by Orion Creamer and his uncle, Thom Vernon, Big Chill made a splash with its brightly colored fridges. Since then the Boulder, Colorado company has expanded its product offering. In addition to retro fridges, Big Chill also makes dishwashers, microwaves, stoves, hoods and wall ovens.
Recently, Big Chill opened a division in France. The European part of Big Chill meets a demand for vintage American appliances. It’s exciting that Big Chill is breaking into Europe with new designs, but the company had humble beginnings.
It all started with a plan to make the refrigerator more stylish. The story goes that Vernon was dreaming up a vintage beach house. He and his wife wanted retro design with modern functionality. “With our kid’s artwork and school photos always proudly displayed, we didn’t want the refrigerator to look out of place,” Vernon said. “The ubiquitous stainless steel appliances weren’t the right fit and we wanted to steer clear of the dreaded ‘white box’.”
While they liked the look of the mid-century models, most were too small, inefficient, and required painstaking hours of chiseling to defrost. So Thom called on his nephew, Orion—fresh out of product design school—to help find an innovative solution.
Founders Orion Creamer and Thom Vernon with the Original Big Chill fridge.
Unsatisfied with the recent trend of concealing fridges with clever cabinetry, Thom and Orion dared to bring the fridge out of hiding and into the limelight. After studying countless antique refrigerators and vintage appliances, they came up with a retro inspired design and called it the Big Chill.
The steel body, chrome trim and unique styling of Big Chill products makes them unparalleled in the marketplace. The interiors come with all the benefits of modern appliances such as frost free freezers. Additionally, many of the appliances are energy star rated to keep the utility bills low.
Customers can order their Big Chill in over 200 custom colors. The company still offers its eight standard colors in cherry red, buttercup yellow, classic white, pink lemonade, jadite green, orange, beach blue and classic black. Customers love getting matching appliances for just the right look when designing their kitchens.
The inspiration that founded Big Chill continues to drive the company forward. Creamer is always working on new products with classic design and vibrant color. Recently he added a pivoting handle to the fridges similar to 1950’s era fridges. Keeping up with design trends and meeting customer demands can be challenging, but there is always a new project around the corner to work on.
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