Simple, Smart, and Stunning: Serena Smart Shades by Lutron
It finally happened: After 2+ years of not having any privacy from our back door neighbors or shade from the direct sunlight coming in our west-facing kitchen bay window, we finally found the right product for our home.
Automated Serena Smart Shades by Lutron are easy to install, easy to use, and easy on the eye. Scratch that—they’re beautiful! We chose the translucent fabric style in both our kitchen and master bath windows, and we are super pleased with this product! Everyone who has seen them in person is amazed by how much light comes through while providing complete privacy from the outside (the only blackout shades we have in our home are in the bedrooms; otherwise, we love natural light!). We use our new shades to create comfort zones, and that’s super easy to do with either the touch of a button, the utterance of a few words to our Google Home, or a quick finger swipe on a phone screen (using the Lutron app).
The Kitchen
There once were very cumbersome white wood (essentially plastic made to look like wood) blinds in these windows. They all had pull cords, which are not only dangerous for small children to be around, but were also hard to reach when maneuvering around the dining table, chairs, and built-in bench in this bay window. This has always been where our growing family eats lunch and dinner, but with these windows facing directly west, the sun that came in as we were prepping dinner was blinding (not to mention it made the kitchen feel 20 degrees warmer!).
We had looked at countless window covering options, but we had trouble striking the balance of privacy and light allowance, ease of use and safety, and finding something that went with our home’s aesthetic. Roller shades have a sleek, modern look, and after receiving all of the fabric swatches I selected from the website and taping them up in my windows, my decision to install the translucent shade in Harbor, Pearl was an easy one! My favorite part about this fabric is that it allows light to come through and illuminate the space, but it blocks the sun’s direct rays, providing a super comfortable environment temperature-wise while creating an almost whimsical scene with the shadows of the trees outside dancing on the shades. These shades create such a peaceful setting!
The Master Bath
The previous homeowners left us with some beautiful mildewy-yellow, top-down and bottom-up cellular shades, each with some lovely cords that have become discolored over the years (did you catch my sarcasm?). No, but seriously, I think there was lipstick on one of the cords from the woman who lived here before us. These shades needed to go, but with a major renovation happening in the summer of 2021, we couldn’t bring ourselves to order new shades prior to that commencing, especially not knowing which style direction I wanted to take this space.
The way our bath tub was situated would have made it sort of awkward to reach for a cord to pull the shades up or down. Even with the remodel, if we had gone with a cordless shade, there’s the question of whether or not our fingers would eventually leave dingy marks along the bottom (since I chose a white material) whenever we pull them open or shut. For these reasons, it made the most sense for us to proceed with an automated shade option in this space.
I loved the look of the Harbor, Pearl material so much that I selected it for this space as well, although it was a close decision between this and the Mirage, Mesa translucent fabric. What I love about the Mirage collection (“Sand” was another contender from this collection, by the way!) is that it’s woven to represent a natural fiber weave, so it’s great for someone who wants the look of a natural shade but the technology and efficiency of an automated roller shade. If our wall tile were a little whiter or a little darker, I would’ve gone with the Mirage collection, but our tile and the Mirage samples were a near-exact match, and I wanted a little bit of contrast here to break up the large walls.
Technology and Automation
The Pico Smart Remote is the same size and shape as a flat-faced light switch, so in the bathroom, we popped ours right into a four-bay light switch plate on the wall. It does not need to be hard-wired, and it can pop out whenever the tiny battery needs to be replaced (Lutron estimates at least 10 years before that’ll happen). For the bathroom, we ordered one per window so that one can be open while the other one is partly closed for privacy from the neighbors. In the kitchen, we wanted all three windows to function at the same time, so we only needed one remote that now controls all three shades!
The best part, there are four buttons total on each Pico Smart Remote. Two of them allow you to move the shades up and down to your desired location, and the other two take just one tap, and your shades move to the “all the way up” or “all the way down” position. You can also calibrate where you want the uppermost and lowermost positions to be when you set up the Lutron app—it’s great! We joke that Lutron made this remote “so easy a kid could do it!” and our little guy certainly enjoys having the job of lowering the shades for dinnertime so the sunset in the west doesn’t blind us while we eat.
Also in the Lutron app, you can set your shades to go up or down to your desired location at certain times of the day. I feel like this is more valuable than one would initially think… If we’re out of town, our shades still rise and lower each day, so it helps give the appearance that someone is there (or at least that someone is checking on the house). I get so much peace of mind from this feature!
Finally, using the Serena Smart Bridge Hub, you can integrate your Serena Shades with integrating with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant and Caseta by Lutron smart lighting control system, to name a few! All in all, Jason and I couldn’t be happier with our choice in window covering. We feel like characters in a James Bond movie when we tell the shades to lower… and they listen!