In which room in the house do you spend most of your time? The bedroom, bathroom or living room? Chances are in the age of fast-paced living and complex lives, particularly in the urban environment, the room you really spend most of your quality time in the kitchen.
All roads lead to the kitchen – bills, memos and shopping lists are posted on the fridge, after work wind-downs are held during the cooking of meals and children do their homework but none of this can be done without an adequately organised ‘hub'.
To cope with such a complex amount of must-do tasks creating a system to allow all these things to be done both easily and efficiently is the ideal. Automation is the key word, one system to control all the elements of the home, and what better place for that to exist than in the ‘hub of the home'.
From the ‘hub' we need to create a command centre for the rest of the home, a one-stop shop for all the important elements – security, climate control, entertainment, communications (both internal and external), lighting and naturally each of the appliances essential to the kitchen environment, including cooking, refrigeration and food storage.
Space-saving is a must however, also a must is keeping the hub stress-free and designed in such a way it is easy for the occupants to all exist in what is in many homes a cramped space.
No longer just for the movies
Ever driven home to find your house, having been closed all day, is like the oven you wish was heating to cook your dinner? Wish the air conditioning and oven would turn themselves on? Smart appliances, those which can access the internet and be remotely programmed, were once a thing only in the movies – but not any more.
Manufacturers such as LG, Fisher & Paykel and Miele, just to name a few, have all started to produce these smart appliances in readiness for the Australian market coming online. Check out the LG website (www.lge.com.au) for a tour of its Digital home.network is just one example of the vastly expanding area of smart appliances and there are many more to come.
Smaller appliances, while not usually on the automated network like the bigger variety, continue to astound with new and improved options hitting the shelves at every turn. Coffee machines which wake you with a hot cuppa, toasters that can do everything except butter your toast and ovens which can both defrost and cook your meal without having to touch it twice are all already a reality. And as a bonus, the majority of them are affordable for the everyday person.
Appliances that talk to one another are already a reality, an alarm clock which wakes you up and sends a message to the coffee machine to start brewing and turns off the electric blanket are all available overseas and will hit our shores soon.
Appliances can be linked together to be controlled by the one command post, possibly the touch screen, but be aware that many appliances are not cross compatible, so mixing and matching to suit your own requirements and tastes is not an option.
It is worthwhile doing your homework in regards to what is becoming available, and more importantly preparing your kitchen now to take these elements when they do arrive. The smartest way to do this is to have
data and cable jacks mounted behind all of your major appliances, this ensures that you are ready should you decide to install the technology when it arrives. Additionally, think about future-proofing for technology currently in production. Units that communicate, refrigerate and cook food – everybody wants one but as yet they aren't available. Keep your eyes open, though, they are on the way.
Entertaining ideas
In the early 1980s, people began bringing small TV sets into the kitchen. Propped up on any available space on the bench top, rabbit ears protruding into the valuable work area. Now we have flat screen, under-cabinet television. Slim and tidy for the already busy kitchen, it hangs from the underside of the kitchen cabinet eliminating the space problems of old.
