Just as the late Steve Jobs was intuitive enough to marry technology and design, boutique kitchen design firm Appliance Love treats appliances as an art to revolutionize the appliance shopping experience for consumers. Let’s face it: buying appliances can be as mundane as doing laundry, and we already spend at least six months of our lives waiting in lines. Now, founder and president Marco Tallarico aims to make what used to be merely a chore slightly more memorable, even fun.
Image: Lisa Petrole
Appliance Love has alighted in a new cutting-edge showroom in Toronto’s Dupont Design District, its second location in Ontario. With 16-foot ceilings and a redbrick exterior, the 3,000-square-foot space has an industrial vibe offset by ubiquitous natural wood finishes and striking red accents. Throughout, wrought iron grids panel the ceilings to create an open-concept look.
Designed by acclaimed Toronto firm DesignAgency, the minimalist and modern showroom offers a closer look at the heart of the home — the kitchen — but with a sexy aesthetic not commonly associated with appliances. The focal point is a washer and dryer sitting atop (and rotating on) a six-foot, red-soled stiletto heel in the large street-facing window. Custom built by Hotset, the showpiece is as crucial to the space as a mannequin is to a department store.
Image: Stefania Yarhi
Another distinct display element is a collection of suspended, hand-painted customized plates, courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton’s resident artist Jacqueline Poirier, known as "The Crazy Plate Lady" (and yes, they are for sale). Further in, a deconstructed range oven lit by purple lights is just as unexpected. The space is divided by "kitchens."
Appliance Love carries over 23 of the world’s leading appliance brands like Miele, Liebherr, Sub-Zero and Wolf, all challenging typical kitchen appliances in form and function. Most popular: the Monogram Advantium speedcooking oven, which can deliver meals eight times faster than a conventional oven (for instance, a large chicken will be ready in 21 minutes). Time is of the essence, as they say.
Image: Appliance Love
Also expect red carpet customer service in the showroom, from the wine room (which aerates a selection of four wines for customers) to the Miele Home Visualizer Design Tool (which configures a mock kitchen with Miele appliances).
Underlying the showroom is the experience around buying appliances integrated with the latest in design, technology and health. Go green with the Urban Cultivator, an indoor grow machine for cultivating herbs, microgreens, vegetables and flowers (perfect for at-home juicing). Or, breathe better with the Door Filter, a $50 Canadian-made filtration product which reduces indoor air irritants like dust, odour, noise, pests, light and cooking fumes (ideal for condo living).
Other conversation pieces: a drawer-style microwave strategically placed under the counter and Jenn-Air’s built-in refrigerators touting a dramatic black interior called The Obsidian.
Image: Stefania Yarhi
Oh, and the car-shaped beverage refrigerator on display was artfully converted from an old Fiat, but painfully not for sale.
It’s no wonder dinner parties gravitate towards the kitchen.
Appliance Love, 950 Dupont St.
