L overs of all things old rejoice: It’s easy to go vintage in the kitchen if you know where to shop.
A handful of manufacturers are reproducing ranges in styles reminiscent of cook stoves from as far back as the 1850s and as recent as the 1950s.
But Great Grandma never had a stove like these.
For starters, consumers can often customize colors and trims. Elmira Stove Works, based in Canada, produces ranges replicating the styling of cook stoves manufactured between 1850 and 1900 in six colors, including cayenne, blue and green. Consumers can choose to go basic or add nickel, brass or copper trim.
Elmira introduced a ’50s-style line two years ago with kitchen appliances available in eye-candy colors such as robin’s egg blue, flamingo pink, mint green, buttercup yellow and candy red. Nostalgic customers are snapping the stoves for their loft apartments and retro kitchen remodels, even though some of the buyers weren’t even born in the 1950s.
“(The line) has taken off with people who want to make a statement and have some fun,” said Brian Hendrick, a vice president at the company.
These stoves may look old-fashioned, but they offer consumers plenty of contemporary convenience.
Heartland Appliances, also based in Canada, offers a classic line of appliances that promises in a glossy brochure to blend “nostalgic design with the functionality needed in today’s kitchen.”
The Classic 48 range is outfitted with a convection oven, vent hood, warming drawer with humidity control, utensil drawer and a storage compartment for bakeware.
June Cleaver would be drooling.
Other companies are selling antique ranges and refurbishing them for today’s kitchens.
Good Time Stove Co. in Goshen, Mass., sells restored and functional heating stoves and kitchen ranges from the 1830s to the 1930s. The company offers about 100 refurbished stoves and ranges.
For both reproduction and refurbished cook stoves, expect to pay top dollar.
Most of Good Time Stove’s refurbished stoves were priced at $3,000 to $4,000. Heartland’s Cookmaster, a reproduction cast iron range with two ovens, costs $7,195.
Le Grande, a classically designed stove with vaulted gas and electric ovens by La Cornue/Purcell Murray Co. costs $36,000.
Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com.
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