Mark Nash, who tracks home design trends by asking 923 real estate agents and brokers about what their customer are asking for, asserts that you'll love the flexibility these units provide; they can go wherever you want them to.

Sub-Zero's director of marketing, Paul Leuthe, says "The design community was expressing a desire for a product that worked in a more decentralized and integrated way."

Traditionally, the refrigerator was a big box set on a wall somewhere that formed part of the kitchen work triangle. But look at the rest of the kitchen and it's mostly cabinets with doors above the counter and drawers below them. The new refrigerators a re configured like that, with drawers below the countertops.

Leuthe says, "Many of the new kitchens have multiple work stations so it makes sense for, say, where the salad prep area is to have a drawer refrigerator with lettuce and vegetables right there. Other homes will have another one by the back door so the kids can run in from outside, grab drinks and go out again without tracking up the house."

Leuthe reports that designers loved the concept; it enabled them to arrange the kitchen any way they wanted it. "After the embraced it, the trend took off like wildfire," he says.

Sub-Zero's two-drawer units start around $2,600.