Of all of America’s migratory species, perhaps the strangest is the refrigerator.
This summer, when the fridge is crammed with watermelon and seems to heave like an overweight jogger, it may be worth pondering the increasingly nomadic nature of this once-monumental appliance. The magnet-laden stalwart of the kitchen has started to appear in the weirdest places, popping up in closets and dresser drawers, where sweaters and mothballs used to hold court.
Exhibit A: On New York’s Long Island, a woman in the Hamptons recently built a 15,000-square-foot, two-story, shingle-style house, installing a compact Sub-Zero refrigerator next to the socks and cuff links in her husband’s bathroom closet.
Asked why, she cited geography.
“With 15,000 square feet, I didn’t want him asking me to go downstairs to get him a club soda,” she said.
Thus dawns the era of the so-called integrated refrigerator, in which, for the first time in human history, it is possible to reach for the face cream and wind up with rotting zucchini.
The battle between hiders and flaunters–those who want to show off the latest gizmo versus those who want it camouflaged–seems to have taken a critical turn with the introduction of the 700 Series by Sub-Zero, in which a small refrigerator or a fridge-freezer combo can be custom-installed in a cabinet or armoire–or even a drawer–with nary a visual tip-off to what may be found inside.
According to the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, 18.1 percent of U.S. households now have more than one refrigerator, the highest double dipping for any appliance.
The decentralization of the fridge–can the glove compartment be far behind?–seems to have several reasons, not the least of which is marketing. (Sub-Zero Co.’s latest catalog compares a refrigerator in every room to a chicken in every pot.) Escalating house sizes and remodelers bent on master bedroom suites are also playing a role.
Under-the-counter refrigerators are selling briskly, inspired perhaps by hotel mini-bars, said Phil Uihlein, chairman of U-Line Co., of Milwaukee. His product is turning up increasingly in unlikely places, such as the playroom, the bedroom, the workout room and, especially, in barbecue areas.
The refrigerator is not the only appliance having an out-of-kitchen experience. Fisher-Paykel of Laguna Hills, Calif., has introduced a dishwasher that pulls out like a drawer and disappears into the woodwork.
`A Leisure Experience’
“The kitchen is now moving out of the kitchen,” said Paul Deffenbaugh, editor of Remodeling magazine. As the kitchen becomes more public, the theory goes, many affluent homeowners are retreating to the bedroom. “They want to reward themselves, not necessarily with an object, but with a leisure experience,” he said. One experience, apparently, is barricading oneself away from the children for extended periods, an act that cannot be accomplished comfortably without a refrigerator.
The drawer idea came largely from designers, who wanted the fridge to be less conspicuous, said Paul Leuthe, the marketing manager for Sub-Zero. Indeed, Jerome Caruso, who invented the company’s drawer refrigerators, contends that “the refrigerator should disappear,” a sentiment shared by many supermarket shoppers when the cash register regurgitates the total.
In Miami, Carlos Adharsingh, a designer for the Edward Nieto Design Group, installed a drawer refrigerator for a soccer fan’s television room so that a cache of six-packs could be cleverly concealed. As refrigerators start to look and act more like furniture, they’re being outfitted as never before, with Colonial-style paneling, for instance, creating the illusion that George Washington snacked here.
The pull-out Sub-Zeros are costly, from $2,000 to $3,400, depending on the configuration. Like holiday motorists, they vent themselves, but the compressors and condensers are hidden in a tray beneath the bottom drawer. The control buttons are concealed along the top drawers’ inner edge. A snap-in crisper is optional.
Whether homeowners who stash refrigerators around the house, will be able to remember which drawer holds the eggs and which the Absolut, it’s too soon to say, although Uihlein of U-Line, for one, believes Americans are ready for in-drawer refrigerators and his competition, Sub-Zero, is 5 to 10 years ahead of the curve.
Will magnets go the way of ashtrays? Can shaving cream and shrimp cocktail find happiness together in the boudoir? The American home, ever adaptable, marches on. Just don’t freeze the underwear.
