – guess what? – they look like new refrigerators,” she says.
In fact, they are new.
Big Chill wraps its stamped metal body with chrome trim around a Whirlpool interior. Among its full range of features are a 20.9-cubic-foot storage capacity, glass shelving and a choice of colors, including cherry red, buttercup yellow and pink lemonade.
Sonrisa’s floor model is beach blue.
“Everyone who comes into the store admires it,” says Jeanie Lieber, manager of the vintage steel office furniture dealer that sells an average of two to three Big Chills a month. “They always want to know if it’s old or new.” Big Chill co-founder Orion Creamer isn’t at all surprised.
In researching the design for Big Chill, the 30-year-old with a background in product design says he rummaged through hundreds of old refrigerator catalogs from the 1940s and 1950s looking for inspiration.
“We wanted to make something that was both retro and hip,” Creamer says. “The market for ’50s appliances didn’t exist when we first started out, so we were going out on a… limb.
“But we thought people would be attracted to the styling and the color – if nothing else, people want something colorful,” he says.
Big Chill now has plans to launch a retro dishwasher.
Wait a minute.
“Yeah, dishwashers didn’t exist in the ’50s,” Creamer says. “But we got our cues from the refrigerator, and we think this is what a dishwasher might have looked like back then.”
