Is the Ikea Nutid refrigerator-freezer the most affordable counter-depth refrigerator-freezer out there? At $1,349 in white and $1,399 in stainless, I think it may be — and I am now adding this model to our Retro Renovation kitchen decorating arsenal. I like counter-depth refrigerator-freezers for mid-century kitchens for a number of reasons, and I tend to favor side-by-sides, too. Here’s why:
- Our vintage kitchens tend to be smaller. A counter-depth fridge — which by definition does not jut into the main of your kitchen area — kind of recedes into the cabinetry… it’s smaller. In mid-century America, fridges were smaller than they are today.
- Similarly, a side-by-side model means there is less door to swing into your smaller kitchen.
- A counter-depth fridge is more amenable to creating the “fitted” kitchen look, which was the ascendant style in the postwar era. Bring that soffit right down to the top of the fridge!
- Stuff is less likely to get lost… or turn into a science experiment…in a counter-depth fridge.
The downsides: These tend to have less storage space… and side-by-sides protypically are less energy efficient than a freezer-on-the bottom model. This Ikea Nutid, though, is Energy Star qualified.
Here’s the link to the Ikea Nutid.
And click here to see my other refrigerators identified as good possibilities for a Retro Renovation kitchen.
A counter-depth, side-by-side, Energy Star refrigerator in white — good design potential for a midcentury kitchen 
Exclusive: Big Chill introduces the new “Retropolitan” refrigerator w/bottom freezer 
#1 choice for a retro refrigerator: Sub-Zero 
Become a fan
Nice looking fridge. But to be fair about the Energy Star program, it’s not the most reliable certification out there.
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/03/26/2322208/Energy-Star-Program-Certifies-15-Out-of-20-Bogus-Products?art_pos=1
Yes, Graham, I’ve read about some of the problems that the Energy Star program has been having. When I am in major buying mode for stuff like this, I usually get a subscription to Consumer Reports – online it’s about $18, as I recall.
Side by side fridges drive me batty. You can’t fit a platter in there!
I agree, Susan… we are fortunate to have another (hand-me-down) fridge in the basement, which I also know a lot of folks don’t have that luxury….
I much prefer the french door style. I recently purchased one for my retro kitchen. The freezer is on the bottom which is not only efficient, it make sense! You can open a single fridge door, or both if you need more room to put something in or take it out. I love having the produce drawers at waist level. The only upgrade that I would wish for is chrome handles to match my early 50′s GE stove.
Bev, what kind did you get? I am going to do another major round-up on fridge reco’s.
It is a Samsung, model # RF266ABWP. It has an internal water dispenser. I wanted that to hopefully replace the huge 5 gallon water dispenser that currently sits on our counter, blocking the use of the cabinet above it. We do not like our tap water. It tastes like chlorine. I haven’t gotten the water line installed yet, but I am hoping we will like the water that the fridge delivers. I did not want the water-through-the-door style as that is just too contemporary. I chose this particular model because of the way the freezer is set up. I saw some others where, when you slide out the freezer drawer, you could actually see through to the floor. I pictured crumbs and the like falling through. Made more sense to me to contain any potential mess until you could get around to dealing with it!
Try ebay–I was able to find authentic retro chrome & red handles for my 50s diner in my basement there.
You find the craziest things on there, including small parts. 
Hope you find them!
Blessings,
Mary
We got a counter depth french door style with freezer on the bottom from the Sears scratch and dent place for about $1350 and its amazing! Its got a ding on the front but honestly you don’t notice it and it saves us having to be hyper sensitive to keeping it pristine. I can fit anything in it! and it is also Energy Star, though on the lower end (probably due to the in door ice/water). Energy Star does have its problems, but its the only rating system out there right now for appliances that I know of. There are ways to cheat the system but if the manufacturer is honest you can feel secure going by the rating.
Ikea sells to a lot of European and global customers, so they serve up a lot of what we would call vintage-inspired stuff.
Post-war, Americans lived a lot more like the rest of the civilised world; smaller footprints, less waste, we were careful with our resources and our homes reflected that. Almost everyone had some sort of garden. What we have ballooned and burgeoned into as a culture is perhaps not to be celebrated. Should ordinary households of just a few people really need huge amounts of food storage? I love my side-by-side, and I just use oval platters instead of round, so they fit in there without any fuss.
It can be difficult to have less space if you are having a party, or a bunch of houseguests. My solution to that is to have a chest freezer in the garage that I can plug in only when I have overflow. I got one with an adjustable thermostat so that it can serve as a stand-in extra fridge when it’s not needed as a freezer.
I’m getting my Nutid delivered today! It was a perfect affordable option for my retro renovation, going from 70′s remuddle simple updated 50s style.
oooooh, kat, let us know how you like it – and send me pics of your Retro Renovation kitchen when it’s ready for prime time!
“What we have ballooned and burgeoned into as a culture is perhaps not to be celebrated.”
I couldn’t agree more. Bigger is better. Bigger means success. Bigger means…What is it with always having to have bigger and more stuff?
I always think of that saying about whoever has the most/bigger stuff in the end wins.
Even our restaurants super-size to accomodate our ‘needs’. We waste so much food in this country it’s astonishing.
As for IKEA, they have some nice things (and Consumer Reports is the place to go for information on just about everything).
I like the idea of a side by side, and I’ve looked at various models, but honestly, one wouldn’t fit in my allotted space. Where my fridge sits a side by side would probably end up being more hindrance than help. You have to know what works in your space.
I have, what I suppose, would be considered an ‘old fashioned’ fridge – freezer on top, fridge on the bottom. It works for me. I’ve looked at freezer on the bottom styles and they’re not my thing. I don’t want to be standing on my head every time I need something out of the freezer, and I use my freezer compartment a lot.
As for entertaining, though we don’t entertain as much as we used to, I’ve never had a problem storing food in my regular sized fridge. I just rearrange shelves, remove racks that I’ve placed in, and there’s enough space for my needs.
Why is it that refrigerators get cheesier as they get smaller?
I wish the manufacturers would make their “top of the line” in different sizes.
I am on my fifth refrigerator in so many decades…and my current one is the best: $150 at the estate sale of a neighbor. We just rolled it down the street!
Bev -
About chroming your handles – as long as they are metal, you should be able to remove them and take them to a chromer for about $75-125.
Then, if you really want more “retro-ness” for your fridge, you can buy the narrow chrome stick on car door edging to edge the doors with. It is inexpensive, flexible, very durable, and easily removed if you don’t like it. Hey, in fact – for those doing formica or linoleum counters who yearn for metal edging and don’t want the cost involved, you could use this stuff on the edge of the counters, and it is flexible enough to make radius corners with also.
I found this great website with all kinds of car body moldings that are peel and stick, come in any length you order (I called them and if you order 15 feet, it comes as one continuous length, despite the 5 ft info on their website). If you need a longer run, they can do that too. They are in Eugene Oregon.
Then for further retro effect, you can usually find some great retro car badges etc if you want to badge your refrigerator (think Cadillac “V” for a badge).
Here are the wider moldings to use as countertop edging:
http://www.brandsport.com/bosimo16.html
Here is molding suitable to trim the edges of your refrigerator doors
http://www.brandsport.com/ptrm-140c-05.html
I can honestly say, having used this kind of molding on my motorcycle fenders, it lasts, holds up really well (wash after wash), and polishes up great!
TTT-
Thanks for the idea about the car trim. I have often thought about using something chrome-y …horizontally around the perimeter of a room, between sixteen inch graduated shades of taupe gray.
I saw it about 25 years ago in the bathrooms sets of the movie “Victor/Victoria” and thought: How can I achieve that look for cheap? Now I know. Thanks.
GH – you’re welcome. Of course if you take the plunge and try it, we want photos!!!! One tip I would say, is that if you are going to do that, I would run a thin flat wood band around the room with panel nails or similar and mount this chrome trim to the wood band, especially if your walls are drywall or plaster.
Reason is the stick-um on the back is 3M tape, so when I said “easily removed” above, I really meant off of something equally hard, like a counter top or metal fridge. On drywall or plaster, you would probably end up taking hunks of drywall away if it was stuck right to it and you tried to remove it later.
We needed to do a chrome strip to separate an odd division of 2 paint colors on one of our kitchen walls which is done in a 1950s diner style. We went to the local auto parts store and purchased chrome tape (in a roll like duct tape) and then purchased a strip of wood the size and shape we wanted and covered it with the tape. Nailed in place and it looks like a strip of metal. It’s about a 1/2″ x 1/2″ strip of wood.
Thanks for the info Tami. Unfortunately, i don’t think that the handles on my fridge can be removed – not easily anyway. My son used to deliver for Lowes and he says they can’t come off without completely dismantling the door from the inside out. Indeed, there is no visible hardware. Apparently, the handles are put on the door and then the inside of the door is assembled. If more clearance is needed when moving the fridge, you remove the doors not the handles. Your idea about the chrome trim is intriguing. I will be looking into that. Thanks!!
That’s interesting about your handlesBev…..I can remember the last time I looked at new refrigerators, I kept checking the handles first, LOL. Were they metal? Could I see screws so they could be removed to be chromed? Ha, no longer is the cubic feet or layout my main concern. My biggest concern with a new fridge is its “pimpability” as in “Pimp Your Fridge”!!!!
This is a nice loking fridge option. However, I’m still in love with my counter-depth, freezer on the bottom Fisher & Paykel. It’s perfect for us, and as Pam points out above, you don’t lose food at the back. I actually think the layout is much better than a lot of standard depth fridges I’ve seen and used.
Hmm . . . In my experience the phrase–”You get what you pay for–has always applied to products from Ikea. Their stuff looks great, but it is not very durable. I would check what Consumer Reports says about the fridge.
Right now I have a brown 17 cu ft freezer-on-top that came with the house and it works just fine. But, I’d really like to get a french-door with the freezer on the bottom and NO water/ice on the outside (they break, especially if you have kids using it). I’d like the benefit of a full freezer drawer to fit a turkey or whatever, but the french doors for better accessibility in my kitchen. I believe once you open the french doors, the interior is full size, so you can still fit large trays. I have a small space and can only do a fridge smaller than 20 cu ft, which is fine by me. I’m definitely over living with excess!
okay, added my two cents.
I like bottom freezer models. I find that having the fresh food at eye level helps me toss out old or spoiling foods sooner. We bought an LG bottom freezer model from Home Depot in white a few months ago and it has very nice retro curves to it. The front curves out and it also has long curved comfortable handles. As someone mentioned above, you could probably have the handles crome dipped to complete the retro look. Here’s a link:
http://www.homedepot.com/Appliances-Refrigerators-Freezers-Bottom-Freezer-Refrigerators/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xgaZaqng/R-100633390/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053
Big Chill makes a smaller retro-styled refrigerator, but it is not counter depth. It’s cute though! http://bigchillfridge.com
OK, it is the end of the day and maybe no one will read this, but, I think someone has to step in and support the side-by-side and that would be me. I could not live with a bottom freezer. There was one here when I bought my little house and I had to give it away so I could have the side-by-side.
Here is why—- I live out of my freezer. I live alone and don’t cook big meals. But, I bake a lot and store it in the freezer in portions sizes. I can organize my freezer side so that I have bread on top shelf, frozen meal things on one shelf, bakes goodies on one shelf and in the basket are meat and other items that go well in a basket.
Since I get breakfast for the bread or “breakfast” shelf — where I store little packages of my homemake pancakes, or even waffles — I can do this without having to bend over. Dinner will come from the “meal” shelf often, and when I need a bit of sugar, I can get a cookie or small something else out of the baked good shelf.
It is hard to put a platter in the fresh food side, but I find that everything else fits fine. The one I have, a Maytag, has very good drawers — a deli drawer, and two for frresh veggies and fruit.
For me, the best thing is hardly ever having to bend over and not having to search through a big basket for whatever frozen thing I want. And, that is because several times I have messed up my back bending down to retrieve something from the bottom of the fridge. I know that this is good for me and would not be for all. But, if you liked organized, easy to ID shelves, and not having to bend over very often, then maybe you too would be happy with a side-by-side.
Elizabeth
I’ve had the Nutid refrigerator for about a month and I love it! They’re made by Whirlpool and Consumer Reports generally likes Whirlpools.
Thanks, Pam! This is great! And helpful.
Our refrigerator can be seen the moment you walk into our 988 sf ranch house. We were working with a very small hole to put a fridge in, since all the cabinetry was original to 1960. Bottom line was, anything short enough to put in was so skinny it didn’t fit nicely and also was not counter depth. We wanted it to look perfectly built in. The other problem was my husband hates in-door water dispensers. So, we decided the bottom mount single door would look best, but we had to raise the cabinetry up so it would fit. We ended up spending 2500 on a fridge because we were so specific with our requirements (counter depth fridges are usually SO expensive). However, it was worth every penny, it looks perfect and it is an awsome fridge (it better be for that price!)
Stephanie, I totally identify. I ended up with my expensive Sub-Zero for the same reason. I scrimped on other things in life to be able to get the fridge.
Thanks for the post. We have an old 50′s GE, which has its problems, condensation, and icebergs in the freezer. So, we may end up going with a new one as we’re just kind of tired of dealing with it all.
On the other hand, I have doubts if anything we buy these days will last as long as the old one!
I’ve been looking at the options at antiqueappliances.com, which may be another way to go. You can send your vintage frig to them and they’ll restore it, or buy one of their pieces and they’ll restore it to your specs (the prices listed in their inventory actually include restoration). I haven’t gotten a quote yet, but I’m hoping it would be comparable to buying a fancy new one…decisions, decisions!
Hmm, definitely something to think about! Our state energy star rebates take effect later this month for the last weekend. It is 15% off energy star fridges, freezers, washers, and dishwashers bought during that Thurs-Sun weekend. That makes this an even better deal!
However, if there is any way we can manage a Big Chill, that would be awesome.
There is Nutid French door model, but it does not look like it’s counter depth.
thinking about getting the Ikea Nutid now that I see it’s counter depth and reasonable – anyone with experience with them – it would be great to get comments.
elena, it might be worth getting an online subscription to Consumer Reports to see if they have tested this one…
Late to this party, I’ll add that we’ve had a Nutid for 1.5 years now, with 2 adults and 1.5 teens (one is in college, only here 4 months out of the year, but the other one eats like a horse). We shop once a week, max. We’ve never had a problem with space! We’re selling current house and moving into a 1950 post war (how I found this site) and will be installing another Nutid there. Great fridge for the bucks.