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Kitchen appliance cuteness

7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago

I have such a "thang" for cute kitchen appliances, particularly those with a retro vibe. I have been smitten with the Italian brand Smeg since seeing many of their products in the UK. This robin egg blue fridge (pics below) is in a sweet Cornish cottage where we stayed a few years ago. I was just perusing the Nordstrom site and am so pleased that they carry the line of small kitchen appliances, and especially the electric kettle, which I would love to own. What is about these vintage-y pieces that are so satisfying? The rounded edges, the Jordan Almond colors, the slightly cartoony styling ... I am drawn right to these things!
Do you know of any other brands with this sort of styling?

Comments (17)

  • 7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago






    I love my Kitchenaid stand mixer, but this is such a little cutie!



  • 7 years ago

    Love these pics from the Nordstrom site. There's that blue fridge again!





  • 7 years ago

    I love these! Friends of ours are selling their MCM house, and their kitchen has a robin's egg blue refrigerator and it just makes the whole kitchen. My goal with my next house is to make it look like what I'd put in a vacation home... you know, all the fun stuff that you'd never put in your full-time residence but that you put in your weekend place because that's where that stuff goes.

  • 7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    I love the look of Smeg products as well, IdaClaire!! There's also BigChill that has a retro vibe. Chambers has some nice looking fridges but I've no clue if they do a whole range of appliances. Might need to Google this. :)

    This design overview might interest you, IdaClaire. Cute appliances including a "toaster that sneezes out crumbs".

  • 7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    Oooo I like all the red appliances.

    I like the logo a lot and we actually need a new blender.



  • 7 years ago

    I am in total agreement, Ida! I love these. Did not know they had the electric kettle! Off to look for it. My keeping room is and kitchen walls are painted BM Saybrook Sage, so I guess I should go with the green one, but I do love that blue!

  • 7 years ago

    Gee, I dunno, Nordstrom's fridge against the brick wall wouldn't open all the way, and the handle would get dinged up on the brick, so...

    That teakettle is darned adorable, though!

  • 7 years ago

    What’s old is new again. When were pastel appliances popular - 50’s?? I have always liked colored appliances and have been suffering through the stainless era.

  • 7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    I'm almost too young to really remember when we had a rounded fridge in our house, I only vaguely remember us getting our huge (at least it seemed to me) new fridge with the sharp square angles (with the faux wood and chrome handle). Ours was white, not harvest gold or avocado! And with something that at the time we viewed as the height of sophistication and modernity--a dedicated freezer, (not an icebox) and an automatic ice maker!! But my grandmother always had an old, small white fridge with the rounded corners, aged to a kind of off-white. That's why I love them, they remind me of grandma's house! And since I have inherited many things from my grandmothers, I unabashedly decorate in a "retro" eclectic style that I call "boho granny." Or perhaps "European eccentric." Maybe black, white and 50 shades of grey are cool and calming in the hot southwest, but here in the damp, grey upper Midwest we need color!! I need to get a new electric kettle, and I'm happy to know there are colored ones available!

  • 7 years ago

    The title of your thread instantly brought back memories of your mixer thread and the glass bowls.

    https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/3580510/please-humor-me-again-kitchenaid-mixer-colors#n=259

  • 7 years ago

    Well, darn, those cute Smeg kettles do not get good reviews. Sigh.


  • 7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    Interesting to mention rounded fridges vs the square ones. From my memory, the squared fridges did not appear until 1959 or 1960, and so when I see movies that are set in the mid 1950s and have square fridges in them instead of the rounded ones, I think they the set designer made a mistake. One movie that first comes to mind is Parents (1989) with Randy Quaid. This movie was set in the mid 1950s, but the refrigerator looks like it is from the 1960s. Of course this movie is anything but cute and reminds me more of underground comics from the late 1960s.

  • 7 years ago

    This tread made me think of an old fridge I had many moons ago. It had a rounded top and a v handle that could be opened from either the left or right. That was a great concept and would be nice to see today. I used to paint it to match my kitchen. It was yellow, light green and even pink once. Good grief while looking for an image I see these go for big bucks these days.

    Terrible efficiency but very cute. It held two trays for ice in the mini freezer box.

  • 7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    Tannatonk, we had an extra fridge in the basement, and that was it. We kids thought the door was soooooo cool!

    Gscience, i forgot we are fridgemates!

  • 7 years ago

    We had an early 1950s stove in our previous home that, despite its wonky door that never shut quite right, was cute as a button. I refused to part with it, even though DH (who is the cook in our home) hated using it. We had to improvise when baking as the oven temperature wasn't consistent, and it was a PITA to clean the thing, but I was charmed by it and refused to let it go. The woman who bought the house from us also kept the stove -- but moved it into the breakfast room and repurposed it as storage. She installed a brand new stove, which was probably a smart move on her part.



  • 7 years ago

    Love the vintage style colorful appliances. Someday I would like a fun fridge, in my mind these blow away stainless steel. But then I have always loved the vintage cottage decor. Feathers11 your vacation home decor idea seems like such fun.


    Growing up we had the cutest rounded vintage fridge in our garage, yellow with pink interior. It had half circle shelves that would swing out for you to get things from the back. Much more appealing than the brown box we had at the time in our “updated“ kitchen.


    My grandma had pale pink washer and dryer. Such colorful times.