I always said I didn’t care if my clothes washer and dryer matched. I found out that I could not take that to the extreme because I wanted to install front loading appliances and stack them. It turns out the “stacking accessory” screws the the top of the washing machine and accepts the feet of the dryer. Thus, the appliances need not match, but they likely need to be from the same manufacturer and be the same size.

I stopped into the Sears “scratch and dent” outlet and started my usual trek looking for anything that I needed for the farmhouse. Thus far I already found the microwave drawer and the range. The stove, being 48 inches wide, needed a large vent hood. I was about to leave the store without a “find” and then saw a mysterious big box. On closer look, I found a GE Monogram 42 inch island hood. With a little work, I figured it would work nicely. The price was definitely right. I went to pay for it and found there was an additional sale taking place – 10% off one, 15% off two, and 20% off three or more items. So now I had a real incentive and started looking for the rest of my appliance.

I took a frank look at refrigerators and one of the staff was equally frank with some advice. The larger refrigerators had side by side doors. But – and this was something I never thought about – a side freezer can hold some common things like the holiday turkey or frozen pizza. The solution is the Whirlpool French door refrigerator with a bottom drawer freezer. The refrigerator has a few dents on the side and a small pair of scratches on the handle.

Trudging over to the rows of washers and dryers, I started looking and looking and looking. The aforementioned staff had said I really did need to keep my search into brand-matched but not necessarily paired washers and dryers. While it may be possible to stack a GE on top of a Frigidaire or a Whirlpool on top of a Samsung, it would be trial and error and I could not do the tests inside the store (I actually didn’t attempt to push that point). I had already done some research hand had a bias for a steam cycle to address the many cases where I wear a pair of dress pants for a half day and then they spend a day stuck in a suitcase on the way home. Dry cleaning these lightly used garments got to be a waist of money and the environment. I figured a marketing hyped steam setting would give me another half day of meetings. I stumbled across a nice LG Steam Washer in crimson red. It had a big dent in the side but a full warranty. It will end up in a closet so the dent will never show. I then hunted for an LG dryer. I finally found the only one on the floor. So I paired the red washer with an LG Dryer in white (and a complimenting but smaller dent on its right side).

    
(stock photos sans scratches and dents)