From the comments section of "In the Kitchens of the Rich, Things Are Not as They Seem/Good luck finding the ice" (NYT), an article about how rich people have refrigerators covered with wood paneling that matches the cabinets.
The article — which somehow is not marked as a paid ad from Sub-Zero — is loaded with quotes from an interior designer named Martyn Lawrence Bullard, who says inane things like: "Freezing food is becoming less and less fashionable. People want to eat more organically."
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Freezing food is becoming less fashionable? Maybe, but it's not becoming less ubiquitous. Families are getting smaller and packaging from Costco is getting bigger. The only way to square that circle is by getting a bigger freezer. (As I recall, a few months back you wrote about an essay in the Times in which the writer was shocked that someone had a second freezer in their basement. Those people aren't fashionable.)
I really don't care that there are style features showing things that typically only people of means can own. Nice things are not evil. Style is not evil. If you don't care about it, don't read about it. But it's not a crime that nice things exist alongside horrible things. It's the world, it has always been the world, and it will always be the world. That is until Socialists take over the world. At that point only Head Socialists will be allowed to have these things but they will be kept a State secret.
So enjoy reading about them while you can.
I love beautiful kitchens. I don't have one. I have a nice, pretty typical kitchen that is workable. It has some nice features and a sink I'd love to ditch and get replaced with some fancy-finished single bowl style. And maybe I will someday. But for now I choose not to spend the money. Knowing we have Democrats in office who want my money, I have to figure out ways to hide it for our future now.
That said, the issue with paneled refrigerators is that, like all refrigerators, at some point they will crash. You'll need a new one. And you'll find that 10 or so years down the road, they don't make them with that cabinet finish any longer. That finish is outdated.
You can always vie for Harvest Yellow or Avocado Green.
So we're supposed to buy a cheaper kitchen in oder to have my priorities straight over Afghanistan?
...or is she bitching about NYT running stories about kitchens during the Biden shitshow? Now that I've typed it I know that can't be...
It does create an interesting dilemma for NYT, which is exclusively the paper of record for people who are not ultra-rich but simply NYT-rich. How do we cater to our audience that craves this kind of stuff when the Biden shitshow is barreling along at full speed?
"The article — which somehow is not marked as a paid ad from Sub-Zero — is loaded with quotes from an interior designer named Martyn Lawrence Bullard..."
The NYT is doing info-mercials now
There are two trends converging that cannot continue. One is the drive to make everything run on rechargeable (which presently means lithium-ion) batteries. The second is a hysterical push to remove all sources of reliable and efficient energy production. The latter completely negates the utility of the former. The first trend continues from the industrial revolution to today and is predictable. The second is insane and only possible with massive government subsidies that make “investment” in Green Energy attractive. If the Green economy didn’t have Uncle Sam’s money not a single actual “investor” would build a windmill of solar array.
"the majority of the nation’s additional refrigerators are banished to basements or garages."
Where, in the midwest, they're called beer fridges.
I will say that I like the Sapphire Blue Cabinets in Hillary Duff's space.
And I wonder why Nancy Pelosi's freezer full of ice cream wasn't mentioned in this piece.
Fashion *must* change from time to time. Otherwise, Martyn Lawrence Bullard doesn't get paid.
"That said, the issue with paneled refrigerators is that, like all refrigerators, at some point they will crash. You'll need a new one. And you'll find that 10 or so years down the road, they don't make them with that cabinet finish any longer. That finish is outdated."
I've had a Sub-Zero refrigerator with wood paneling since 1991, so it doesn't seem too special to me. I'm just pleased that the refrigerator is still working just fine (a couple repairs over the years). The dishwasher had wood paneling too back in 1991, but dishwashers don't last like that. I've replaced the dishwasher twice and never got the old wood panels into the new dishwasher.
Our family of four eats fairly healthily (mostly fresh food, little processed foods), but we have a second full-size refrigerator (beer and other beverages and overflow) and a second full-size freezer in the laundry room. The second freezer is always completely filled (thank you Costco).
Our Sub-Zero "main" fridge/freezer is stainless, so I guess we're not in style.
The only thing I'll say about the people in the article (or anyone in the WSJ Real Estate section on Fridays) is that traditionally people had the good sense not to talk about things like how much money they had.
"Freezing food is becoming less fashionable? Maybe, but it's not becoming less ubiquitous. Families are getting smaller and packaging from Costco is getting bigger."
We're talking about *fashionable* people, not Costco shoppers.
Anyway, the most inane thing about that quote is the idea that freezing food makes it less "organic."
"And I wonder why Nancy Pelosi's freezer full of ice cream wasn't mentioned in this piece."
Her refrigerator wasn't wood-paneled.
Camouflaging appliances behind panels in order to make the appliances fade into the cabinetry, is not new.
If you so rich enough to have fresh food prepared for you every day, perhaps you might want to cut a big check to the Red Cross.
Thank you Althouse for highlighting Temujin’s speculation. As a guy who used to make custom oak cabinets and trim in really nice custom homes. The SubZero appliances we customized were designed to accept raised panels so we simply made the same panels as the rest of the kitchen but sized to the fridge. That manufacturer is smart enough to keep the same door design since the late ‘80s when I first encountered them. You can replace the freezer-fridge and keep the same front.
“And you'll find that 10 or so years down the road, they don't make them with that cabinet finish any longer. That finish is outdated”
My designer friend tells me the life cycle of a high end kitchen is about 10 years, so matching old cabinets doesn’t become an issue…
You can always vie for Harvest Yellow or Avocado Green.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWoWHzq21tA
The merging of content with advertising has been going on for quite a while. It may be what keeps Time magazine going (if Time still is going). But the lifestyle pieces on more serious issues strike me as equally fatuous. Modern life is so standardized and homogenized and people are so bored that stories like the one about the lesbian woman whose teenaged daughter "married" a Muslim boy at 13 get published and read. Maybe that's not the best example, but there are plenty of others. "First World problems" are also luxuries.
When I read,
"...despairing at reading that people spend so much time, money, and energy (literal energy) on fridges and their display (or lack thereof)..."
I thought the article would be about refrigerator magnets and the like.
Kind of like looking at a guy hanging from a helicopter during a Taliban takeover and thinking, hey, there's a guy hanging from a helicopter.
"I have what I call 'NYT whiplash' from reading both stories of horror and despair coming from Afghanistan and being horrified and despairing at reading that people spend so much time, money, and energy (literal energy) on fridges and their display (or lack thereof)."
In both cases their goose is cooking.
That quote about freezing food becoming less fashionable is hilarious, but my favorite is the dramatic declaration about not being able to find the fridge. Even the caption to the first photo asks if you can spot the fridge. Who could not spot the fridge in that photo? A 3 year old, perhaps.
This stuff happens on my more mundane level. No need to scoff at zillionaires when I do it too. I made a wedding for my daughter and discovered that no matter how normal I (and the groom's side) wanted it to be, my daughter would have felt like a nebech if she didn't have what her friends had at their weddings: female members of the family all wearing the same color... I won't bore you with the list. All of it cost money, though, for nothing real.
@Mike "One is the drive to make everything run on rechargeable (which presently means lithium-ion) batteries. The second is a hysterical push to remove all sources of reliable and efficient energy production. The latter completely negates the utility of the former." Not sure I understand this. If we really had good batteries, most of our energy problems would go away. Build solar arrays! You can store the energy - in batteries - and use it at night. You can ship the batteries to places that need them, which takes care of the objection that the wind isn't blowing here.
If we really had good batteries. http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1381
The interesting part of the article, for me, was about the supply chain disruptions:
“At the moment, God knows, you can’t find a fridge anywhere,” Mr. Bullard said. “They’re almost as hard to find as a car.” Pandemic-driven disruptions in the global supply chain have made even modest chest freezers scarcely obtainable since last spring. “Things are months and months delayed at the moment,” he said. “And money doesn’t do it these days. You can’t pay more to get it faster because the product’s just not available.”
I think we're going to be seeing a lot more of this and with things or items a lot more important than a fancy refrigerator. Which, BTW, hiding the fridge isn't really new. That used to be a thing with TVs and stereos, putting them inside something that looked like furniture.
When the power goes off everything in the freezer unfreezes within five days and almost everything in the both refrigerator (even the wood-paneled ones), and freezer goes bad. You can't cook it all because the power's off or keep it all cold because everyone's bought out all the ice. But it's all OK when most people still have power. Put the stuff in other people's refrigerators (though not wood-paneled) and their freezers (though not fashionable.) I was reminded of this during in our recent Milwaukee storm, an unreported blip in the storm season, where some of us lost power for five days without anybody noticing. It makes you think. We're all OK as long as we don't all lose power. But what about an "Afghan evacuation," (meaning a disastrous combination of rules, incompetence and dementia and a military reversal) which affects the power supplies over a very large area of the US? In five days, "eating organically" will have a whole new meaning. I expect the NYT will be publishing articles on mutt meat v. chihuahua meat.
"Anyway, the most inane thing about that quote is the idea that freezing food makes it less "organic.""
Indeed. When I read this I started imagining dinner parties where the diners walk out into a pasture, a cow is killed, and the chef carves the meat off and cooks it on the spot or maybe they even eat it raw. They walk over into a garden and eat some vegetables straight off the vine, bending over and literally eating the tomato or squash while it hangs on the vine. Fruits on the tree for dessert. All of this so that the meal will be more organic.
"Freezing food is becoming less and less fashionable. People want to eat more organically."
Soylent Green is organic, man. And it’s green!
It's important for rich people to put money back into the economy and not just squirrel it away. Most comes from capital investment but some just comes from buying things. I remember when they put big excise taxes on yachts, because they were such an obnoxious show of wealth, and the only people who paid the price were the workers of the boat companies when they lost their jobs.
I too was surprised at the confusion of "organic" with "fresh". Freezing food doesn't change how it was raised or grown. Of course, as an organic chemist I have heartburn over the use of the term "organic" related to food. All food is organic.
If you're not freezing food these days then you're not paying attention.
Anyone who earned their millions is smart enough to know that.
Anyone who has a trust fund is probably a moron so...
Replying to Ann's reply to my comment about the paneling. You were way ahead of the crowd with your Subzero fridge back in 1991. Look at you! And with paneling, no less. Surely you had a photo session with "Madison Today"? The fridge longevity is actually one of the reasons for buying a higher level brand such as Subzero. You do actually get what you pay for sometimes.
Quality and changes in finishes happen all the time. It's not just with paneling. I've got a pretty new home with black stainless steel appliances that were part of the package. A nationally known brand found in every home. Not the best, not the worst. Except that the dishwasher was pretty much the worst. (GE) After replacing the guts of the electronics on the dishwasher 3 times in 3 years, always under warranty yet always with a big bill for 'other stuff', we replaced it with another brand. But...as it turns out, not all black stainless steel finishes are the same. It's not an exact match. The new dishwasher is a different hue of black stainless. It's placement in the counter makes it impossible to tell the difference, however. And yes- we spent on a higher level brand and it's great. You do sometimes get what you pay for.
Like others, we do have an old back-up refrigerator in our garage that was our back-up for years in Atlanta before we moved south. It's been around forever and just keeps on cranking. And here in Florida our garage gets to be over 100 degrees for most of the summer. I honestly can't believe the thing is still working. It mostly just houses beer, wine, and water. But come Thanksgiving we squeeze food for 12 into it. Even if we don't have 12 coming.
Interesting how this became an HGTV post. Today we're commenting on the finishes of refrigerators between comments on the Taliban and/or our feckless President. It's why we come back for more.
Freezing food is actually MORE organic. Non-chemical preservation FTW.
Outrage is a commodity now. There is as much of it as anyone wants to use, it costs nearly nothing, and nobody wants to deal with the mess left after its use.
“Build solar arrays!”
But we don’t. We buy them from China. The inputs to the process are toxic chemicals mined by children and the energy required to mine, manufacture, ship and install “solar arrays” all cause pollution and create waste. It’s just far away from your “array” so you ignore it. Like you ignored the fact there’s not enough raw materials to make the “really good” batteries you dream of. Our total capacity today wouldn’t power America for even a day. When you learn every solar production facility must be tied to a cogeneration plant burning fossil fuels then your fantasy seems a lot more like the present than the future.
I'm building a house right now after my wife and I looked from mid 2019 till late 2020 without finding anything that was right for us and then inventory being too low, which has only become worse.
My wife and I decided not to spend $4k on a standard fridge but instead pay $10k for a subzero side by side. Not paneled, as I vastly prefer the original, commercial look.
Why? I could give lots of reason but the real reasons are:
1. I like it alot
2. If I go to sell my home, I'm going to ask premium price. And for a premium price, buyers expect certain amenities. So I'm doing it in part to support a valuation.
People often forget #2 in their rush to blame....if you are going to buy a $1-2 million dollar home, which became far more common this past year with huge home price increases nationally, are you going to be more likely to pay top dollar if:
- You see some premium products throughout the home
- It's a great home in a great location but it was clear it was built on a tight budget
Just sharing my own thoughts on this recently
P.s. I went with a Bosch dishwasher and am re-using a GE spacesaver microwave that fits inside a cabinet that I've had for 6 years.
wildswan:
Right you are! We are all safe as long as we don't lose power. But with the Left's insane drive to get utilities to go to unreliable wind and solar, power is certainly going to be cutoff. We saw it in February of this year in TX. Billions lost and hundreds died.
BRK's MidAmerica Energy has bid something like $33b to build reliable *standby* natgas generators. Better to have never built the wind turbines but everyone wanted that 26% federal income tax credit.
We have an almost 20-year-old side-by-side fridge. We replaced the icemaker once or twice but have left it unrepaired for the last several years. Now, we hear from Sears that the water filter that needs replacing every quarter or so is back-ordered with no prediction of availability. We also have a small freezer unit for bulkier stuff.
An English friend of my wife's was surprised to find that around here the power company does NOT reimbursement customers for spoiled food following power outages, which are common (old trees, old lines . . . )
My wife worked in interior design in Manhattan for a few years. I was dumbfounded by the cost of living there, and the amount of money people were willing to spend to be stylish.
MikeR said...
If we really had good batteries, most of our energy problems would go away.
this 'seems' off topic, from refrigerators.. But, it's Really not!
The Good News IS! they've come up with REALLY EXCELLENT Chemical Batteries
They are The MOST energy dense batteries, EVER made. The Kilowatt/hours per pound are astounding
(of course, like an Alkaline Battery, they're not rechargable, but: they are SO Inexpensive, and powerful, that you don't need to recharge)
Instead of being made out of RARE Rare earth metals, they're made out of harmless things like water and carbon (some people even call them WaterCarbons). You seldom need, or want electric power; for Most things you want ROTATING POWER (cars, fridges, planes, All use rotating power). With these WaterCarbon batteries, you use a simple device; called a 'motor' (or 'engine') to turn the stored WaterCarbon power into rotating power. If you Really NEED electric power...It's SIMPLE to turn Rotating Power into Electricy as well.
These WaterCarbon batteries are SO GREAT, that their competitors have to invent tall tales, about how the end products of the WaterCarbon cycles are 'somehow' harmfull...
Surprize! The end products are EXACTLY the same as a breath that you would give to someone while giving them artificial respiration! YOUR Breath isn't toxic? Is IT? NOPE!!!
Once these WaterCarbon batteries catch on, we'll be able to stop buying toxic lithium batteries from china! Hurray!
When I read "I have what I call 'NYT whiplash' from reading both stories of horror and despair coming from Afghanistan..." I foolishly expected the next phrase to be something along the lines of being horrified and despairing at reading NYT writers praise Biden for his great victory in completing the "mission" of ending the "never-ending war."
"The article — which somehow is not marked as a paid ad from Sub-Zero — is loaded with quotes from an interior designer named Martyn Lawrence Bullard..."
The NYT is doing info-mercials now
Keep that assumption going when they "report" on vaccine efficacy or politics or the like.
My wife and I "eat organically" a good amount and are buying a sub-zero fridge in the coming months.
We also have a basement with metal shelving stocked with "Mountain Home" freeze dried food good for 25 years and a ton of dry goods. Should be able to feed us for 2-3 weeks assuming no outside supplies at all.
And we have a large chest freezer we keep relatively filled.
Given some space, you CAN have it all...
P.s. Kitchen styles change frequently, I agree. But if you've got solid wood shaker style cabinets you can pretty much guarantee they'll work for many decades - even with a paint refresh at some point.
'P.s. I went with a Bosch dishwasher and am re-using a GE spacesaver microwave that fits inside a cabinet that I've had for 6 years.'
We just did a minor kitchen remodel. We thought about doing a major one but the quotes were stupid...a small home in the midwest.
Bosch is what I would have went with if another manufacturer hadn't thrown in a 'free' dishwasher ($2k)...plus my wife wanted everything to match.
Our microwave needed to fit into a particular space and I could only find one that was up to code...it was really inexpensive...the installation and trim kit cost much more than the unit itself : )
"Bosch is what I would have went with if another manufacturer hadn't thrown in a 'free' dishwasher ($2k)...plus my wife wanted everything to match."
Sounds like Wolf/Subzero/Cove. I've never had an issue with my gas burning stoves or fridges, but I've had tons of issues with dishwashers. For me, I wanted a dishwasher I wouldn't feel bad about if it broke in 5 years. I know that's an emotional decision.
The craziest thing about expensive, cutting-edge kitchen equipment is that it is certain to go out of style in three years, necessitating replacement, which will be even more expensive. And then the cycle repeats.
I invested in one of those under counter ice machines- the one that makes the big top hat cubes that are good for cocktails (it has the matching cabinet panel). I thought I did my homework- they said they require a little more maintenance and I saw and heard one of them in action. I put it in an area of my home where it can be heard from every other area of my home. Day and night.
I have to warn guests the scary noises you hear in the middle of the night are the ice machine. Whoops.
'Sounds like Wolf/Subzero/Cove.'
No...but I would have gone with them in the oven was the right size...
A lot of manufacturers have those deals...kind of hard to pass up as these days nobody is discounting, and getting the product takes forever.
I think there's a lot to be said for buying fish that was promptly flash-frozen on the factory ship that caught it, instead of buying it a week later (when it's finally found its way to a mid-western supermarket) as "fresh" fish.
Aside from that, Sub-Zero refrigerators continue to be costly yet not very reliable, but continue to sell to at least some of those who can afford them.
The ordinary 'fridge that's produced in mass quantities may lack the elegance of a Sub-Zero, but that very mass production ensures that most problems with the mechanism are likely to be found and fixed sooner rather than later (or never).
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