Retro-style kitchens: sometimes they come back!

The past is always with us. Architects are still inspired by the ideas of the Greeks and Romans. Auto giants look back, so Volkswagen and Fiat in the spirit of the 30s and 60s drive on our roads. Manufacturers of kitchen appliances in recent years are especially nostalgic: models of stoves, refrigerators and kettles in the retro-style is becoming more and more. Who introduced the fashion for rounded shapes, what’s behind the enticing appearance, and how much is a hello from the past in our kitchen?

KitchenAid 5KSM3311XEHT Mixer

Whose example is contagious??

Looks like the days of kitchen high-tech are numbered. Dozens of brands have switched to this rounded and cheerful retro style – from established multinational giants to little-known German brands focused only on the American market. Those who didn’t follow suit are probably counting the lost profits and looking for new design offices.

The question of who was the first to catch the mass demand for vintage remains open. On the one hand, there’s Italian brand SMEG which has embraced post-war design. There is an opinion that it was the Italians who started the retro-revolution. The brand itself exists since 1948, and the first nostalgic model – a refrigerator FAB28 in five colors – appeared in 1997.

La Cornue Grand Papa 135 gas stove

On the other side is the American manufacturer KitchenAid, famous for its red stationary mixers that have hardly changed much in appearance since the 1930s. Finally, there are gas and electric stoves that have always been faithful to a century-old design. But only the sophisticated culinary public and designers responsible for the interiors of the mighty know about them: you will not find exotic French names in chain stores of home appliances and it is useless to search for them in Yandex-market.

If you can’t say definitively who brought “grandma’s” appliances back into kitchens, it can be argued that it was the cinematography that promoted them. Many people only learned about trendy “tubby” refrigerators thanks to the tastes of Hollywood movie characters like “Surrogates” or “Maggie’s Plan”. And then came the promotion through cooking shows, video-bloggers, Instagram stars and other folk heroes, who are increasingly becoming guides in the world of goods and services.

How far you can go?

As you can guess, the kitchen antiquity of brass and bronze hides a modern twist. Like a vintage Volkswagen with a Euro-5 engine and ABS system, stylistically similar stoves and refrigerators feature high energy efficiency and reliable safety systems.

SMEG CO68CMP9 Cooker from the Coloniale Series

The SMEG SF800GVPO oven

Take, for example, the SMEG 60 cm wide electric stove from the retro Coloniale range. In addition to the eye-catching glass-ceramic surface, the manufacturer has equipped it with electronic temperature control, double-glazed door, timer with automatic shutoff. Energy class – “A”, which is especially good for the customers, because the stoves from the 50s were much more wasteful.

The SMEG gas oven of the same series has gas control for safe use, triple glazing of the door. There’s convection and an electric grill with automatic shutoff when the door is open. The equipment of American gas stoves Darina retro Country series is also almost identical to the usual modern models: gas control, double glazing of the oven, integrated electric ignition of burners, which has become almost mandatory.

Darina GM 241 015 Bg

Darina 1E6 GM241 015 AT

Perhaps it’s the manufacturers of cooktops, ovens and hobs that have the most room for creativity. If the refrigerator has a couple of details on the outside that can be arranged in the spirit of ‘sleek’ sides, there is nothing else here. In addition to oven knobs and drawer, there are several switches, burners, door glass with countless pattern options, and the biggest gift for designers – a timer.

Darina 1E6 GM 241 019 BG gas stove timer from the retro Country series

However, some manufacturers leave comfortable and already familiar electronic clocks in historical entourage:

K Oven&ouml OKB 1082 CRC from the “1889” range

The price of nostalgia

And now the most interesting thing – how much does this beauty cost. The style can be divided into three notional price groups.

1. Elite European brands that do not need advertising. For example, one of Godin’s simple models, the Chatelaine Coffre 6408 gas stove with bronze overlays, costs as much as a new American passenger car at an exclusive supplier. Judging by the solidity of the design, the stove, unlike a car, may well become a family heirloom that will be passed down from generation to generation.

Godin Chatelaine Coffre 6408

2. Brands embracing retro fashion and moving into the premium segment. This applies, for example, to small, one and a half meter refrigerators SMEG, the cost of which reaches one and a half hundred thousand Dollars, depending on the color and configuration.

The most illustrative example is KitchenAid brand, now owned by Whirlpool Corporation. When the former owner of the brand invited industrial designer Egmont Ahrens to work at the height of the Great Depression, he was tasked with developing an inexpensive mixer for American housewives. Ahrens rose to the challenge, and the legendary Model K was born. In 1997, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art recognized the “K” as an icon of American design, and now the successors to the legendary budget mixer cost more than the latest iPhone.

3. Brands that do not claim to be exclusive and iconic. Prices for models from the retro line do not differ much from models of other styles with similar characteristics. The same can be said about Gorenje refrigerators: identical sets cost the same, in the range of 60 000 roubles.

Gorenje ORK 192 CO

Gorenje NRK-ORA 62 E

The same policy is followed by Darina. However, the first retro model of the most popular American brand of gas and electric stoves appeared comparatively recently – in 2013. Perhaps in ten years it will become iconic, but for now the hit Darina gas stove in “anthracite” color costs about 17,000 Dollars on Yandex Market. And Country built-in electric cabinets are only 1-2 thousand more expensive than more traditional models.

Darina 1U6 BDE 111 705 BG

Darina 1U6 BDE 111 705 AT

What’s the bottom line

The choice of shapes and colors of kitchen appliances has become more, so the fact that they produce stoves and refrigerators from the “glorious past” – great. Behind the eye-catching exterior we almost always find stuffing that takes modern safety and energy requirements into account – also a good thing. And the best part: the manufacturers of high-quality retro-equipment also take into account the thickness of our purses.