Top three things you can’t live without in your home
In terms of at home essentials, there are so many things we could not live without. So, to narrow it down to three is no mean feat.
Well, Henley has done the hard work for you with Breahna Harry from the design showroom, creating a trifecta of must-haves in your home.
Fun and functional kitchen
According to Breahna, you can never underestimate the value of a well-designed kitchen.
“While the design and layout of a kitchen doesn’t initially seem as exciting as choosing aesthetic elements such as colours, materials, fittings and fixtures, it can be the make-or-break of enjoying your space and utilising it to its full potential.
“Ensuring you have sufficient bench space either side of main food preparation elements such as your sink and cooktop is crucial to creating convenience and maintaining organisation while cooking.
“If you have ever lived in a house that had the bin, sink and dishwasher in separate locations in the kitchen, then I’m sure you have experienced the frustration of trailing food crumbs and water drips along the floor at some point. When cleaning up after a meal, most likely you will find yourself scraping off any food scraps into the bin, rinsing your dish in the sink and placing it in the dishwasher. Because of this, the importance of grouping your bin, sink and dishwasher in a row next to each other is key to convenience and less mess.
“The most common oven sizes are 600mm or 900mm wide, and your lifestyle can determine what size is best suited for you. If you love cooking and prefer making multiple meals at once – for example, cooking a roast and baking a cake at the same time – then two 600mm ovens may be the best option for you to provide flexibility in temperatures and timeframes for different dishes. However, for those who have a big family or frequently entertain and often cook in bulk, then a 900mm wide oven works best to fit large bakeware.”
More multifunctional spaces
The aftermath of Covid and lockdowns has seen a huge shift in the way we live and work. Creating multifunctional spaces to allow flexibility of how a space can be utilised both now and in the future is becoming more and more popular. For example, a study/home office has become a common necessity for a lot of households in recent times, but simple changes and additions can also see this be utilised as an additional bedroom if you require in the future or to add value for potential future resale.
“You will obviously need power points when utilising the space as an office, but the placement of these can help safeguard you if the space were to be utilised as a bedroom at some point. By placing a power point off-centre on a wall rather than centred, you will ensure that you have power to a desk when the room is set up as a study, as well as power to a bedside table for phone charging or a lamp should you have a bed running along that wall in the future,” Breahna said.
“The simple act of adding a door to your home office space will both improve sound and add privacy to allow you better focus, as well as provision the space as a bedroom or additional living area in the future. If you like the idea of making the space feel as open as possible while still having the flexibility of closing it off when needed, then adding a double door instead of a single will help achieve this.”
Sensational storage
You can never have enough storage. Often this can be overlooked in the planning stage, and be the biggest inconvenience in day-to-day life. The beauty of building your home is the opportunity to design it to suit your lifestyle and functional needs. Some ideas to improve your storage include adding under-stair storage in double story homes, ensuring you have tall storage in or near your laundry for mops, stick vacuums etc and adding drawers to your kitchen or bathroom vanities where possible for easy access to smaller items.
