From the WSJ Real Estate Archives

Infusing Bright Colors
Into Home Appliances

by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan
From The Wall Street Journal Online

January 24, 2005 -- A new home-furnishing frontier finally has opened: It is now possible to get a washer and dryer in burnt orange.

In an effort to breathe some life into their business, manufacturers of large appliances are experimenting with parts of the color palette rarely seen in kitchens and laundry rooms. Several years ago, Viking Range Corp. and a few other appliance makers began dabbling in colors other than black, white and graphite. But despite limited success in their efforts to push the color boundaries -- Viking says color appliances account for only 1% to 2% of its overall sales -- other companies now are jumping in.

[Aga Ranges two-oven cooker]
Aga Ranges two-oven cooker Price: Starts at $9,175 Colors: 14 shades including terracotta, aubergine, pewter, wedgewood blue and yellow.
The latest offerings are pushing the color palette in a number of ways. Colors themselves are getting bolder and more off-beat, going beyond blues and reds. Morice Equipment, a French maker of professional cooking equipment, is offering a stove in the U.S. in "British Racing Green."In addition, the color crusade no longer is restricted to stoves and refrigerators but is moving into less-glamorous parts of the home, notably the laundry room. Sears, Roebuck & Co., for example, has made colored refrigerators before. But at the International Builders' Show, which begins today in Orlando, Fla., it will introduce Kenmore-brand washers and dryers in "Sedona" and "Pacific Blue," among other shades. The company did a soft launch of the washers and dryers in its stores the week after Christmas and says it has sold about 2,000 units since then. The field also is attracting some new players. Dacor Inc., known for its stainless-steel appliances, plans later this year to begin selling a double wall oven in colors such as pastel blue and pale green. And other high-end makers are deepening their bet on the color market. Aga Ranges USA, a division of Aga Foodservice PLC, is planning in March to introduce a new three-oven, cast-iron stove, in an eggplant color it calls aubergine.

[ The Morice Grand Veneur Cooktop]
The Morice Grand Veneur Cooktop Price: $12,125 Colors: British Racing Green, Wine, Red, Ivory, Sunlight, Yellow, Dark Gray, Sapphire Blue, Ruby Red, Black, Brown
One potential obstacle: Bolder colors often mean higher price tags. Sears' new Kenmore-model washers sell for $1,499; the white and graphite versions cost between $1,299 and $1,399. Range hoods in the "Torino Island" line from Zephyr Ventilation start at $3,400, while Aga Ranges' candy-color stoves cost between $4,200 and $15,000. Viking, meanwhile, slaps on an extra $225 charge for color in a 30-inch range. "We just don't do enough volume of it so you have to put the panels through the paint process separately," says Brent Bailey, Viking's design director.

In part because of those higher price tags, the bolder colors have yet to turn up on lower-end home appliances or even midmarket brands. Color appliances also take longer for manufacturers to deliver -- in the case of Viking, for example, up to six or eight weeks versus two for black, white and stainless-steel appliances.

The colorizing of kitchens and laundry rooms comes as sales of appliances have been slowing nationally. Shipments of the "big six" appliances (washers, dryers, dishwashers, refrigerators, freezers and freestanding and built-in ranges) are expected to creep up only slightly to 45.5 million units, from 45.1 units last year, the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers estimates.

[ Viking Range Corp.'s 48-inch side-by-side refrigerator-freezer]
Viking Range Corp.'s 48-inch side-by-side refrigerator/freezer Price: $8,175 Colors: 14 shades, including cobalt blue, eggplant, mint julep and lemonade.
Sears said it decided to offer its Kenmore Elite HE4T washer and dryer in bright colors after noting that more Americans are moving their laundry rooms out of the basement or garage and into more-visible areas of the home. Some two-thirds of laundry rooms are adjacent to the kitchen or master bedroom, while a decade ago more than half were either in the garage or the basement, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Kitchens, meanwhile, increasingly are becoming places where family and guests end up congregating.

Many consumers keep their appliances for a decade or more, but manufacturers are hoping that the rainbow of new colors will nudge them to upgrade more frequently. "It's kind of like with cars -- do American consumers need new cars every three to four years? Probably not, but there are new features every few months and people are trading up all the time," says Tina Settecase, vice president of appliances at Sears. In fact, both Sears and Dacor have picked colors that have been popular among car shoppers.

[ Zephyr Ventilation Torino Island range hood]
Zephyr Ventilation "Torino Island" range hood Price: $3,400 Colors: Red, green, yellow and blue.
For a long time, of course, industry thinking was that people wanted their appliances to blend in rather than stand out. It was a backlash against the avocado greens and harvest golds of the '70s that prompted a rush to black and white. More recently, the focus has been on stainless steel, a trend that still is going relatively strong.

But appliance manufacturers are trying to anticipate the next big fad. That is why they are gambling that American families, emboldened by the stainless look, are ready to try to use their appliances to make a fashion statement. Manufacturers of smaller appliances such as stand mixers and blenders have been experimenting with bright colors for several years. Sears tried out graphite gray in a washer and dryer model in fall 2001. It decided to launch its three new colors after sales of those appliances went better than expected.

To appeal to customers who might be scared off by bright colors, some companies are offering baby-step alternatives. In the second half of the year, Electrolux AB plans to introduce a wall oven that has a cobalt blue interior. Still, for some homeowners with long-lasting old appliances or just long memories, all these colors are a bit too familiar.

Pam Clark, of Gladwyne, Pa., says her distant history with color appliances inspired her to steer clear of them when she recently remodeled her kitchen. "I bought a refrigerator in harvest gold in 1972 and just thought it was the latest and greatest," says Ms. Clark, a nonprofit organization development director. "But I got very tired of the color by about 1990, maybe even sooner."

She adds: "I am also the proud owner of a '50's-era pink clothes dryer, and the thing just won't die."

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