How To Get The Old Charm Look And The Modern Benefits

If you love contemporary convenience but not the contemporary look, never fear! You can still get all the benefits of smart features in kitchens, bathrooms and laundries without having to change the look you love.

Kitchen

Modern kitchens add value, convenience and luxury to your home. But that doesn’t restrict you to the bold minimalistic look of contemporary designs. Modern benefits include things like:

Water Efficient Taps

Hi-tech kitchens are as much about sustainability as they are about convenience. Our vision of a modern kitchen is one with excellent water efficiency and respect for the environment, regardless of the style. This means taps with a 5 or 6-star WELS rating – Australia’s water-efficiency standard and mandatory labelling system. Fortunately, there are heaps of options for tapware with high WELS ratings across all styles. You’re sure to find one in the finish and style to suit your traditional kitchen.

Smart Appliances

Technology is taking over every aspect of the kitchen. Smart appliances include fridges that create your shopping lists, ovens that can be controlled remotely, and induction cooktops that sync with your extractor. Fortunately, even smart kitchen appliances come in designs that complement all styles, including retro colours and traditional nostalgic designs. You could make your old-charm style a feature or hide your modern convenience behind things like integrated dishwasher panels.

Automation

Some of the biggest tech advances in modern kitchens include voice controls and motion sensors. These are designed to integrate seamlessly into your home, so you don’t see the tech hidden behind your old charm style. Sensor taps are great for kitchen hygiene. Smart assistants allow you to control your lighting, timers, entertainment, and more just by voicing your request.

Clever and Ergonomic Solutions

Modern lifestyles come with lots of modern devices, which come with lots of chargers. A dedicated charging draw or cupboard with its own power points and ports is a clever way to hide these modern intrusions and reduce clutter.

Bathroom

Kitchens might be leading the way in inconspicuous smart tech, but bathrooms aren’t that far behind. Use tiles, colours, tapware, vanities, accessories, patterns and décor to create the old-style look you love and simply hide the tech behind it.

Create Warmth

Traditional-style bathrooms inherently invite a feeling of warmth. Underfloor heating is also warm and is just one example of modern tech that you can enjoy regardless of your bathroom style. Heated towel rails can also be incorporated into your classic, traditional or old-style look.

Smart Toilets

The smart thing about these toilets is how hidden they are these days. Your bathroom doesn’t have to look like a space-age control room. They now come in compact and simple designs that won’t clash with your style. Sometimes, you can even retrofit a smart toilet seat to your existing toilet pan. These give you bidet-style cleansing and drying, as well as tailored experiences.

Smart Mirrors

There is a growing range of mirrors with LED lighting, built-in demisters, and even bluetooth speakers. They now come in any shape and size you could imagine. You won’t have to search far and wide to get the perfect fit for your bathroom.

Smart Lighting and Automation

Enhance the style and functionality of any bathroom with clever lighting features, like kickboard LED lighting. Make the lighting motion-activated, and you're onto a hi-tech winner for the whole family. They have no impact on your overall style, but they’re great for ensuite nightlights and for family bathrooms where children can’t reach the switch.

For the ultimate level of luxury, incorporate a voice assistant to run your shower or bath.

Laundry

Chances are you spend more time in your laundry than you’d like, so creating a beautiful laundry that makes you smile and offers convenience is essential. Like bathrooms and kitchens, think of the style you want to achieve first and work in the modern tech behind it.

Energy and Water-Efficiency

Washing machines and dryers are responsible for a high proportion of your household energy and water use. Take a modern stance on any style of laundry with eco-friendly tapware and appliances.

Front-loader washing machines can use as much as 60% less energy than top-loaders. Compare the compulsory energy star ratings of different washing machines and dryers. Each additional star could save you 10-30% of the product’s typical energy use.

When selecting a tap for your laundry sink, remember to compare WELS ratings to get the best water efficiency in the style you love. An ideal rating is 5 or 6 stars.

Smart Washing Machines and Dryers

AI is making its way everywhere, including the laundry. Smart washing machines can work out how much water, detergent, and softener each load needs, even the type of cycle needed. Then, they’ll coordinate it all for you and send you a notification when the load is finished. Smart dryers will auto-adjust settings to optimise drying performance. You never have to think about washer and dryer settings again.

Unfortunately, you still have to do some manual labour yourself. At least you’re retaining more traditional style that way.

Visit a Tradelink showroom for inspiration and advice

At Tradelink, we recognise that traditional, transitional and classic styles are popular choices for kitchens, bathrooms and laundries. While we sell an updated product range featuring the latest and smartest trends, we also maintain options for all styles and price ranges. Our 100+ Tradelink showroomshave excellent displays to inspire you.

Tradelink showroom consultants can walk you through your options. They will help you refine the style you have in mind and suggest the best products to bring your vision to life, including products with smart features.

Your dreams of an old-style kitchen, bathroom or laundry with all the modern benefits are well within reach.