Why kitchens are now the status symbol of home design (and which new products to fill them with)

As someone who occasionally reviews fast cars for a living, I try hard not to get upset about the idea of my children buying self-driving vehicles. But I must admit the concept that they might grow up to lust after status kitchens rather than speedy machines is just too much to take.

This is not just the future according to master interior designer and TV star Darren Palmer, who made me tear up slightly when he told me about “Xennials”, it is a time that’s already here.

“For Xennials [that’s in between Millennials, in their late 30s, and young Gen Xers in their early 40s], the home is now a status symbol, the sign of success, and people aren’t going out to buy Ferraris, their new midlife-crisis purchase is a status kitchen,” Palmer explained.

Palmer, 41, describes himself as a “walking, talking example” of a Xennial, and the LG Signature Ambassador designed his own status kitchen entirely to match his LG Signature Refrigerator.

What we were more taken with, however, was the LG Signature Wine Cellar, which should hold high status indeed in any kitchen. The Wine Cellar is clever and cool, because you can open the door when your hands are full of wine bottles, just by waving your foot over a handy “Open Me” light, projected onto the floor.

Or if you want to see what’s in there but you don’t want to waste vital energy by opening the door you can just knock on the glass, and the wine cabinet is illuminated.

Not only does it feature multi-temperature control, so you can store different kinds of wine appropriately, there’s also a beer fridge secreted out of sight, and an ice chest that pops out at the touch of a button with a cheerful series of beeps.

This very modern wine fridge holds 65 bottles and is, of course, also connected to Wi-Fi, and will message your phone to tell you of looming disasters such as a lack of your favourite vintage, or an unexpected temperature change.

Or, worse … you’re out of beer. No doubt, in the near future, a self-driving van will be alerted by your fridge to deliver new stocks and save you from dealing with such trivialities.

Where to put it

This cool, white and bright home on Bondi’s Dudley Street is so design driven (it’s by Peter Dunkley Design) it would surely make Darren Palmer weep happy tears.

It has a fantastic status kitchen, a status staircase, too, and some very status ocean views.

Phillips Pantzer Donnelley are marketing the property, and say there’s a $4 million price guide ahead of the April 13 auction.