The kitchen really is the home hub, where meals are created and family time is shared. From the mayhem of breakfast, to the slap dash meals for dinner on a midweek night – it all happens in the kitchen!
The modern kitchen is beginning to play an even more pivotal role, with smaller homes and units having to place the kitchen as an extension of the living space; with no clear definition where the kitchen ends and the living room or dining room starts, it’s all blurred into one busy space. And for the modern kitchen to excel, it needs to be able to fit every role.
Be it charging devices, offering soft pendant lighting, creating social seating for while someone creates a meal – or even allows full view of the TV from the benchtop, which serves as a congregation point as well as a food preparation space.
Electrical Dexterity:
The electrical aspect of the modern kitchen is immensely important, especially given the modern home is ALL electric, from 32amp cooktops to dual oven / warmer units, air fryers and energy efficient dishwashers. To overlook the importance of the electrical aspect is to overlook the importance of the entire kitchen, something we’ve seen time and time again. The words “as per the plan” fill homeowners with that sinking feeling when they realise a bit of expert advice would have completely overhauled their brand new kitchen.
Functional Lighting to Suit any Mood:
Lighting is key to ensuring your kitchen can shift into any space, without you having to turn all the lights off to hide the kitchen quite frankly being part of your living room in the modern home… Here’s a quick rundown of ideas for you to consider for your new kitchen.
- Downlights: The obvious choice for excellent light placement while giving a clean and simple look, downlights give you the dimmable versatility to match any mood. Be it bright lighting for cooking, or dimmed lighting for a late night trip to the fridge, downlights can do it all at a very reasonable price.
- LED Striplights: One of the most frequently overlooked lighting options in the kitchen is striplighting. And even when done, we see some real DIY looking results with striplights, making them look like the afterthought they so evidently were on the plan. Striplights are best installed into recessed channels in the cabinetry over your kitchen benchtops, offering great workspace lighting and soft dimmable mood lighting for an after meal drink at the island bench.
- Pendants: Pendants in a kitchen offer a great way of highlighting the island bench, providing practical workspace lighting and adding a soft touch to the otherwise ‘practicality’ geared kitchen. Once the kitchen has served its purpose, pendant lighting allows you to softly light the space, and provide an inviting spot to sit and discuss the days events. Be careful not to get an oversized pendant in the kitchen, as it’s very common for people to want to talk to one another over the island bench, and you wouldn’t want a Zeppelin sized pendant blocking your vision of one another.
- Skirt Lighting: Striplights under the cabinetry overhang is slightly less common in kitchens as it can highlight the dirt on the floor that comes with being the hub of your home, so ‘tread’ carefully when opting for this style of lights (also in bathrooms where you’d be surprised how much hair is on the floor until you light it up from floor height like a CSI crime scene).
Appliance Installation:
Choosing quality appliances is a no brainer when it comes to choosing your oven and cooktop, but also consider this… if your electrician sizes the cable exactly for the oven or cooktop you have now, imagine having to upgrade the wiring to suit your new oven in say, 10 years time. A little bit of forward thinking can save you thousands down the line, and gives you the freedom to choose whatever you want in the future, not only something that suits your undersized cabling.
Be sure to have your appliances installed by the electrician doing your kitchen electrical works, so the Certificate of Electrical Safety can include the brand and model of your appliances when they issue it to you. This is very handy when it comes time to process a warranty claim!
Storage Space Lighting:
The last hidden space to consider lighting is your pantry, cabinetry and food storage space. With a lack of space, storage in the modern kitchen is becoming more and more integrated to the point where you can’t tell if it’s a fridge, drawer or pantry until you open the door. Opening a pantry only to try turn a pantry light on, then find what you want, then turn the light off with full hands… you get the idea! Opting for motion controlled, or ‘reed switch’ lighting in your pantry is a fantastic way to solve this issue. Once the door is closed, the light turns off automatically, saving energy at the same time.
USB Power Outlets:
The last tip to consider is USB power outlets in your kitchen. Instead of recipe books and magazines, it’s now smartphones and tablets in the kitchen. Having a concealed spot to charge these devices really helps make your kitchen ready for anything. Many homes also see the kitchen bench as the spot to stash car keys, and everyones devices around dinner time. Be it kids tablets for homework, or adults charging phones while they cook or (unfortunately) work from home briefly after dinner. It all happens in the kitchen, which is slowly blending into the lounge / dining. So it really pays to consider all options, and plan accordingly (concealment is key!)
So there you have it! By all means, look at your kitchen drawings for locations of items but we highly recommend consulting an electrical professional with at least a vague interest in recommending information and options such as listed above to ensure your modern kitchen is ready to serve and adapt to the modern home. We’re always free for a chat, and would love to share some ideas and photos of what we’ve seen at our projects all around Melbourne – so don’t hesitate to ask!
