Jenn-Air's new finish, Oiled Bronze
OK, back to KBIS. The largest appliance manufacturer who showed at KBIS 2010 was Jenn-Air , and they meant business. Their exhibit was huge and featured a kitchen designed by Ellen Cheever and she used cabinetry by Scavolini . Other trade folks out there will agree that Jenn-Air isn't the appliance brand that comes to mind when I think of a Scavolini kitchen or Ellen Cheever.
But this is the new Jenn-Air. Jenn-Air's owned by using Whirlpool and for a long time, all of Whirlpool's power and cash went into attempting to make KitchenAid competitive with some of the better give up appliances available.
Well apparently, all of it's changed now with the rebirth of Jenn-Air.
That's now not what I want to talk about though. Jenn-Air had several full kitchens in their KBIS booth and one among them featured their new-ish finish, Oiled Bronze. Here's a close-up.
It appears to be a floor patina implemented to chrome steel. That Jenn-Air sells small packing containers of of Oiled Bronze contact up paint for it tells me it is. It tells me too that it would not handle scratches very well.
It's being touted as an "immediately conventional" and of course, all people with a dog within the race is repeating that word. Well, I wonder. It's genuinely one of a kind however it jogged my memory of something and I couldn't pretty put my finger on it.
I was poking around on Pam Kueber's terrific website, Retro Renovation and I found what it is about Oiled Bronze that strikes me.
I think it is the old appliance shade Coppertone, revisted.
I wish Jenn-Air well in this push toward the upper end of the market, but the folks already sitting in that spot aren't exactly worried. It's not enough to charge a premium price, you also need to build a premium appliance to justify that cost.
What do you guys think? Is Oiled Bronze an immediately classic? Is there the sort of element to begin with? Is this a end you'd purchase?