March 3, 2024

All About Lutron Automated Smart Shades For Your Home

Whether it be the Lutron Palladiom, Serena, or Sivoia shades — Lutron has you covered for every aspect of your smart home setup.

When you think about home automation, window shades don’t usually tend to be the first thing that comes to mind. Wall panels and controls that automate every aspect are more and more common. Remotes that can control every TV in the house have become a mainstay. There’s one thing that is definitely becoming very popular in the industry of home automation — and that is the automation of window shades. Shades are the unsung hero of perfecting the smart home, and they can do so beautifully as long as they’re done the right way. Lutron has created a wide variety of different automated shade types, all under various design lineages.

Lutron is a company at the forefront of automation. They have wall panels which help link into home automation systems such as Savant, and they create any type of switch or outlet for any home related need. They also do shades — and they do them very well. Several designs and types of shades are available from Lutron, each with its own elegance for whatever design you’re thinking for each particular room. The current Lutron shade lines are: Lutron Sivoia, Serena shades by Lutron, and Lutron Palladiom. For each of those lines, there are various options available such as Roman shades, Roller shades, and Drapery shade tracks. Even more in depth is how each of those types of shades works and looks, which we’ll get further into later!

Example of two different types of shades working together, recessed shade track on the right for minimalist design, and an exposed roller on the left for blackout shade perfection

Mounting Your Lutron Shades

When it comes to mounting your shades, Lutron has endless options for your every window type. There’s the shades that operate on a roll (known as Roller Shades), and ones that are hidden in the top nook of a wall and slide across a room when they close (Recessed Shades). The uses for each depend entirely on where you’d like to put them and how you’d like them to be visible while in use and in their stored position. The type of fabric used also is a determining factor on which style is going to look more pleasing in actual usage, and that’s where Lutron’s various product lines come into play. Beyond the style of installation, there’s a few other important factors that we’ll cover below. The window treatment itself, along with the type of fabric used for your window treatment. With the proper window treatment and fabric tied together with the perfect shade track, you’ll enjoy smart home window bliss.

Which Shades Are Right For Which Window

The type of shade itself is the next option, whether you’d like a clean and minimalist design for your window treatment, or a more traditional Roman shade system to go with your overall aesthetic. Lutron has quite a few types of shades available for every possible aspect of your home, including a shade that is tensioned on skylights. The available options range from traditional drapery systems to horizontal sheer blinds, and even includes options such as roller shades. Lutron has a full range of products available for your home on their website. Without getting too technical on all the various types of shades (as you can see from the above link, there are quite a few!), we’ll narrow it down to two most popular types of shade bracket. Lutron makes all these different decisions easy for the potential buyer, and it’s possible to use any combination you’d prefer in your shades.

What About The Shade Material

When it comes to drapery systems (the recessed shades generally are used for these), it all comes down to the preference of your fabric. The thickness and type of shade is a very important aspect. From a sheer design which light can go through all the way to an entire blackout design which light cannot penetrate. There’s two ends of the spectrum that you’ll have to decide between for each of your window treatments, shades that allow lots of light to come in, and blackout shades which are capable of blocking out 99% of all light, no matter their color. While drapery systems are aesthetically pleasing, it’s not as easy to place a blackout and a sheer with different light levels on the same track, thus complicating the design as its recessed into the ceiling. For this purpose, people generally would prefer the roller shades for one of your options, which can operate a sheer and a blackout option independently of each other between different shade tracks. Between all the various Lutron shade lines, you’ll find the right option for your home, whether its extravagant Palladiom or more simple Sivoia and Serena shades.

Control your automated shades with the press of your Lutron Palladiom Keypad

What Smart Home Controls Work For My Shades

When it comes to controlling your shades, you’ll need a home automation system to do it (some drapery shades allow for manual movement, however generally it’s much easier and makes more sense to automate all of the shades). Savant links up with Lutron perfectly and allows you to control your shades from an app on your phone, along with several keypads or iPads placed on the walls of various rooms. This creates a wonderfully convenient solution for modern homes, famous for their large and plentiful amount of windows. There’s an option on Savant to create various scenes where you can control what time your shades open and close, along with certain events or parties that can be set with a single button.

There are many options when it comes to your shades. The Savant app lets you decide what and when you’d like to open and close

The larger the home, the more daunting the task of installing multiple shades in multiple locations seems. Each unique location may need its own design and type of shade, and this might seem overwhelming to someone who doesn’t have shade experience. However, with a Lutron system and a contractor such as Regent5, the process becomes more simple. The main decisions when installing them is determining what type of shade you want for each window, and determine both the color of the shades and the amount of light you want to let in. There’s a lot of different factors to consider with your new shade project, but once you’ve got them finalized the rest becomes a lot simpler. Whether your home is in Napa, Sonoma, Atherton, Hillsborough, Woodside, or anywhere else in the San Francisco Bay Area, your Lutron shade solution is ready to be installed.