By Claire Reilly
A number of major retailers across Australia have been investing heavily in showroom openings in recent months — Kitchen HQ held the opening for its new O'Connor showroom in Perth this month, and over on the east coast, Winning Appliances opened the doors to a high-end showroom in Redfern, Sydney, right around the corner from its old digs.
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Common among these store openings is an increased focus on branded spaces and a store-within-a-store approach. Brands such as Miele, Fisher & Paykel, Smeg and ILVE get the chance to take over a part of the store’s footprint and fit it out with a full suite of kitchen appliances, matched with signage and fixtures that are consistent with their company’s branding. In theory, a consumer could walk past an ILVE stand in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane and they would see the same style, colour palette and even fonts across all the displays.
Over the weekend, Harvey Norman opened the doors on its newest showroom — the Harvey Norman @ Domayne major appliance centre in the eastern Sydney suburb of Alexandria.
Largely an industrial area home to big box retailers and homemaker centres, Alexandria is becoming something of a destination for renovators and retailers alike with brands such as Coco Republic, The Good Guys, Officeworks and Bing Lee all having a presence in the suburb, as well as Harvey Norman’s cousins Space and Domayne.
Inside the new cooking showroom, there are plenty of brands for shoppers to choose from, each with their own branded concept space. With demonstration kitchens and appliances set up in situ, it is easy to see that the retailer will become a destination for consumers looking to purchase a full kitchen of appliances from the one brand.
Current.com.au took a look through the store at the opening on Saturday — here's what we saw.
The entry to Harvey Norman's new cooking appliance showroom.
Built-in appliances, an Island bench display and distinctive rangehoods in AEG's space.
Award for most colourful appliances goes to Belling for its bright cookers.
Bosch is using its space to show off its range of small appliances, as well as major cooking products.
With its DCS barbecues, Companion Range and built-in gas cooktops, Fisher & Paykel offers a complete cooking solution.
Ilve uses graffiti-scribbled, mirrored splashbacks and under-bench lighting to create an edgy and modern look.
Miele has a large area to show off its brand in store, with this section very much showing off the Miele's lifestyle image.
Miele also opts for a traditional showroom layout, with built-in appliances and rangehoods (including the brand's island rangehood, at the right of the image).
A refreshing splash of colour from Omega.
Minimalist silver at Samsung. According to one insider, the splashback was created with hundreds of mirrored disc tiles (each no bigger than a 20 cent piece) that were individual peeled off and fastened to the wall.
Like Miele, Smeg has a large section split over one corner of the store, including a demo kitchen, a barbecue and the brand's distinctive Fab fridges.