We didn’t exactly plan to buy every appliance for the beach house during Black Friday — besides the pink stove, that is — but the timing worked out in our favor. Between early sales and a last-minute floor plan change, we ended up saving more than $1,350. The appliances won’t arrive until after Thanksgiving, but if you’re hunting deals, here’s what we chose, how we saved, and how a layout tweak made it possible to get more for less.
sconces / counters / cabinets / pendants / hood / stove / walls: SW White Heron / trim: SW Stone Isle
First, a quick note about our change of plans. In an earlier kitchen planning post, we’d been considering a narrow white refrigerator to sit on the same wall as the stove. There aren’t many compact white fridges that fit that tight space, so it seemed like a natural choice — but we decided to wait until the kitchen took shape before buying anything.
That turned out to be a smart move. As cabinets went in, Sherry’s worry about the fridge became real. We made a cardboard mockup from island-stool boxes and realized the fridge crowded the doorway molding and, more importantly, blocked the sightlines from the living room and foyer. It’s subtle in photos, but the visual obstruction would be obvious every time someone entered the house.
We toyed with placing the fridge between the two doorways on the back wall, but that felt even tighter. There was also a plumber-installed water line left for a potential fridge ice maker, which added to the complications.
So we made a big change: the breakfast nook becomes a walk-in pantry, and the full-size refrigerator moves into that space. Turning the nook into a pantry felt like an immediate improvement. It gives us room for all the dry goods beach guests bring — cereal, chips, oversized pretzels — plus space to stash coolers and maybe even the microwave. That frees up another deep drawer in the island and helps optimize the limited cabinetry in this house.
Still, we wanted quick access to frequently used items like milk, OJ, and eggs near the prep areas. That led us to a vintage-inspired mini fridge from Amazon that pairs nicely with the pink stove and doesn’t interrupt sightlines. It was also far less expensive than many retro-style fridges.
The mini fridge arrived last week and we plugged it in right away — yes, cold Coke achieved. We still need to patch the outlet hole and add baseboards and a backsplash, but the smaller fridge fits nicely and won’t compete with the stove’s presence.
For the rest of the appliances — a washer and dryer for the mudroom, a dishwasher for the island, and the larger fridge for the pantry — we shopped Home Depot during early Black Friday sales. We landed on a Maytag Bravos XL top-loading washer and matching electric dryer. They were an easy pick for three reasons: our mudroom accommodates a standard side-by-side pair, we already own similar Maytag models and like them, and both were marked down from $899 to $599 each.
- Standard sizes fit the mudroom without fuss.
- We’re familiar with the brand and satisfied with performance.
- They were heavily discounted, giving us more capacity for less money.
Finding a dishwasher in white was tougher than expected because stainless finishes are more common and sometimes cheaper. We chose a Frigidaire Gallery dishwasher with top controls and a white toe-kick that blends with the cabinets. It was $499 at Home Depot but $50 cheaper at Lowe’s and Best Buy, so Home Depot price-matched it to $449.
The pantry’s unusual layout limited fridge depth to about 28 inches. After searching, we found an apartment-sized Haier refrigerator made by GE that fit the space and had strong reviews. It wasn’t white, but since it lives in the pantry that wasn’t a problem — and it was marked down by over $500, from $1,200 to $698.
One more savings boost came from Home Depot’s tiered appliance discount: buy 2 appliances and save $50, 3 saves $100, 4 saves $200 — which applied to our purchase. Lowe’s offered a similar promotion during the same period.
To recap our purchases: fridge / washer / dryer / dishwasher — and the total after discounts came to $2,150. That’s still a sizable expense (not including the pink stove, mini fridge, or microwave), but we feel good about choosing reliable, well-reviewed models that meet our needs.
On another practical note, we installed cordless white faux wood blinds throughout the beach house — 29 windows in total. They’re cordless for safety and a cleaner look, and they raise and lower from the bottom. A quick tip if you’re hanging many blinds: work as a team — one person unpacks and preps (snap the rod in, remove protective cardboard), the other drills and mounts. Pre-drilling all holes first saved time switching bits. It still took about three hours, but the process was much smoother.
vanity / stool / towel / art / light / walls: SW White Heron / mirror: HomeGoods
Happy Thanksgiving! We’ll share another update after the appliances arrive next week and reveal more on the kitchen’s layout change.
P.S. For anyone following our renovation, we’ve documented the beach house restoration from the initial before shots and floor planning through drywall and tiling across previous posts.
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