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Design a Smart Home This Winter

Creating a Smart home is more than just the next technological step forward. It allows you to manage your home and its components automatically or in more convenient or powerful ways. These smart technologies can contribute dramatically to your home’s safety, comfort, and privacy. At Geneva's Interiors, our PowerView® Automation can turn your Hunter Douglas window treatments into smart shades you can automate and operate from anywhere. As we head into the winter season, get the peace of mind that comes with the latest technology. Here's how to design your smart home.

Multiple Hunter Douglas PowerView® Pebble® remotes in various colors set on a stone countertop

#1: Choose a Central Hub

Assuming you already have excellent internet, you need a central hub to begin work on your Smart home. If you don't have Google Nest, Apple Homekit, or Amazon Echo, start there. Any one of these devices can manage almost everything in your home, including Smart:

  • Lights
  • Television
  • Thermostat
  • Security cameras
  • Smart locks
  • And more!

You can operate these not just with your voice but also with your phone or tablet. That can lead to greater security and significant energy savings.

#2: Start Small

Choose a few things to start with. Smart plugs are a great option because they're inexpensive and practical. They turn your non-smart device, like a lamp, into a Smart Light, letting you turn it on or off with your voice or an app.

If you're concerned about home security, smart locks are another excellent starting point. These locks often come with cameras that let you see who is at your door and improve your peace of mind by letting you know your doors are locked, even when you are not home.

As you get more comfortable with incorporating this kind of technology into your home, you can continue to add more things as your budget allows.

#3: Add on Things that Offer the Most Energy Savings

Once you have the lights set up, consider a Smart Thermostat. This allows you to control your home's temperature, even from a distance. This can lead to huge savings because you can quickly lower the temperature during the day when no one's home and raise it so it's comfortable in the evening.

For additional savings, pair your Smart Thermostat with Hunter Douglas smart shades. With PowerView® Automation, any shades can become smart shades, which you can then schedule to operate as you need. Open them in the mornings to let in some light and warm the room, and close them at night for additional privacy. They'll even work with your Smart Thermostat. They'll open or close before the heater or the A/C flips on to naturally warm or cool the room.

For the most energy savings, consider Hunter Douglas Duette® Cellular shades, which provide additional insulation on your windows that help to control the temperature throughout your home.

#4: Finish Out Your Smart Home with Appliances

As your dryer dies, your washer stops working, or other appliances around your home break down, you can replace them with the newer, Smart versions. These smart versions are built with sensors that help them to save energy, use less water, and can even let you know their status through apps or automations.

Start Saving on Your Smart Home

When you design your smart home, you'll save energy and have extra privacy, function, and security. At Geneva's Interiors in Federal Way, WA, we love to help make your more efficient and aesthetically pleasing. Call us or stop by the showroom to see our smart shades and get them into your home. We serve Federal Way, Tacoma, Kent, and Des Moines, WA. Contact us today!