Founded in Boulder, Colorado back in 2001 by Orion Creamer and his uncle, Thom Vernon, Big Chill grew out of a vision to take an outdated gem from the 50’s and bring it back to life.

The story goes that Thom and his wife were dreaming up a design-conscious retro kitchen that had modern functionality and vintage personality. “With our kid’s artwork and school photos always proudly displayed, we didn’t want the refrigerator to look out of place. 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 industrial design school—to help find an innovative solution.

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 an original, retro style fridge design and called it the Big Chill. With its stamped metal body (magnet friendly!), real chrome trim and unique styling, the Big Chill fridge is unparalleled in the marketplace. The interior boasts all the modern amenities, including an optional icemaker, and most importantly…self defrost.