Live Your Smartest Smart-Home Life
Put your house to work with the most cutting-edge technology.
What if your day could run more efficiently from the moment you wake?
Imagine the aroma of coffee drifting across your bedroom suite as the draperies part just enough to let daylight peek in. And when you’re ready for your morning shower, you can adjust the water temperature and pressure from a digital keypad outside the wet room area. And that’s just for starters.
This combination of technology and planning—like adding a coffee station in the primary bedroom suite—is one of the key components of smart home design, says Chicago-based interior designer Tiffany Brooks.
Brooks, who designed the HGTV® Smart Home 2022 (of which AAA is a sponsor), says three elements define a smart home: sustainability, technology and logic.
Living more logically means finding ways to make your daily routine more convenient. If you like your coffee first thing in the morning, Brooks recommends setting up a beverage station in the primary bedroom suite. Program the coffee maker the night before, and it’s hot and ready before your feet hit the floor. Another example of smart design, as seen in the HGTV home, is the addition of a laundry chute from the main suite closet: Your dirty clothing goes through the chute and straight into the laundry room.
“Ideas like that kind of veer on the clever side versus the tech side,” Brooks says. “All those elements combined give you a smart home.”
The HGTV Smart Home’s smartest features can inspire you on your quest to boost your own home’s IQ. Consider these features:
Shower: Set your desired water temperature and pressure from an external keypad before stepping in, then adjust as needed from a keypad inside the shower. Added bonus: water waste reduction.
Toilet: What makes a toilet smart? Eco-friendly functionality, self-cleaning technology, seat-warming, ambient lighting, a bidet, deodorizer and even Bluetooth speakers and Wi-Fi.
Mirror: Wi-Fi-enabled smart mirrors can deliver the news, weather and traffic updates as you prepare for the day.
Send the kids a message through a Vestaboard digital message board from wherever you are with an app on your smart device or include musical instruments that work with an app to help kids learn how to play them.
Add low-tech but brain-stimulating elements such as art supplies, a comfy reading nook and rearrangeable furniture.
An outdoor kitchen expands your living space. Screens that lift and lower turns your patio into a three-seasons room. Smart living choices include weatherproof furniture and recessed deck lighting.
Add a covered outdoor entertainment space that can house a wet bar and a television that lifts and pivots for optimal viewing throughout the area.
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