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Bye Bye, White Box What are you doing with that white or beige washer and dryer? Why not make it pacific blue, spice rum, or almond cream? Better yet, why not paint your whole laundry room in colors such as midnight dream, pumpkin, or straw hat, and get a washer and dryer to match?

Why do that, you ask? Because you can. Why do you paint your dining room red, or your kitchen green, or your bathroom yellow? Because you want to create something that's visually stunning, that looks unique, that's cool, and that says “me.”

So why not add a little splash of color, particularly with your washer and dryer? After all, we spend a lot of time in our laundry rooms and more and more we're moving the laundry room from our basements to the first floor and even the second floor. It's a great way to socialize with your family and still complete a very necessary chore.

How things have changed. While appliances with cool and fun colors have been in European homes for years, we here in the U.S. have been slow to accept it. Instead, we continue to buy that white, almond, bisque, or black washer or refrigerator. After all, a refrigerator or washer in those colors is comfortable, what our parents had, and frankly, it's all that's been available. Until now.

Now more than ever, appliance companies have made it easier for you to have a colorful laundry room or kitchen with colorful appliances. For example, at Sears, you can get a Kenmore Elite HE4t front-loading washer and dryer, in pacific blue, spice rum, or almond cream colors and many others, for $1,499 for the washer and $999 for the dryer. “In short, create a laundry room that breaks the mold without breaking the rules,” Sears says.

My parents, who are traditional in every sense of the word, may break the mold in their home. They think that the new colors are “neat,” as they recently told me, and would consider buying one when the time is right. If I had the space in my own home, I'd be doing my whole laundry room in pacific blue.

Here's to seeing appliances in a new “color” this year. Here's to saying goodbye to that white box and hello to some bold and fun colors with your favorite appliances.

If you could choose a certain color for all of your appliances, what would it be? I'd like to know. Please contact me by email: diane@appliance.com. I look forward to hearing from you and to sharing our appliance experiences.

And as always, please help us improve your appliance shopping experience by giving us feedback on what you'd like to read about.

Happy appliance shopping!

Diane Ritchey has written exclusively about appliances for the past 6 years, having previously been Editor-in-Chief of Appliance magazine, a trade publication about appliances located in Oak Brook, IL. She also was Communications Director for the International Personnel Management Association (IPMA) in Alexandria, VA. She has a Bachelors of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has served on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Chapter of the American Society of Business Publication Editors, and as a Technical Advisory Committee member for the Technical Writing program for the College of DuPage, IL.

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