I was flipping through the latest issue of
Old House Journal yesterday. I came
across an ad for
Big Chill Retro Appliances. For those of you that do not know, there is a massive business in this country and others helping the world take a step back in time. I decided to see what I could find.
I began my search in earnest at the
Big Chill web-site. I came across fridges and stoves that certainly looked out of the 50's but were equipped with many of the amenities that we come to expect today (Ice-maker, Frost-Free, Radiant burners under glass, etc.). Many of the colors are truly retro. Although, I am not quite sure about red and orange. The web-site indicated they also had dishwashers but I never located them except on the Price Sheet page and in a few of the customers pictures.
I continued my search for retro-appliances and wound up at
Elmira Stove Works in Elmira, Ontario. They have a complete line of 1850's style stoves to 1950's style models. They also have refrigerators and wall ovens.
ESW advertised
dishwasher panels. Apparently they do not make the
dishwashers, only a panel to place on the front. At first I thought that's probably what
Big Chill did. I looked back at their site for the price, $1695. Nope, that's got to be a real
dishwasher.
ESW shows a microwave also. Their web-site says the microwave is a "...deluxe 2.1 cu.ft...that matches the entire Elmira line." At least it is not as big as the first
commercial microwave which was introduced in 1947 and was nearly 6 feet tall and weighed in at over 750 pounds. The first domestic microwave was introduced in 1957.
Moving to something smaller, I found a line of small appliances by
Hamilton Beach that are somewhat reminiscent of some small appliances from the 1950's. The line is called
Hamilton Beach Eclectrics.
Doing the research I found a fellow that made a scooter out of old appliance parts. I thought it was interesting and so I included it here. Give
"The Retro-Future Scooter" a look.
For the past few years I have been seeing a lot of radios and
phonographs designed to look like their distant cousins from the 1930's to 1950's. Of course, these have been modernized with current electronics as well as current features. Imagine, a radio from the 1930's with a cassette slot on the side or a CD slot on the front. Now they even make a retro phonograph with CD burner so you can record your old vinyl to CD. Cool!! If you would like to check out some more retro radios, clocks,
juke boxes, etc. try
CAMZ Retro, Inc,
Retro Wonders, or
Crosley Radio.
If you need other items for the kitchen, say a diner booth or some boomerang laminate then you need to visit
Bars & Booths. You could spend like forever on their site looking at all they carry. Also, they have a page with links to several of
their other web sites devoted to retro items.
Click here and scroll to the bottom for the links. You can also try
Lehman's. They offer many retro items. They stock various items ranging from hand crank ice cream freezers and butter churns to old fashioned steel cut nails and spoke pointers. You see, much of their trade is directed to the Amish. To help out with the retro feeling in the bedroom you can get an iron bed at
American Iron Beds.
When you are almost finished with the decorating and remodeling and need a rest you can visit
Kiddie Records Weekly and listen to many of the children's records from the 1940's and 1950's. Or visit
Radio Spirits or
Radio Lovers and listen to many of the radio shows from yesteryear. Another interesting site is
Classic Themes.
I guess I'm through for the day. I suppose tomorrow I'll work on the bathroom and bring it up to retro specs. Would you like one hole or two? Do you prefer the
Sear's catalogue or a corn cob? Or maybe just a chamber pot will do for the cold weather. Maybe that's taking this
whole retro thing a little too far. I reckon I'll just pass and be content with the modern bathroom for now.
© 2007 Barry T Horst
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
