Sci-fi in your kitchen at home show

Smeg managing director Rachel Louie demonstrates the Samsung table tablet where you can surf the net or browse through recipes while cutting vegetables. Photo / Natalie Slade

A denim fridge, a tabletop you can check your email on and a $12,000 shower head that plays music are some of the latest home accessories on show in Auckland.

Thousands of renovators, couples, pensioners and home enthusiasts bustled around ASB Showgrounds in Greenlane yesterday for the first day of the five-day Auckland Home Show.

More than 500 exhibitors are showing off the latest trends in renovation and technology.

The Space Module, with Italian design and technology by Smeg and Baumatic, is displaying a Minority Report-style Samsung tabletop tablet, which lets its users surf the net or browse through recipes while cutting vegetables on its surface.

Also on display is a denim fridge, one of only 600, which was airfreighted from Italy for the exhibit.

In the bathroom department, people huddled around a $12,000 ceiling showerhead, with adjustable waterflows, ambient lights and music and video playback.

The T-shower model can be upgraded to a price of $40,000 for even more options.

"There are still people around with a little bit of money to spend," said Aaron Carson from Aquatica NZ.

"We've had two people who have redesigned their bathrooms to install this showerhead."

Celebrity chef and former executive head chef of SkyCity restaurants Paul Jobin held cooking show-style seminars throughout the day.

"Things got a bit pear-shaped at one point. I was making souffle, but when I came to turn it over it splattered all over the plate," he said.

"So I added some cream to it and called it 'splat souffle'."

Most people came to get ideas, said exhibition director Amanda Magnus.

"If you're building or renovating, you can come and pick up free advice and free ideas."

Despite rising house prices and murky economic times, she said more people were coming every year.

"Traditionally the numbers were dropping off, but for the last couple of years we've seen a steady climb."

Last year 46,000 tickets were sold, and this year the expectation was 50,000.

Patricia Webster said she and her husband were there to look at kitchen design ideas for their new home.

Lawyer and gardening enthusiast Marcus Woodhouse said he was in the middle of renovating his own home, and he found the show inspiring.

"It's always good to come here and see all the different ways of doing things."

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