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Going “Retro” with your Appliances Nostalgic charm meets high-tech function in reproduction appliances. Installing a retro range or refrigerator will give your hardworking kitchen a stylish focal point—and make you smile.

Inspired by an elegant home “cooker” of the 1930s, Heartland Appliances’ 36-inch Legacy range ($5,955) combines six gas burners rated at 15,500 BTUs with a self-cleaning electric convection oven. Details include curved feet, a digital display, and nickel-plated knobs and handle. Also shown are the matching 36-inch backguard ($350), 42-inch vent hood ($2,195), and dishwasher trim panel ($349).

Every family is unique. Shouldn’t every kitchen stand out, too? That’s one idea behind the growing interest in antique reproduction appliances. Amid a sea of stainless-steel—from high end to home center—you can now find ranges, ovens, refrigerators, and more in styles out of the past and colors out of a paintbox. Another appeal is these appliances’ period relevance: The perfect fit for older homes, they also lend a new kitchen vintage mood with one bold stroke.

The earliest appliances ignored style. They were all about liberation from the drudgery of housework—or from servants, if you had them. Before the 1920s, electricity was still a novelty power source for bulky machines with visible moving parts. But soon, designs streamlined and detailed gleamed in nickel and porcelain. World War II put appliance production on hold, devoting steel to “tanks not toasters,” but the late 1940s boomed with supply and innovation. Mid-1950s kitchens boasted icons of space-age styling, optimistic pastel finishes, and family-friendly features.

These days, the ubiquitous trend is commercial-grade—or at least models that bring professional materials and function into the home. Stainless-steel-clad units are even sold at mass-market discount and home improvement stores. In appliances, as in fashion and furniture, one look does not fit all. Before you sign up for appliances more suited to a penthouse than your house, consider other options.

Obviously, you care about choosing what’s best for your home and family. If you love old houses, historic character, and old-fashioned comfort, it may be time to go retro.

Generations ago, the kitchen was already the heart of the home, thanks to wood-burning cookstoves that also served as a heat source. Heartland Appliances still makes such a stove. The Sweetheart features four feet of cast-iron cooking surface and warms up to 1,500 square feet. Its copper reservoir provides hot water, and its upper cabinet dries mittens, thaws frozen foods, and proofs dough. It’s a sweet deal for $4,090, plus $300 for the optional Williamsburg design motif.

Real versus Reproduction

Some purists insist on an authentic appliance made during the 1920s to 1950s. Searching online classifieds and collectors’ clubs will yield refurbished Chambers, Florence, Wedgwood, and Magic Chef ranges for $1,000 to $3,000. Salvage yards and flea markets turn up “as is” gas and electric models that may be refinished, replated, and brought up to code. Specialists can also convert early stoves built for coal or wood to gas or electricity.

Mid-twentieth-century appliances were built to last, but the old-timers come with trade-offs. Old refrigerators are smaller and less energy efficient than new ones, and their freezers need manual defrosting. Gas ranges lack sealed burners and automatic reignition. Luckily, you can get a vintage look plus modern conveniences with a reproduction.

Today, it’s popular to restore older homes and furnish them with retro appliances and simple cabinetry in Mission and Shaker styles. Without rules or guidelines, it’s tempting to follow a hot trend, but you’ll feel more comfortable if what you choose refers to the rest of your house. Look through vintage magazines for design clues, but don’t be afraid to use something newer. An older home would have had replacement appliances over time.

Relevant antique or antique-style appliances feel timeless and comfortable and won’t soon look dated.

Isn’t it time for the Ed Sullivan show? Shaped and finished like an early black-and-white TV, De’Longhi’s countertop convection oven sports a curvy, rounded body, shiny chrome housing, and mirrored door. Bake with fan or without, broil, toast, defrost, dehydrate, and warm on two levels at once. A turbo convection fan distributes heat evenly with no hot spots and cooks to 30-percent faster than standard ovens. The enamel interior heats from 200 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Including an enamel pan, two wire racks, two cookie sheets, and a broiling rack, model AR690 sells for $199.85.

Home around the Range

Remember baking cookies with your grandmother? Re-create that warm and welcoming kitchen atmosphere with a vintage-style cooking appliance. You just may start making new memories for your descendants.

Wood-burning cast-iron cookstoves have changed little since they were the original hearth of the home. Enterprise-Fawcett’s Legacy series comprises three models, from the 56-inch-wide Monarch, “wrapped in lustrous black porcelain and gleaming nickel plate,” to the 33-inch-wide Savoy Wood, which also burns coal. The dramatic Monarch (from $4,680) is frequently on back order at Lehman’s in Ohio, a favorite retailer of both the Amish community and Hollywood film set designers. Similar back-to-basics stoves include Stanley, based in Waterford, Ireland, and the Amish-made Baker’s Choice and Pioneer Maid.

Heartland Appliances sells two wood-burning models. The circa 1925 Oval boasts the largest oven (2.4 cubic feet) on any such cookstove and heats up to 1,800 square feet. The Sweet Heart radiates warmth throughout up to 1,500 square feet of living space. In country, city, or suburb, that’s a happy side effect during winter storms.

Elmira Stove Works Cook’s Delight stoves tuck gas or electric convection ovens (all self-cleaning) where wood used to burn. Burners are gas or cast electric, but exhaust fans and oven controls are hidden for subtlety. Stoves come in 30- or 45-inch widths and start at $4,095. Order decorative legs and trim in nickel, brass, or copper as you like to complement your cabin or Victorian décor. Finish your kitchen in style with a matching convection wall oven and 1.6-cubic-foot microwave oven.

In the transitional “cooker” category—think “Upstairs, Downstairs”—three European manufacturers distribute stateside. The largest of these multi-oven cooking centers are assembled on site. From Britain, Aga radiant cookers are always on and ready for a cup of tea. Two to four ovens—each designed for different heat output—join a warming tray, boiling plate, and simmering plate on top. Colors include Heather and British Racing Green. Similar styling graces four dual-fuel ranges, closer to today’s technology. French chefs have coveted La Cornue ovens for almost a century. There are six cookers and one cooktop in the Chateau line, and two cookers and one cooktop in the Cornuchef line. The 20 available colors include Aubergine and Provence yellow. La Cornue ovens are very pricey, ranging in price from $10,000 to as much as $35,000.

“Morice is a handcrafted French cooker that blends old-world design with modern technology,” says John Novella, Vice President of BKE Supply, the western U.S. importer for Morice Appliances. “Morice … adds a sense of architectural design and artful color to the kitchen, which we believe is a welcome alternative to the commercial-style stainless-steel range.” Three models come in eight hues, including wine red and sapphire blue.

Heartland Appliances expresses the same philosophy for its Classic, Metro, and Legacy ranges. “We were trying to create a pro cooking product for someone who really enjoys cooking,” explains Carlos Coutinho, Director of Marketing. “But rather than the rest [stainless], we wanted to give people choices. Instead of people who are buying to impress—the “me too” shoppers—everybody’s taste is different and anything goes. For example, the Legacy would look appropriate in the many arts-and-crafts bungalows built post-war in North America.” The Legacy range was designed to stick out about three inches from adjacent cabinets, resulting in stand-out personality and an oven that can hold two Thanksgiving turkeys. Heartland’s Metro model answers the showroom question, “Why buy this stainless-steel range over another?” with its whimsical “smiley” oven window.

A sense of fun also shines through the fab fifties-influenced Northstar range from Elmira Stove Works. Originally known for its 1850s-look ranges—complete with Queen Anne legs and nickel detailing—Elmira packed that line with such modern conveniences as electronic controls, smooth-top elements, and self-cleaning convection ovens. Companion wall ovens, microwave ovens, and dishwasher trim panels form an appliance suite. Striking colors include cayenne pepper red, jewel green, and liberty blue. The MSRP for a Northstar range can be between $3,500 to $5,500, depending upon the model and features.

The 30-inch Northstar can be ordered in three forms: electric smoothtop ($3,695), all-gas ($3,995), and dual-fuel ($3,895). Each has a 4-cubic-foot self-cleaning oven; add $300 for optional convection mode. Delayed-start baking and an optional warming/baking oven help frequent entertainers.
You can add vintage-looking ventilation to your range with a 30-inch Northstar range hood. The four-speed exhaust offers 800-cubic-feet-per-minute performance. Including dual halogen lights that show food doneness accurately, it costs $1,000.

Shift to Candy Red, Mint Green, and Flamingo Pink (and more) for the “newer” Northstar range (from $3,695), equipped with an arched backguard, lots of chrome, and a clock with an old-fashioned dial. Brian Hendrick, vice president of Sales and Marketing at Elmira says, “Who would have thought that the PT Cruiser or Volkswagen Bug would have taken off, or that 1950s movies and music would still be around? People are looking for fun, maybe for a brief escape from today’s complexity and stress. We bring a taste of the 1950s into their décor–we bring memories back.”

Elmira’s Northstar fridge (model 1950, from $3,695) has a new, energy-efficient interior, but its curvaceous doors, fin-shape chrome handles, and retro nameplate evoke souped-up cars from the Happy Days era. Choose from eight colors, including Candy Red, or specify a custom shade from 6,000 automotive finishes. The 18-cubic-foot, bottom-freezer model has four gallon-size bins and glass shelves. Add $150 for a factory-installed icemaker.

So-Cool Refrigerator Choices

Northstar’s matching model 1950 refrigerator defies the widespread goal of making the most-used kitchen appliance practically disappear. Except for commercial crossovers, such as Sub-Zero’s glass-door built-ins, full-size and undercounter refrigerators are often trimmed with wood panels to help them match adjacent cabinets.

But some homeowners crave a fridge that stands out, that anchors their kitchen’s design or color scheme, and that provides pleasure every time they see it. Mr. Hendrick says, “Boomers have been a big part of our clientele, but we’re getting huge interest from 30- to 40-year-olds. They can’t remember the fifties, but they like the look and ‘attitude.’”

“The trend has been to hide your refrigerator with cabinetry, and we have taken the opposite approach,” agrees Orion Creamer, co-founder of Big Chill, LLC. In fact, one customer wrote of her fifties-look fridge: “For the first two weeks it literally stopped me in my tracks every time I caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye.” In this case, a stamped metal retro shell fits over a base of a Whirlpool 21-cubic-square-foot top-freezer refrigerator. Big Chill’s sister company Fresh Produce loaned its pow! clothing colors to inspire the refrigerator’s palette of fun finishes (cherry red, beach blue, buttercup yellow, apple green, orange, pick-up blue, jadite green, pink lemonade, black, and white), so it makes sense the Big Chill is sold at home furnishings stores as well as appliance dealers.

Styled like a 1957 Chevy BelAir, the top-freezer Big Chill refrigerator (about $2,500) offers a 20.9-cubic-foot capacity with features such as spillproof shelves and automatic moisture control. Add an icemaker for $50, a water dispenser/icemaker package for $150.

Side-by-side refrigerator/freezers weren’t introduced until 1949, but Elmira Stove Works’ model 1897 is a welcome anachronism. Inside the nickel-framed enamel exterior is a GE Profile unit with 25.6-cubic feet of capacity. The company practices time travel with the refrigerator ($4,395). Its nostalgic design belies 25.4 cubic feet of side-by-side storage, Energy Star efficiency, an ice/water dispenser on the door, gallon-size door bins, and spillproof shelves. This model comes in black, white, bisque, cayenne pepper red, liberty blue, or jewel green, with optional door frames in nickel, satin brass, or satin copper ($450 to $800 extra).

Finally, people who still call a refrigerator an icebox might be drawn to built-in versions available from two sources. Klondike Case Refrigerators makes its “commercial refrigerator for the custom home” in oak, maple, cherry, and hickory, ready to finish to match your cabinets. Remote compressors eliminate noise and heat in the kitchen. Each 25-cubic-foot refrigeration compartment (no freezer) starts at $3,900. Roseland Icebox Company builds turn-of-the-twentieth-century styles that mimic period units by McCray and Sears and Roebuck. Custom sizes are available in your choice of wood and stain.

Seafoam green is a dreamy color for this Hamilton-Beach Classic DrinkMaster ($39.95), a descendant of the original spindle drink mixer used by drugstores and soda fountains starting in 1911. The drink mixer features a 28-ounce stainless steel measuring cup and tiltable mixing head.

Electric Housewares - It’s A Small Retro World

Although major appliances have great impact in designing a retro-theme kitchen, you can also create a retro look using nostalgic small or countertop appliances.

Prepare breakfasts June Cleaver would envy with a curvy, chrome-dome toaster from De’Longhi, Toastmaster, WestBend, or Dualit. The clever Westinghouse Toasterbox combines a toaster and breadbox in one product. Toastmaster’s Classic Cool Steel toaster, model T75R, combines chrome with “diner red” side panels that stay cool to the touch. Extra-wide bagel-size slots, self-adjusting bread slots, and electronic toast color control add up to the perfect breakfast. Two-slice model T75R costs $29.99 to $39.99. A four-slice model is also available. The shape’s the thing on De’Longhi’s Retro Toaster model RT400: Four wide slots accommodate bagels and waffles, and an extra-high lift lever simplifies food removal. Easy-to-read thermostat control with six settings, including defrost. For consistent toasting results, an electronic sensor adjusts the toasting duration according to the internal temperature of the toaster. The MSRP is $79.95.

Fix after-school malt-shop treats using the Classic DrinkMaster from Hamilton-Beach, the bulletlike Drink Mixer from Farberware, or the Waring Professional Drink Mixer. Or, take a colorful new take on drink mixers using the Hamilton-Beach Eclectrics in intrigue blue ($69.99), which has a 28-ounce stainless-steel mixing cup great for ice cream, soda, and fruit drinks, omelets, and pancakes. Double agitators around the commercial-quality stainless-steel spindle fold in lots of air for smooth, fluffy results.

Pour for your bridge club from percolators from Farberware, De’Longhi, and Melitta. For example, De’Longhi’s DP12ST ($79.95) 12-cup percolator will remind you of family reunions at Grandmas. The percolator makes two to 12 cups, and its removable base allows cordless serving flexibility. A “keep warm” function automatically switches on after brewing is complete. The coffee level indicator is in the handle and easy to read.

Whip up an angel food cake in a KitchenAid, Sunbeam, or Viking stand mixer. From Hamilton-Beach, for instance, the Eclectrics line updates the stand mixer in apple green die-cast metal. Professional two-way action orbits the mixing head around the bowl as the beater rotates the opposite direction. Rely on the 400-watt motor and 12 settings for power and flexibility in tough mixing jobs. A quick release head lifts up and locks in place for easy bowl access, and the bowl locks to the base for stable hands-free mixing. Including 4-quart stainless-steel bowl, flat beater, dough hook, and wire whisk, the Hamilton-Beach mixer costs $199.99.

Mix perfect cocktails in a serious chrome-laden blender from Oster or Hamilton Beach. Oster’s Classic Beehive Blender in Sapphire Blue (model 4134 for $85.99) has a two-speed toggle switch blender, 500 watts of power, stainless-steel blades, and a five-cup scratch-resistant and dishwasher-safe glass jar. More Editorials