Smart Blackout Shades in our Guest Bedroom

by Garrett

THE FARMHOUSE

Our guest bedroom has come a long way in the past year! You might remember when we pulled up carpets, refinished the floors and painted last Fall. We also added a TV, found the perfect little secretary desk on Craigslist, tried a billion different rugs, and added some sheer curtains (aka king-size linen sheets). And we got all that done just in time for Cathy and I to use it as our primary bedroom for 3 months while our primary bathroom remodel went into full swing. The room is really comfortable but we realized some blackout shades were sorely needed since the large bank of windows faces east. There are definitely times of the year that rising with the sun is a pleasant experience but not when daybreak is in the 5am hour!

*this post is sponsored by Lutron

We were excited to partner with Lutron to try out their Serena Smart Shades on this project since their smart home products are top notch. There are three different types of Serena Shades to choose from—roller, wood blinds, and honeycomb. We went for a classic and simple roller shade, because that’s the look my wife wanted 😉

Ordering

The ordering process is simple with a step-by-step guide that walks through the options and measuring so that you get a custom fit for your window. We ordered some free fabric samples ahead of time and compared them to our linen sheers. We landed on a neutral textured fabric from the Harbor collection in Sand.

The bank of windows in our guest room has a nice original double hung between two fixed panes. Turns out the reverse roll-style works well for the double hung since the bottom pane and top pane are not in the same plane.

With the reverse roll, we could tuck the shade back and have the fabric come down in front of the bottom pane of the double hung. The two windows on either side are fixed panes so the standard roll (which comes down the back side) worked better there. In each case we are trying to get the fabric close to the window pane to minimize light gaps.

Install

The install process is really simple. You just mount the bracket into the window frame with a couple screws (pre-drill so your wood doesn’t split out!) and then snap the shades into place. Load the batteries, pair to your pico remote and viola your shades open and close at the touch of a button!

Functionality

The smart shades open and close seamlessly with the pico remote.

But to get the most out of the smart features, you’ll need to add the shades into the Lutron app where you can control the shades from your phone and set a schedule for opening and closing. If you wake up at 8am every day, you can schedule the shades to open then. Or you can use sunrise and sunset to dictate the schedule.

We are seriously impressed with these smart shades. From ordering and install, to design and setup, Lutron has taken a simple, thoughtful approach that results in a great customer experience. So glad that now our guests will be able to sleep past sunrise!