Refrigerators and freezers can look like furniture.
Over the past few years, integrated refrigerators and freezers have progressed from those which take panels to custom, full-blown furniture statements, especially in high end kitchens. The trend toward paneling has been encouraged by open-floor-plan houses where the kitchen is not completely separate and needs to coordinate with the style of adjacent rooms. When the house or furniture has a specific, or unusual style — Asian fusion for example — paneling seems like a logical choice.
Chicago’s Mick de Giulio, who specializes in imaginative, ultra-luxe kitchens, tucked this incredible butternut Asian beauty [top] into a niche. Deftly spotlighted, it features a hand-hammered iron medallion and handles. Each of the four freezer drawers in the showstopping unit is concealed by a quartet of faux curio-cabinet drawer panels, making it one thriller of a chiller.
Another clever and beautiful integrated refrigeration unit was designed by Troy Adams, in L.A. His work fuses Asian with contemporary European ideas. Adams disguised a refrigerator-freezer unit in the style of Tansu – antique Japanese furniture prized for its fine carpentry and joinery, beautiful woods and metal features. Tansu pieces were often used in kitchens. What make Adams’ refrigeration unit different is the installation style. Having it partially protrude from a plain wall, as if it was an actual piece of furniture, helps it make a visual leap from appliance to kitchen furniture and pushes the integrated concept forward.
Some time ago, Jane T, who knows my passion for appliances, sent me photos of two elaborate Sub Zeros with European-style faux-painted doors.
The first is paint-decorated with classical grotesque motifs.
The other is Louis XVI in style in a charming provincial blue color — refrigeration with food for thought.
Don’t miss Refrigeration in Disguise II for more ideas.
Gorgeous! I’d love to find a cottage style .
Looking closer, I now realize the first image is Asian-inspired but at first, I read it as a massive Bierdermeier wardrobe or secretary. Maybe it’s time to redo my own kitchen.
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I bookmarked that di Giulio kitchen when it first came out in the mags. Love it! I don’t mind seeing a frig in a kitchen, but if I spent the $$$ to have an integrated frig, I’d want ones like those. So much better than just cabinet panels.