Home technology: Welcome to the era of matching interior decor with home appliances

Modern living room interior with comfortable yellow sofa and blue armchair, coffee table with decoration, parquet wooden floor. [Photo: Standard]

Attempts to conform to buyers’ choices influencing manufacturers’ decisions.

The interior design of a home is a blank canvas on which you can pour your personality. Today, manufacturers are working hard to fit their products into your frame of choice.

Changing tastes and preferences, driven by social and economic ability and global trends are ushering in a new way of doing things. How many would have imagined that at one time, the TV would be more than just an appliance switched on for a time and a blank hole in your wall, or cabinet, the rest of the time?

In March, Samsung Electronics launched its 2018 QLED TVs. The TVs were launched in Kenya on Tuesday.

The lineup features new innovations that re-imagine how TV integrates into the living room, how consumers enjoy their content, and how they interact with their devices.

“From the television set to one’s chair, all can match to keep your home at par with what you intended your house to be,” Samuel Odhiambo, consumer electronics manager, Samsung Electronics East Africa, says.

“Most TVs are turned off most of the time, so why not use this to show a beautifully decorative picture or useful information instead of just being a black hole? “Our new feature, ambient mode, lets you utilize the screen even when you are not watching anything on TV. You can use it to enhance your home or check the weather, news and time,” he says.

Last month, an article in Home & Away wrote that consumers want things that complement their living spaces. “A recent home appliances/electronics consumer insight said that the desire to own property in Kenya goes hand-in-hand with grandiose decor that declares the affluence of the homeowner. It said the growth of electronic consumer goods on the continent in general was a reflection of the social-economic revolution taking place,” the article reported.

But the shift is not just being driven by electronics. Hitesh Mediratta, the managing director of PG Bison Kenya, says that to align themselves with the new-look of modern homes interior look, their new wood-based panel and fittings offering has been transformed into a unique feature to bring the latest trends in homes.

Red modern kitchen. [Photo: Standard]

He says building a custom home is all about expressing one’s lifestyle through design. “One phase of the process that especially allows our clients to discover their distinct tastes is when they begin choosing their home’s decor. This last layer of furniture, textiles, pillows, lamps, accent pieces and artwork is where a house starts to feel lived in,” Mediratta says.

However, all this comes with an extra cost. Eugene Kamau of Ellys Interior Architecture Limited based in Ngong Town says that making the interior of a house look uniform is not cheap. He says it can cost up to Sh12,000 per square metre of floor space to make the interior architecture of a house look perfect.

“High-quality interior design of homes can cost a fortune. Most people who love style and appreciate quality will, however, not have a problem with the price of the services,” Kamau says.

But why is it this expensive? Kamau says matching up the interior architecture of a house involves a lot of work such as incorporating a 3D visualization of rooms, drawing rooms, partitioning, laying out lighting equipment and fit out works.

If this cost is added to the cost of matching appliances like the Samsung QLED TVs, which cost between Sh200,000 and Sh300,000, the work can cost close to Sh1 million.