Style & Function in the Smart Home

 By Kieron Eales – 3rd June 2021

We’ve said before how a smart home doesn’t need to resemble the Starship Enterprise. That’s because with the advancement in smart home design, it’s now easier than ever to have a home that is as beautiful as it is functional. In this post we’ll be talking about three ways smart home technology can advance the look of your property-

Seamless Integration

The rise of seamless integration within smart homes not only makes a space more functional, it also makes your life easier and it means your property is far less cluttered with multiple smart home devices.

When buying ‘smart’ devices for the first time, many opt for one off smart devices such as Alexa, Google Smart Home, or Amazon Echo. These devices are a simple way to dip your toe into the smart home world, but if you’re looking for a fully functional smart home- you’re best opting for a system throughout your property. Choosing a system integrator means that all of your appliances can effectively ‘talk’ to each other, creating a truly connected smart home experience.

An example of a system integrator would be a Control4 system, which can integrate audio visual, lighting, HVAC (heating & cooling), home security and blinds.

Remote Monitoring & Control

Similarly to system integration, remote monitoring allows your smart home to work in the way that is easiest for you. Apps allow you to control or schedule features in your home remotely. One of the most popular ways of implementing this feature is with remotely controlled blinds and shades.

With remote monitoring, you can schedule when your blinds open and close, according to sun patterns, privacy or security preferences. Blinds and window treatments often come in a range of textures and finishes to compliment the space they’re in- and brands such as Silent Gliss from Lutron are often ‘silent’, meaning they make little to know detectable noise when opening and closing.

Smart Lighting

When it comes to function and style, implementing the right lighting is crucial within the smart home. Integrating a smart lighting system into your home means you can programme the lighting to best suit your daily needs and it’s one of the easiest ways to alter the appearance of your property.

Smart home integrators such as Control4 allow a large number of features, such as programming your lighting to gradually dim when the sun sets, customising lights to change colour, brightness levels, and integrating voice controlled devices like Amazon Alexa to control lights.

Many smart home keypads also provide beautiful interfaces, combining flexible button configurations with colours and finishes to compliment the décor of your home. Keypads such as Italian brand Ekinex are a good example of this, providing a wide range of high quality finishes in materials such as metals, Fenix and plastic.

Of course, good lighting doesn’t just need to be kept inside. Many system integrations can be used to light up your outdoor spaces- turning on and off in unison with the sunrise and sunset, or tailored to highlight beautiful landscape features.

Smart homes may seem complicated at first, but they’re designed to make your life easier. If you’re interested in making your home work better for you, contact us.