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What do you get when you cross modern functionality and vintage personality? A Big Chill-inspired retro kitchen.

If you’re like me, you love the personality of a retro look. Picture this: your Big Chill fridge as a focal point. For your eating area, add a vintage table and chairs, or a booth. Step up the look with a splash and a dash of some equally groovy kitchen accessories and…deep breath…you got it! Modern day efficiencies come together with retro styling in a swell new place - your kitchen.

I’ve added a couple of new items to the product line to help you build your kitchen. Check out the new dishwashers and stoves (coming soon), each with the same metal body, chrome detailing, and unique 50’s styling as our fridge. And, of course, with all of the amenities of a modern unit. Welcome to Big Chill. Need more for your Retro Kitchen? Check out these links…

• Retro Toasters from KitchenAid and Hamilton Beach
• Vintage Tables, Chairs and booths from Bars and Booths
• Kitchen accessories from Anthropologie

ALTON BROWN IS KNOWN for a lot of things: his Food Network show, “Good Eats”; his ability to fashion makeshift kitchen appliances (he once transformed a paper shredder into a pasta maker); and, of course, his culinary prowess. But the thing that most fascinates many a Brown fan is his custom-painted KitchenAid mixer emblazoned with hot-rod-style flames.
“It’s insane how much interest has been generated by that mixer,” says Brown, who receives hundreds of inquiries from fans wanting to know where to get one. Others send photos of their own tricked-out mixers that they’ve painted themselves or hired airbrush artists or auto detailers to do for them.
Customized appliances are a great way to set your kitchen, or even your laundry room, apart in today’s white-bisque-black-and stainless-steel-centric world. Just think of the reactions you’d get with racing stripes on your range, or mermaids on your washer. “Whoa, hold on there,” you say, “I’m no grease monkey, nor am I a salty sea captain.” Relax. You have classier options.
Big Chill, for instance, is now offering the Architectural Series of designs that transform its colorful 1950s-style fridges into art pieces. The hand-painted patterns (shown at right) are inspired by the works of such famed architects as Frank Lloyd Wright. The company is also working on another line, called the Beach Cruiser Series, which will feature a two-tone paint job-think Gidget cozied up with Moondoggie in a Chevy Bel Air.
-KEITH PANDOLFI

Check out the This Old House article online!

Boulder, Colorado, November 27, 2006 – Big Chill, the company that brought the fridge out of hiding with sleek retro style and bold color, invites you to put on your rash guard, wax your board and hit the surf with their new line of vintage-inspired fridges aptly named the Beach Series. Inspired by the innovative and often audacious style of the two-tone cars of the 1950s, as well as the emergence of the surf culture during that same period, the Beach Series offers contrasting top and bottom door colors, real chrome accents and all the modern amenities of today’s refrigerators. The newly launched Beach Series has the sleek styling of a ’57 Chevy Bel-Air (minus the fins), the hip vibe of a seaside surf shop and the iconic look of a mid-century “icebox”. These fridges will remind you of simpler times – the era of Annette and Frankie playing Beach Blanket Bingo, the hand jive on American Bandstand, and taking the family wagon to the Drive-in – but they offer the functionality, efficiency and dependability of today. Best of all, no defrosting is required!

Chrome, Whitewalls and Fins
Big Chill owners, Thom Vernon and Orion Creamer, came up with the idea for the Beach Series looking at images of vintage cars lining the beachfront during the 50s. Explains Creamer: “We had always compared our fridge design to the ’57 Chevy Bel-Air because of its curved lines, chrome accents and retro styling. Another distinctive feature of cars from this era was the two-tone paint job, usually featuring a flamboyantly colored body contrasted with a white hood. Big Chill is known for our bold use of color, and our top freezer design allowed us to experiment with a two-tone fridge. Thus, the Beach Series was born.”

Mid-Century Modern
Each Big Chill fridge features a stamped metal body with real chrome trim accents – no molded plastic here. Indented styling adds to the unique look of Big Chill, while the interior (provided by one of the country’s leading appliance manufacturers) boasts all the modern amenities, including icemaker, water dispenser, and most importantly…self defrost. In keeping with the tradition of vibrant colors in retro kitchen appliances during the 50’s, Big Chill offers a broad range of colors including Beach Blue, Cherry Red, Buttercup Yellow, Orange, Jadite Green, Pink Lemonade, Classic Black and Classic White.

The Beach series allows customers to choose any one of Big Chill’s signature colors for the base of the fridge paired with a white top freezer door. The look is playful and hip, a perfect addition to a beach house, cabana or bungalow, but sophisticated and sleek enough to fit any modern interior – from colorful contemporary to modern, traditional to classic. Custom color combinations are also available through Big Chill’s color matching service.

Big Chill Beach Series refrigerators retail for $3500. Big Chill new retro appliances are available through home furnishings stores and appliance dealers around the country. Fridges can also be ordered directly from the company by calling 877.842-3269 and shipped anywhere in the continental U.S.

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For more information on Big Chill appliances, please contact Launch Marketing at 303-494-4080 or via email at launchmarketing@aol.com, or visit our website at www.bigchillfridge.com.

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Life & Style / November 2006 / Rachael Ray’s Retro Kitchen

Rachael’s auctioning off one of Beach Blue fridges for charity!  Check out this link to get involved:  http://www.charityfolks.com/cfauctions/auction_bid.asp?auctionid=7919&catname=Collectibles+%26+Memorabilia&mcid=8536

Colorado Homes & Lifestyles / October 2006

Shop Etc. / October 2006

A Modern Take on Simpler Times
The original idea for Big Chill was conceived from a real-life dilemma faced by Vernon and his wife. The couple wanted to create a design conscious yet inviting retro kitchen replete with a vintage refrigerator as the cornerstone. Explains Vernon: “I think that, for many families, the kitchen has become the most common meeting place in the home. We wanted to create a space that had personality and functionality, but that also had the same welcoming feel as my mother’s kitchen when I was growing up. We wanted a place where our kid’s artwork and school photos could hang happily on the fridge and not look out of place.” In order to achieve that, the Vernons wanted to stay away from the current and modern look of stainless steel appliances, but also wanted to avoid the “white box.” They quickly discovered that while they liked the look of vintage style refrigerators, the older models were either too small, too inefficient or required a chisel and a day’s work to defrost. The Vernons went back to the drawing board until Thom and his nephew Orion came up with their own innovative solution.

While the recent trend has been to conceal standard fridge designs with clever cabinetry and other forms of camouflage, Thom and Orion set out to find a way to bring the fridge out of hiding and let it enjoy its rightful place as the centerpiece of any great kitchen. To do that, they began to look at vintage fridge designs when they were just that…and their trip through time took them right to the 50’s.

Not Your Mother’s Icebox
After looking at as many antique refrigerators and vintage appliances as they could find, Thom and Orion came up with an original retro style fridge design for Big Chill. Each Big Chill appliance has a stamped metal body with real chrome trim. Indented styling adds to the unique look of Big Chill, while the interior (provided by one of the country’s leading appliance manufacturers) boasts all the modern amenities, including icemaker, water dispenser, and most importantly…self defrost.

Reminiscent of the 1957 Chevy Bel Air (minus the fins) Big Chill retro fridges feature a stamped metal body with authentic chrome trim. The look is at once both hip and streamlined, but also time honored. In keeping with the tradition of vibrant colors in retro kitchen appliances during the 50’s, Big Chill offers a broad range of colors including Beach Blue, Cherry Red, Buttercup Yellow, Orange, Jadite Green, Pink Lemonade, and for the more traditional, Classic Black and Classic White. Explains Orion: ”We looked at what was happening in the 50’s and found there was a real color explosion in appliance design…from
KitchenAid’s candy-colored table mixers to the debut of the first color AGA Ranges. These designs are even more popular today and that inspired us to look beyond contemporary colors.” As a result, this fridge is not a wallflower, but rather a conversation piece.

Big Chill Cooks up Another Classic
Nothing says lovin’ like…the perfect vintage oven. Big Chill has recently added the matching Northstar retro stove to their current appliance offerings. The vintage range comes in all of Big Chill’s signature colors to create a complete look in any kitchen, from colorful contemporary to modern, traditional to classic.

Big Chill refrigerators retail for $2700. Northstar vintage stoves retail for $3595 (electric), $3795 (dual fuel) and $3895 (gas). Big Chill new retro appliances are available through home furnishings stores and appliance dealers around the country. Fridges can also be ordered directly from the company by calling 877.842-3269. Direct orders can be shipped anywhere in the continental U.S.

Cottage Living / May-June 2006

Imagine, for a moment, a screaming orange retro refrigerator in your kitchen. How might that one appliance change the way you view your space? Might it spur you on to have fun with interior design, instead of taking it to seriously? The manufacturers of the Big Chill refrigerator-and other makers of colorful reproduction retro appliances-are hoping so. To that end, their wares not only add whimsy to a kitchen, they also perform. For instance, beneath the stamped metal shell of the Big Chill is a Whirlpool 21 cubic-foot top-freezer refrigerator.
And then there are the colors. Big Chill’s sister company, Fresh Produce (www.fresh-produce.biz), loaned its clothing hues to the finish of the refrigerator, which comes in eight shades, including cherry red and pink lemonade.
According to Dan D’Angelo, owner of D’Angelo’s Plumbing, Heating, Kitchens and Baths, this retro style is slowly making its way into the Rochester market. “When I think retro, I think of red appliances or red cabinets,” he says. “I’ve seen it done locally in a smaller way. Many use colorful retro appliances, like blenders and toasters, to add color. The granite selection is going more towards a black and white speck or heavy tumbled marble. People aren’t going for the traditional, ornate style of cabinet anymore. Many want extremely simple cabinets with clean lines, which is a ’50s look.”
So that screaming orange refrigerator? Maybe it’s a screaming orange toaster or a cherry red mixer. But the point is, you’ll be having fun with interior design.

Check out the newspaper link!