"White goods" no longer have to be white, as kitchen appliancesmove away from traditional styling and become fashion-orientated. The desirability of glossy black fascias and the functionality of American fridge freezers are amongst the growing trends in this competitive market.

March 2007 - Fashion, style and elegance has begun to enter the kitchen. Rather than just the chefs looking great, their tools are beginning to take on a more contemporary visage. What started out as a niche market with small appliances increasingly straying from the tried and tested blueprint of a white outer shell, refrigerators and cookers are now changing too; perhaps the term "white goods" is outdated in today's cosmopolitan world as manufacturers are producing appliances with a glossy black appearance.

With reality TV and celebrity chefs combining to influence much of the general public's everyday life, it's no wonder that there's a shift in the focal point of the modern day family. The kitchen has been moved more into the eye line with open plan living areas, thus coordination and design have also become just as important for the cooking space. Just like furniture, kitchen appliances aren't being bought just because of their functionality, but increasingly because of their design and desirability.

Maytag have responded to consumer wishes by producing a range of black USA style refrigerators. The glossy, reflective black fascia is technology borrowed from the more traditionally luxurious car market. The end product is a brilliant mirror-like finish that appeals to emotions rather than just the practical senses. Samsung have also entered the black refrigerator market, with 3 different models in its RS21 range. The trademark glass black finish usually reserved for their TVs and mobile phones has been translated flawlessly to add sophistication to the market.

Whirlpool, Bosch and SMEG haven't been left out of the black refrigerator market, either. All three manufacturers have produced highly desirable classy American fridge freezers, all intended to appeal to the fashion conscious, with Bosch declaring that ‘black is back'. SMEG have taken styling and design in the kitchen even further by making standing fridges available with a Union Jack themed livery.

Design, sophistication, flair - all these terms are the messages that black glossy appliances are designed to convey. It's easy to forget that this latest fashion accessory is just a fridge, but this statement itself would be some way off the mark too. These USA fridge freezers invariably come with the same features as those seen on American TV sitcoms. They open up like wardrobes, revealing a huge amount of storage space, and plenty of flexibility with the arrangement of shelving. Humidity control, frost free freezing, special cooling technology and an external ice dispenser generally come as standard. Rest assured that different manufacturers will have differing technologies to sell, so potential buyers will have plenty to choose from.

The fashionable trend setters among us will be clamouring to get their hands on this new wave of trendy kitchen appliances, and many people will also discover how hard it is to resist these gorgeous items. It's a trend that's likely to continue, and there will probably be even better looking designs and objects available for the kitchen in the future. Like football boots, where the traditional all black leather design is now a rarity, white coloured kitchen appliances could well become retro in a few years. It's conceivable that in the near future black won't be cool, but rather just another colour available to an ever discerning consumer.


This article is brought to you by Kitchen Science, a trusted supplier of a wide range of kitchen appliances including Rangemaster cookers.