What features would your ideal refrigerator have?
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A few weeks ago I was invited to New York City by my friends at Whirlpool, to attend the 2012 House Beautiful Kitchen of the Year!
Every summer since 2008 House Beautiful and Rockefeller Center have joined forces to build an American dream kitchen with extraordinary and creative people, showing off the best design trends and latest in kitchen appliances, and share it with the public for one week in New York City.
Can you spot me at the press conference? lol
This year, Whirlpool’s new White Ice Collection was showcased in the temporary kitchen designed by Mick De Giulio, “one of the best kitchen designers in America” per House Beautiful’ s editor in chief Newell Turner.
Um, can you say GORGEOUS? STUNNING? SLEEK? MODERN?
While I was there I had the pleasure of not only meeting Whirlpool vice president of design Patrick Schiavone, but spent some one on one time with him as well!
Pat moved to Whirlpool after designing for Ford for two decades! This man knows how to design sleek and sexy! He told me that the Whirlpool White Ice Collection was a trend of diversifying from stainless steel appliances as the only mark of luxury.
Mr. Schiavone insists that Whirlpool can turn boxy kitchen machines into objects of desire. He challenges his 200-member design staff to think outside the icebox!
We had the chance to talk about what I’d like to see in my appliances…….that’s right, Whirlpool VP of design was interested in what I want in a refrigerator!
Have you ever wanted spill control shelves? a fold away shelf? Produce to last longer? Fast Ice Production?
Whirlpool has thought of all of that!
The Whirlpool Ice Collection Features:
- The new appliance handles were created around how you use them, and provide an inviting experience as effortless
as “open and close”. - A streamlined interface makes controls easy to read and even easier to use. Increased glass areas make keeping an eye on your cooking – effortless.
- TimeSavor™ Plus true convection cooking system: Roast up to 30% faster* The rear fan and third heating element circulate hot air to seal in more flavor and juices.
- In-Door Ice: Get 30% more freezer space versus previous models. And, the ice bucket tilts out or can be removed with
one hand and placed on the counter. - Now it takes minutes not hours to get a great clean that’s odor-free with AquaLift™ self-clean technology. Using just a little water and a low-heat temperature, the most energy-efficient cleaning cycle* is done in only 50 minutes.
- The Sensor cycle automatically selects the right wash and dry settings for your load and cleans tough soils
35% better while using just the right amount of time, energy and water. - PourScour Option: Forty targeted spray jets scour away baked-on foods. Twice the coverage cleans even your large pots and pans without soaking or scrubbing.
Pat’s goal with the Ice Collection was to achieve a simple but sophisticated European style, by brainstorming ways to dress up white or black boxes with metallic elements, including handles and control panels.
I have to say, I was hard pressed to think of something they haven’t already come up with……..but I’d love to hear if you have any ideas!
What would YOU like to see in your ideal refrigerator?
Disclosure: As you know, all opinions and thoughts shared on the site are my own. I was not paid to write this post, but do have a working relationship with Whirlpool. As part of that relationship, I was thrilled to be taken to New York City to see The House Beautiful Kitchen of the Year .
Hi there, I'm Cheryl!
As a wife, mom, and caffeine enthusiast, my journey has taken me from bustling mornings with my family to sharing delicious recipes, home care tips, and heartfelt decorating insights with wonderful readers like you. My love for baking, photography, and tidiness shines through every post I craft. Dive into my world and discover the art of homemaking, one tidy moment at a time. Read more...
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That is a gorgeous kitchen!! Love the white ice collection!
even more beautiful in person!
Buyer beware! Yes, I too loved the look of this collection and have been a long time Whirlpool purchaser as my White Ice set replaced our Whirlpool Gold Conquest set. Where to start….I purchased the french door set (gas) in April from Costco online…this will become very important. First, the dishwasher did not work right out of the box and a replacement/exchange was made whereby I had to pay for two installations. Secondly, the oven would not heat up past 100 degrees. After two service call a new ignitor was installed on my brand new oven. Thirdly, the refrigerator started making a very loud noise that was worse whenever a door was opened. This resulted in a third service call whereby the tech said that there are conversion kits for the icemaker….conversion kits?? as the icemaker creates moister and it runs from the icemaker down into the freezer where it freezes on the fan making the noise. He removed ice and ordered kit. The very next day the noise was back and worse than before. He is coming back tomorrow. I called Costco as I am very unhappy was pleasantly surprised to know that they will gladly pick up appliances and give me a full refund which I quickly agreed to. Afterwards, out of curiosity and the need to vent I called Whirlpool customer service. Their offer? They offered me a whopping $75 for having to take off 4 days of work to have my brand new appliances serviced….unbelievable!! I laughed and told them not to bother as I was returning set. Their reply? Then the $75 is no longer an option. Since Whirlpool makes Maytag, Kenmore, and Estate brands I will be looking at GE, Samsung, Bosch and LG. I will never buy Whirlpool again…no matter how “cool” it looks. This stuff is pure junk!! Also, the refrigerator is so light that you have to anchor it or else everytime you open a door the unit will roll out towards you almost knocking you over….just horribly made and not to last appliances that look pretty sharp.
I love that white ice look! I was never fond of stainless steel, so this is perfect!
they’re doing a GREAT job of making White “in style” again aren’t they!
I’d like to just order up one of those kitchens pictured right there. Thank you very much 😉
oh I know! I wanted to move right in!
This is a great sounding collection. When I need to replace my appliances, I will go looking for this collection. I have kids and the white appeals to me because it’s easy to clean. The refrigerator is what I would look for. I don’t want one with a T.V. in it. I don’t want one that connects to the internet. I just want one that keeps my stuff cold, produces ice and let’s me filter my water. The oven sounds like something that would make my life easier and cook way faster than mine does now. It cleans easier too. Love it. It just sounds like a fantastic collection.
lol you sound like me!!!………..just keep my food cold!!HAHA!
I would like to see NO fingerprints when I look at my refrigerator! I would love vegetable drawers that open wide enough so you can actually put a head of lettuce in them without smashing it! I want function and ease of use. Would love a water filter system, and great lighting on the interior. A shelving system that optimizes the space would we lovely too. I don’t really care about all the gadgets since I don’t stand in front of my refrigerator unless I’m foraging for food 🙂
That kitchen is GORGEOUS!!! I’d love to see that ice white in person!
it’s so sleek and sexy!! you’d love it Bridget!
I need a fridge that can break down completely & easily for cleaning. Also, maybe a blast chiller??
It’s impossible…but I wish it had a self cleaning/sanitize mode. Perhaps if you emptied it and you could push a button to clean it
I WOULD LOVE TO BUY A FRIDGE THAT WAS MADE IN THE USA…(That meanseverything from the parts ,fabrication etc from USA) I would love to have it have pull out shelves (like a drawer) so you could reach the back items and make it easier to clean, and the shelves adjust up and down with a little touchrather than having to them out and rearrange on new hooks. A girl can dream
Lucky you!! I have been eye balling that white ice collection! I wish refrigerators would produce clear ice like the free standing ice machines!!! That would be dreamy!
oh we talked about that!!!
Yes! Cubed clear ice (cocktail ice!) is also a dream of mine! Not kidding. My husband and I discuss it all the time. I hate opaque half moon ice. I’d rather buy the good stuff. And, sounds strange, but I love to cook and I also dream about a walk-in refrigerator for the home. Like I could walk in it, and look at the shelves of food and not have everything crammed into a box. Like a restaurant fridge. Am I crazy?? Thanks for showcasing the new White Ice collection. You can tell they really upgraded white. The steel features really modernize it.
We know someone with a walk in refrigerator!! She calls it her menopause room! Haha. Of course they live in a million dollar+ home – and it’s not their main fridge, but so cool. It was a closet off the kitchen that they had made into a walk in refrigerator.
love the white ice collection! we got all new stainless this year & i love it & i’m so grateful for it, but my goodness they show everything thing! every spot, every fingerprint! it drives me insane.
it sounds like they thought of everything!
dang, just noticed my avatar isn’t working. i must of done something wrong. going back to check it out.
I would like to see a durable refrigerator….NO fancy schmany extras containers/can holders that don’t work (every time you open the door the cans roll out)…Shelves that are sturdy… drawers/draw guides that don’t crack and break in 2 years…I would jump up to the commercial level but they are 1) very expensive and 2) very loud. I went to Lowe’s and looked at the refrigerators…and they were all junk. I pulled out a freezer drawer (on the bottom type) and the thing went all crooked and it was so crappily made it felt like it would break off. I would gladly buy baskets/egg holders/bins from other sources to fit my needs…just make one that isn’t a piece of crap. A basic fridge…rugged metal shelves with metal brackets to hold the shelves and drawers….I could even live without drawers and provide my own baskets if the thing was well made. I am so tired of all the junk on the market. I was told by the salesman they are expected to last 7 years….seriously? Talk about land fills full of unnecessary stuff. My current refrigerator had had the drawer guides and drawers replace twice…to the tune of $250 dollars each time. Yeah not nice!
Wow – how cool Cheryl!! I am in love with that kitchen!! I bought a high-end refrigerator about 2 years ago and two of the drawers are broken now. I have to say that top of my list would be more durable trim. I have four kids and they are constantly in and out of the refrigerator all day long. Plus all of their friends. So drawers that are sturdier, don’t crack, and can be pulled in and out about a gazillion times is what I need LOL!!
xoox
What I’d love to see in a refrigerator is a freezer side that is REALLY good at organization. It seems like my freezer becomes cluttered and packed and I can’t see what is in there.
I saw this gorgeous white ice look earlier this year somewhere, a blog post or pinterest?? Can’t remember. I just know it’s beautiful! I don’t know that i can think of anything they haven’t already covered, I just know my refrigerator is from the 80s, so anything with an ice maker is sleek in my book. haha!
Cheryl – that white ice collection is amazing!! Someone just approached me with my opinion on which brands to go with for a fridge and laundry appliances. They knew that I had reviewed a major competitors of Whirlpool a few years ago (and I SOLD my Whirlpool appliances to do so, don’t get me started). I honestly told her I’d go back to my old appliances in a heartbeat. Beautiful appliances are great for household decor, but with five children, I need durability and Whirlpool has never let me down. I’ve had my “NEW” stainless steel fridge for under two years and a shelf is broken, a drawer won’t come out and it’s just down right a hassle for my family. You were at my dream event. I guess it takes losing something you love to appreciate the quality you had., but that’s a hard lesson for me now. 😉
My ideal new fridge would be clean, neat, well chilled and fabulous looking. We need one bad!!
PS I want that kitchen.
Wow. I would LOVE that entire kitchen. 🙂 Can they design a refrigerator with a cleaning fairy? LOL!
That looks beautiful! I wish my refrigerator had sturdier plastic parts. I have a cracked shelf and a broken drawer. Both happened in just over the one year warranty time frame of course. Even the egg holder cracked. Oh and no freezing in the refrigerator when it gets too full, please.
When we built our home four years ago everyone was still on the stainless steel craze for appliances. I went with white and never regretted it. I love this White Ice line, it is simple and elegant looking.
I would like to see a refrigerator with interchangable door and side panels, that way you can change your decore in secords.
Oh yes- all those things would be great. How awesome that you were able to go to this!! I would love a screen on the front that scans the bar code & then alerts me a couple days in advance to when things are ready to go out of date- so we can use them up first. I would love a dedicated area for meat that can’t contaminate anything else & seals against leaks. I would love larger capacity without having to go to a full professional size. Maybe 30-35 cu instead of the 25.6 that we have.
You know- just dreaming here 🙂
This collection is just lovely. You know what I would really love in a refrigerator? A self cleaning setting like in an oven! LOL!
oh wouldn’t that be GREAT!
I am partial to stainless steel, but these are white kitchen appliances I actually wouldn’t mind in the kitchen. They are gorgeous!
Oh my, that collection is amazing. So cool that you got to go and listen and TALK. LOVE it!
This collection is fantastic!! I just wish the ice macine would produce ice like you get at Sonic!!
that’s soft ice! and we talked about the Lori!!
That kitchen is GORGEOUS!! I’m loving the white ice, for sure!
WOW! Beautiful! I’m so glad to see white coming back. I have white and when I upgrade I will want white again……but I was feeling like I should choose stainless for resale purposes……but now I don’t have too! Yay for white!
want I really want in a fridge is to walk up to it and tell it what I would like to eat and then when I open the door that is what I find inside ;D
We have all loss food from the fridge and freezer with power outages. Would it not be AWESOME to have a built in automatic generator that would kick in if the fridge/freez was to knock off. Most insurance companies now have a larger deductible for loss foods from disaster or power failures and also once you file a claim you are a risk to them. A automatic small built in generator would be AWESOME… They can do this as my idea and then give me one ha ha! 🙂
I know this has been mentioned but I have yet to see a fridge that has really great meal and veg drawers that do not get off track and takes an engineer to get it all back together when you take it all out to clean the glass on top of the plastic drawers.
Also, I would love to see a GOOD water filter built in for the ice maker and water. I know they have a small filter but I am not sure how well that filters. So I guess I am saying to upgrade the current filtering systems.
Glad that you got to go see this!
Susan
I try and catch the House Beautiful Kitchen of the Year every year and so far the one that the Barefoot Contessa put together was my favorite–but this year I still need to look into.
We bought a brand new fridge in ’09 when we bought our house and I still love it to this day. Anything is better than what I’ve had in the past 😉 But I think if a fridge could send me a text message that it was “sensing” my strawberries were going bad, so I didn’t forget about them on the top shelf in the back—THAT would be amazing! haha
That is one stunning kitchen!! I dream about the day when we own a home with a real kitchen [vs. apartment living]. Love a good refrigerator!
the whole line looks great! I used to be able to customize my refrigerator better with my last one, my new one is less adjustable. With bottles and items available in large sizes I think being sure you can adjust things inside to accommodate it would be great. I have the freezer on the bottom and did also in my last one (for 14 years) and LOVE that feature. The side by side freezers are often too small inside for things I need to freeze. Trays of food and such.
What a beautiful kitchen! I’d love kitchen shelves that pull out so I could find all those little containers tucked in the back.
A self cleaning fridge? That would come in handy. 😉
I’ve never really sat down and thought of what I wanted in a fridge. Mainly because I’ve just had to go by price and what I could afford. I do love those fridges with the freezer on the bottom and the huge shelves inside. Like the ones big enough to hold a sheet cake. Those are too cool.
I still have the older style with the two doors side-by-side and frustrates me that I can’t see everything. My next refrigerator will be the newer style with the large fridge on top and the freezer drawer on bottom. Also, I think I’ll go for stainless steel. Since we are a military family, it seems that stainless seems to match whatever home I’m currently living in. How fun that you got to go to this event. Looks like fun!
That is some kitchen – just gorgeous. I would like to have vegetable trays. I hate having bins for my vegetables, they are always full and i have to dig to the bottom to get the vegetable at the bottom. They need to figure out a better solution for vegetables.
My ideal fridge would have a HUGE vegetable crisper. They are never big enough, especially in the summer when the farmers market is open and there’s tons of veggies
My ideal refrigerator has french doors and a bottom freezer. It is also giant.
Self-cleaning! That would be ideal! Love seeing all these fun new appliances!
Nothing better than SS for resale purposes.. we sold our home in 3 days in the middle of the ‘crises’.. but SS is a real pain in the behind to keep clean and no kids in the house; i can only imagine what that mom with 5 kids goes through everyday.. new house, new kitchen, going back to white! 😉
I’m in the process of redoing our kitchen. I’m going with black cabinets and the granite is colonial white. It has blacks and browns in it. I thought the only thing that would look good is stainless. I’m going with a black granite composite sink. I wonder how this white ice collection would look? I had black appliances in my previous home with white cabinets and it rocked. Looking to do different. These are beautiful appliances.
There is also a Black Ice collection that may be what you’re looking for. Black appliances with stainless handles.
I am actually going to buy this collection within the next couple of weeks. We remodeled our kitchen and I didn’t want to buy stainless due to fingerprints, etc. so we went with black Whirlpool Gold appliances. It looks okay, but now we are wanting to convert our range from electric to gas, so we thought we would go with the Black Ice and change out our other appliance handles to stainless. When I saw the White Ice collection, my husband and I both agreed that we needed to replace ALL our appliances with this beautiful line, even though my appliances are only 3 years old! My cabinets are white and I think it will look fabulous. Sorry but I have to thumb my nose at the masses who want nothing by stainless. I will put my kitchen up against theirs any day!! I love this White Ice collection!!
I am in the process of buying the white ice free standing stove, and microwave, but hope to add the dishwasher and then eventually the fridge within the next few months…hope they don’t get rid of it by then. Love, love, love it when I saw the collection. Very sleek and modern looking, and looks clean compared to the stainless steel models out there. Hate fingerprints.
We just updated to the White Ice appliances and I LOVE them – We had plain White. Stainless has become so cookie-cutter (and leaves finger prints!) These appliances work well for everything we needed and look GREAT! The only one we don’t have yet is the Microwave but I am sure our old one will be going out soon (!) and we can complete the set! Nice thing about this is that if you have White – it will all blend nicely until you need to replace pieces!
I Love the Refrigerator but H A T E the noise. Sounds like a Chain Saw in the house !!!! two service calls and no help. VERY DISAPPOINTED
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