Until recently, a retro-style Smeg fridge was a middle-class kitchen must-have, along with a range cooker (preferably an Aga) and a walk-in pantry with a glazed Crittall door. The current cost of living crunch is reshaping the modern kitchen, however, pushing buyers to invest in more cost-effective designs and practical appliances.
“Everything had to look so beautiful, but now there is a general paring back,” explains Lucinda Sanford, an interior designer and project manager.
“We’ve hit peak kitchen. People are getting real. They can’t afford to buy statement appliances, and they want life to be less complicated. Sleeker, integrated kitchens are more fashionable now.”
Appliances are no longer the stars of the kitchen, agrees architect and designer Max de Rosée. “It used to be all about a bold fridge or range cooker, but now luxury is subtlety and restraint.”
As a result, brands such as Aga, whose iconic cookers cost more than £12,000, and posh pot maker Le Creuset, whose 24cm family-sized casseroles cost around £305, are reporting a decline in sales, while Smeg, whose standalone 1950s-style fridges sell for more than £2,000, is reporting “challenging marketing conditions”.
Austerity isn’t the only reason, though, why middle-class consumers are turning away from some kitchen classics. They’re also being courted hard by newcomers such as SharkNinja, the US appliance brand that reported £81.5m profit for 2023 and sells pizza ovens, soup makers, soft-serve machines and rice cookers.
Our Place, which promises to replace a cupboard’s worth of cookware with an aesthetic-looking non-stick, multi-use “Always Pan”, and Gordon Ramsay-endorsed HexClad, which produces stainless-steel and non-stick pans, are also preying on middle-class shoppers.
These new gadgets and appliances make cooking fun, healthy and easy. Yet the marketplace is crowded, and a recent McKinsey white goods report highlights that consumers are increasingly favouring durability, efficiency and affordability when choosing products.
Here are the products that are making their way into the modern middle-class kitchen, and the ones that are being left behind.
Blenders
Out: Nutribullet
In: Braun blender
