We also really like SmarterHomes hardware and installation process. One of the main reasons he recommends this route is that you can have your shades hardwired instead of having to rely on batteries. If you want to power up your smart home, then you need to install smart sensorstiny detectors that tell other smart devices what to do automatically. And because the Gear relies on Bluetooth, response time is slow compared with that of our top pick, the Lutron Serena Shades (it does support Zigbee wireless and can connect to SmartThings or a Zigbee-enabled Alexa, which should improve response time). Following the same flat rate pricing structure as for the SmarterHome MySmartShades, these cost $419 per shade, no matter the size of the opening; this is a savings compared with the Lutron price, if you have windows that are more than 32 inches wide. And they have few actual smart features, other than scheduling and the ability to close automatically when its hot out.
In the grand tradition of IKEA, purchase, setup, and installation were a giant pain. And the MySmartBlinds have a wand for manually controlling the tilt of the blinds (which the Lutron blinds dont have). The shades use Grabers new Z-Wave wireless motors and gateway device (which costs up to $200; you could instead pair directly to an existing Z-Wave hub you may have, including SmartThings). In addition to looking at reviews from sites such as CNET, Toms Guide, The Verge, The Ambient, and Digitized House, we also researched window treatments in home-decor magazines, such as Good Housekeeping, Dwell, and Architectural Digest. It sells custom, made-to-order Zigbee- or Wi-Ficonnected smart shades that are worth considering if you want to customize your shades to fit your window but dont want to spend more than $350 a pop. Somfys new motors, which communicate using Zigbee 3.0 and work with the new TaHoma hub, are coming later this year. ), then these inexpensive smart shades are a great, budget-friendly option. Serena blinds can also be set to close and open automatically whenever you leave or arrive home.
Anytime you can wire, your reliability is going to increase, and you dont have any batteries or recharging to fuss with, VanWert said. Lutron does offer professional installation through Budget Blinds. They start at a very reasonable $289 for a 23-inch shade, which includes a sleek, wall-mountable remote but also require a $90 smart hub to enable smart features like Scheduling, Scenes, and voice control via Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Siri Shortcuts. When paired with a temperature sensor through Amazon Alexa, they can also be set to close when the temperature rises in the room. Thanks to these shades wide compatibility with smart-home systems (more than SmarterHome, fewer than Lutron), you can use Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri for voice control. Hunter Douglas offers a mind-bending number of options, including having your shades travel from the top down as well as from the bottom up. Compared with Lutron, SmarterHome (formerly called Tilt) offers fewer options in terms of fabric and design, and these shades arent as quiet or as smooth as the Serena Shades. Additionally, the insulating nature of the honeycomb shades helped keep heat out during our summertime testing. Like Lutrons Serena Shades, SmarterHomes MySmartRollerShades are custom-made to fit your windows. Smart shades and blinds are an expensive upgrade over standard window coveringsall the more so if you plan to install them on several windows, which could be a multi-thousand-dollar project. Smart shades and blinds can help you save energy by alternately blocking or allowing in light based on the season or time of day, and they are especially useful for people with mobility issues. Smart lighting is arguably the easiest smart-home gear to install and use, yet has the power to transform your homeinside and out. Although the blinds can be tilted on command, you cant use a controller to raise or lower themyou have to manually push them up or pull them down, as you would with other modern blinds. Their fully customizable design and lightweight construction made these shades the simplest to install. Our goal was to find shades and blinds that offered the best experience, the widest choice of design, and the most useful smart-home integrations, without requiring confusing levels of tech. The other feature the bridge enables is the option to set up motion- or temperature-based routines with your shades. David VanWert, of VanWert Technology Design, phone interview, May 23, 2020, James Stables, The best smart blinds, The Ambient, February 2, 2021, Tom Kolnowski, Automating Window Shades in the Connected Home Era: Part 1 and Part 2, The Digitized House, March 15, 2018, Dan Seifert, Smart blinds are an expensive upgrade to your smart home, The Verge, August 27, 2020, Andrew OHara, Hunter Douglas PowerView Shades review, Apple Insider, June 16, 2021, Alice Hurley, How to Buy Blinds and Shades, Good Housekeeping, August 7, 2019, Michael Brown, Graber VirtualCord Motorized Shade review, TechHive, October 25, 2019. Pro installation is also well worth doing if you have openings that are difficult to access (such as skylights) or ones that are unusually shaped. (However, you dont have to purchase the hub if you can connect to an existing Z-Wave setup.) They can also be powered by an outlet, a standard battery pack, or hardwired. 
Overall, functionality is similar between our pick (Lutron Serena Shades) and the pro-install option we tested, Hunter Douglas.
(And they can help save energy and boost home security, too.) I also contribute to home-design magazine Dwell, and Im home editor for Charleston Magazine.
Using an infrared thermometer, we were able to demonstrate that with the Lutron shades closed, at 3 p.m. on a July afternoon on south-facing windows, the temperature was almost 10 degrees cooler than when we had them open. There are on-device controls that are useful, if you can reach them, which is not a given since theyre located at the top of the shade. We then connected any available smart features using the companys own hub or bridge, or an Alexa connection. Battery life varies by model and how often you use them. If you are looking to outfit an entire home with all-new shades and blinds, you can save money by mixing and matching smart with non-motorized models. These Lutron shades are some of the most expensive of those we tested, but we believe the extra expense is worth it for their quality, ease of use, and reliability. Although its well designed, with a sleek touchscreen panel, it has to be plugged into power or used with a giant solar panel, so its more obtrusive than our picks. Once they are set up (and let us be clear, this takes some wrangling due to a never-ending wireless pairing process), the Fyrtur shades work reliably and respond quickly. (VanWert is not affiliated with any manufacturers and doesnt sell products.). If these shades will fit, and you like IKEAs style, then Fyrtur are very good blinds, made smart if you pair them with IKEAs Tradfri hub (a drawn-out process that involves a lot of back-and-forth pairing). Although any properly installed honeycomb shade would provide identical insulation, smart ones take care of the process of opening and closing without your having to worry about it. Alva IQ is a budget line of solar or blackout roller shades that come in three colors and more than a dozen sizes. They have a rechargeable battery that lasts a long time; we recharged it after eight months of use. In most cases, trying to smarten up a dumb shade is like trying to put a small Band-Aid on a big wound, said VanWert. But its very time-consuming, and the end result is not as good as that of SmarterHomes new shades (theyre noisier and slower). But the battery charging is ungainly, requiring you to plug a cord into the shade (though at least that should happen only once a year). Serena Smart Wood Blinds work with Lutrons reliable smart-home ecosystem. We ended up with a smaller size that had to be mounted on the frame of our window, as opposed to entirely over the frame. For more-advanced smart-home automations, we connected Lutron Serena Shades to third-party smart-home systems, which allow you to trigger your shades based on motion, temperature, and light levels. These shades dont match the quality of the Lutron or SmarterHome (formerly Tilt) shades, in terms of materials and design, but they look nice enough. Its easy to say youll be more energy-efficient, but smart-home devices can help save water, electricity, and money without you even realizing it. The smart home isnt just nifty gadgets: For those who have accessibility challenges, smart devices can be empowering and enable independent living. Once theyre paired with the Lutron bridge, you can use the Lutron app to control the blinds remotely, put them on a schedule, and integrate them with Amazon Alexa or Google Home for voice control (currently theres no Apple HomeKit support). This was primarily because the manuals and steps arent designed to be user-friendly; theyre designed for an installer who has been trained to do it. During our long-term testing, the shades lost their connection to the remote and app multiple times, requiring us to go through the pairing process far more times than we cared for.
As such, they are a good choice only for people who have windows that precisely fit those standard sizes. They also dont have as many options for controltheres no remote at allso you need to use Schedules, a smartphone app, or a smart speaker. The Duette shades themselves were slightly more expensive than Lutrons; the same-size shade in a standard blackout fabric would be $650. And he set up all the home-automation and remote-control options during install. And they dont have a plastic wand dangling down; though this means you cant tilt them manually, for $25 you can pair a Pico remote, which works without the bridge. They are very quiet, and we found their sleek, silver-and-gray industrial design to be stylish. Im a journalist and an editor who specializes in smart-home technology and interior design, so smart shades are right in my wheelhouse. But the retrofit shade controllers work only with certain types of shades (those with cords), and in all but very specific situations, you will get a better outcome by purchasing and installing new smart window coverings (see Retrofit solutions). 
If you screw up your measurements, however, youre responsible for the cost of the shades. To understand how useful they really are, I spent more than 35 hours researching the category, over 600 hours doing hands-on testing, and about two years living with smart shades. Like smart lighting, smart window coverings make life more convenient, and they add ambiance by providing the right lighting at the right time of day. It now costs $299 per shade (it was $199 when we first reviewed it), which is a very steep price, and it requires a much more involved installation. You can set the shades to open or close to a specific level, and you can also group shades. If you (or someone in your home) has a specific style and design in mind when it comes to window coverings, youll want to look at Graber Motorized Shades. They can be set up to run on a customized schedule or automated Scenes, or integrated with home-automation software, including Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Samsung SmartThings, and Google Home. This change, slated for early 2022, will bring more and better smart-home integrations to the blinds. The material is more substantial and doesnt bend or crease or have flimsy edges. That said, the included remote is a bit finicky, and installation and setup can be just as frustrating as it is when youre putting together an IKEA cabinet. For instance, using HomeKit, we created an Automation that lowered the shades to three-quarters closed if the temperature in the room rose above 78 degrees Fahrenheit, and it worked reliably and precisely. Ive also lived in a DIY smart home for the better part of a decade. They work with every major smart-home system and all of the voice assistants, when paired with Lutrons Casta Wireless Smart Bridge (a small device that plugs into your Wi-Fi router and lets you control your devices remotely; its the same one that connects Lutrons Casta smart light switches). But theyre also the most expensive, starting at $599. Theyre also loud when activated, and they require a long, large wand and a wall-mounted plastic box to operate; our budget pick, IKEA Fyrtur is a better option in every way. Scheduled for release this fall, its a retrofit device for adding motorization to existing shades. These shades run on a rechargeable battery that connects to an included solar panel. And though we are big fans of DIY, if you dont know your fascia from your sash, or you think honeycomb is just something to do with bees, you might need professional help to select the right style for your home (see Pro install options). This means theres less worry that Lutron might go out of business in a few months or yearsa real concern when youre spending a lot of money on a smart-home item. Also, they can enhance security by making your home seem active and occupied even when its not. So, if style and quality are less important to you than price and utility, and you dont mind troubleshooting every few months, these will be a useful addition to your home. A second pro-install option we tested was Somfys RTS shades, which connect to Somfys new TaHoma hub ($199) to allow integration with Amazon Alexa and Google Home.
They can be set on Scheduleswithout the need to buy a smart huband can be configured to react to temperature changes and adjust accordingly (Lutron Serena Blinds can do this, but only if you buy an additional temperature sensor). There are no on-device controls, so you cant open and close the shade manually. If you do already have corded shades, be prepared to spend $150 to $250 per window to improve them with what is, at best, an inelegant solution (a large, chunky white box on your window frame and wires everywhere). His company helps homeowners integrate tech with interior design, and he has more than a decade of experience with a wide range of smart window coverings. Expensive, clunky, and requiring a power source, most retrofit devices are simply not worth the hassle. There are three categories of smart shades and blinds: We tested models in all three categories, but our main picks are from the DIY category only. Linkshades offers a line of $99 DIY smart shades in three style options and fixed sizes (but there are no optional fabric choices). Grabers smart roller shades use Z-Wave motors that have to be paired either with the Graber VirtualCord Gateway or another Z-Wave hub (such as Samsung SmartThings). The blinds work on windows from 21 inches to 73 7/8 inches wide and come in white or walnut. But it doesnt offer any particularly innovative smart features, such as geofencing or temperature controljust basic scheduling using day and time or sunrise/sunset. It can all be done online, however, which is rare for custom shades. Two important features of smart shades are how you control them and how well they fit into your home, and Lutron Serena Shades excel in both areas.
This wouldnt be as much of an issue if they had a remote, but they dont. It has a full line-up of motorized shades in a number of different styles (roller, honeycomb, layered, sheer) and over 500 fabric choices (more than twice that of our top pick). The app is well-laid-out and simple to navigate. They run on D-cell batteries, which Lutron says youll need to replace about every two to three years (assuming theyre triggered twice a day). Over the past seven years, Ive spent countless hours testing smart-home devices for Wirecutter, including smart-home sensors, smart garden devices, and smart garage-door controllers. To our eyes, MySmartBlinds arent as attractive as Lutrons options (due to an unsightly wand and cord). In that case, SmarterHomes Roller Shades Automation Kit is the only solution worth considering. If the installation challenge is daunting, or youre considering the YouTube videos that show you how to hack Fytur shades so they fit your window, wed say skip the headachethere are better options. We installed them in March 2020 and havent had to change the batteries as of July 2021. This might be an option if you have just one or two large shades you want to automate. This also enables a Natural Light Optimization feature, which adapts the blinds intelligently to the sunlight, based on your location, so the slats of your blinds are always tilted in the best direction for optimal light with minimal glare and solar gain. The MySmartBlinds include a traditional cord to raise and lower the blinds, rather than the more modern, cordless push-and-pull method of the Lutron blinds. These blinds are responsive, quiet, custom-sized to fit your windows, and available in four painted and four stained finishes.
SmarterHomes app is easy to use, and it lets you set up automated Routines and Schedules for your shades (Schedules can be based on time and day or sunset/sunrise), as well as control them without a bridge, as long as you are in Bluetooth range. That doesnt include standard extras, like valances, or the wireless hub/bridge to connect them to your Wi-Fi network (which, depending on the brand, runs from $35 to $250, though thats a one-time cost, not per shade). When its time to recharge, youll have to hop on a ladder and remove the battery to recharge with a USB charger. And when theyre paired to IKEAs $35 Tradfri hub, they integrate with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple HomeKit for app, voice, and smart-home control. Plus, a visualizer tool lets you upload a photo of your room to see how your choices will look. The blinds automatically move with the sun throughout the day, and if you have multiple blinds, they all look uniform without your ever having to touch them. Well test this model when its available. The Lutron blinds dispense with unnecessary cordsyou just push them up and pull them down. But we did like the option to automatically return the blinds to their original position when the room cools down, and this worked well in testing. For our reviews, we considered the whole buying process, from ordering through installation to everyday use. We also loved the battery solution; its a non-removable, rechargeable lithium-ion battery thats built into the shade. Whether it's finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we'll help you get it right (the first time). SmarterHomes optional $109 Bridge connects the shades to the internet to support Amazon Alexa and Samsung SmartThings. Installing the shades was simple, thanks to an excellent video tutorial (there were no written instructions in the box).
Installation and setup took less than 15 minutes, and even though the instruction manual wasnt great, the steps were so simple that this was the easiest install of all the models we tested. Subscribe now for unlimited access. The included solar panel is easy to install, and in our testing, it provided ample power even on shaded windows. With a pro, not only are you mostly guaranteed a risk-free installation, but your options also get a lot wider. If your window openings fit one of the eight available sizes of IKEAs Fyrtur shades (ours didnt), and you like the industrial exposed hardware and gray blackout fabric look (we do! Its pretty smart. We tested both roller and honeycomb styles (but not Roman, since there arent currently any DIY smart Roman shades). 
However, they come in just two colors (white and walnut). (Note that Lutron offers pro installation through BudgetBlinds for about $100 extra per shade, depending on complexity.). An excellent Natural Light Optimization feature tilts the blinds automatically as the sun moves throughout the day, ensuring your room has balanced light while minimizing glare. So you have to use your app, set up Schedules, or use voice and your phone or a smart speaker to control them. (Pro tip: The remote comes paired with the shade. We found the ordering process to be complicated, with multiple customization options that are confusing if you know nothing about shades.
At one point we had to completely reset the hub and app before we could get it up and running again. Compatibility: Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Home. Smart shades and blinds may be battery-powered (using either standard batteries or rechargeable ones) or hardwired to your homes electrical system, and a few can be plugged into a nearby available outlet. The good news is that SmarterHome is merging its blinds and shades products into one app and one bridge (see What to look forward to). So if you want voice control or the ability to adjust your blinds from outside Bluetooth range, we do not recommend purchasing these at this point. Also, this takes virtually no setup on your part, other than just toggling a switch in the app and giving it access to your location (so it can determine which way your window is facing). The app provides the option of using geofencing to open and close your shades automatically, by sensing your smartphone when you arrive or leave home. But for just a few, smaller windows, you may end up paying more. Assuming you get enough sun, you shouldnt need to replace or recharge the battery for a long time. The Soma Smart Shades 2 works similarly to the Axis Gear but is about a third the size and $100 cheaper. The downside is that the smart-home integration is quite basic: There is no control app, so you also need a Zigbee hub to control it (that could be an Alexa Echo).
And they can be configured on a Schedule or included in Scenes (a series of settings changes among one or more devices) with other Lutron devices. Although ordering was wonderfully easy, the process for installing and setting up the shades was the most complicated among all the models we tested. And yet its really not.
Those allow you to control your shades via voice commands or automate them using Routines. To measure and install smart shades for a large front window with one bigger opening and two small ones, it required two visits from an installation tech and added $400 to the price. Lutrons Serena Shades are our top pick because they work flawlessly, are the fastest and quietest shades we tested, and are compatible with all the popular smart-home platforms. Overall, the shades we tested provided more smart features than blinds, which also tended to be larger, louder, and (we think) generally less attractive. But theyre a fraction of the cost of our other picks. If you are outfitting an entire home, that gets very expensive very quickly. Our other picks are a better option for most people. Responsive, quiet, and of excellent quality, these custom-made shades can be controlled using automated smart-home controls like Schedules, geofencing, and Scenes. SmarterHome does sell a long-charging cable, should you run into solar-power issues. Owned by Spring Window Fashions, Graber has been in the window-covering business since 1939. Smart wood blinds, also known as Venetian blinds, are generally more expensive than shades, yet you cant mechanically raise and lower them, as you can shades. But overall the pricing is in line with that of Hunter Douglas, yet with fewer smart features. The shades do come with a remote, which is a cost savings. Weve had two SmarterHome shades installed in our test home since June 2020one on an east-facing window with tree cover, the other on a south-facing windowand neither has needed to be manually charged in that time. If spending more than $500 per window is not in your budget, IKEAs Fyrtur shades are a very good option, assuming your window openings are the correct size and you like gray blackout fabric. The Lutron app lets you set the blinds on a schedule (in addition to the Natural Light feature) to open, close, or partially tilt based on a time of day or sunrise and sunset. Pricing varies because it is set by the dealer, not by Graber directly. However, the bridge is currently out of stock, and the company tells us it wont be available until 2022, due to the global chip shortage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The company tells us these will integrate with more smart-home platforms natively (including Philips Hue, IFTTT, and HomeKit), and they can connect directly to Zigbee hubs (such as SmartThings and Amazon Echo devices), so they can be used without a Somfy hub. Compatibility: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant. However, in operation they are very loud, close to 15 dB louder than the Serena blinds, so they arent a good choice for a bedroom. Smart shades and blinds that extend, retract, or tilt automatically are indeed a luxury, but theyre also just plain useful. Starting at $599 each (plus the cost of the Lutron bridge, $80, and Pico remote control, $25), Serena Smart Wood Blinds are some of the most expensive window coverings weve tested, but thats largely due to the fact that they are custom-made to fit your windows and come in four painted colors or four stains. And the removable, rechargeable battery lasted six months before needing to be recharged. We found these to be plain and utilitarian-looking, compared with the other options, and we dont like that they need to be plugged into a wall outlet. And the process for mounting the shades was similar to Lutronsjust drill in two brackets (find your own screws; theyre not included), and snap in the shades. We were impressed with the shades, which were made of quality material and operated quietly and smoothly.
And to set up they require the purchase of a bridge, which is a completely different, $109 device from the one that works with the MySmartShadesand which is also currently out of stock until 2022. But you still have to contact a dealer to do the actual ordering. Also, the hub for smart-home control with Amazon Alexa and Samsung SmartThings costs $109and it is out of stock until 2022. The Lutron Serena Smart Wood Blinds are smarter and better looking than any of the other smart blinds we considered or tested. And they work over Zigbee (a wireless protocol used by several smart-home hubs, as well as many Amazon Echo devices); this makes the IKEA shades more responsive than the SmarterHome shades (though theyre still slightly slower than the Lutron shades).
But the remote will work even during a power outage, so we dont think this will be a problemunless you lose the remote, your phone, your voice-enabled speakers, and all of your Schedules suddenly stop working. It also recently released PowerView+, a wired smart shade. Smart shades and blinds are motorized window treatments that can also be controlled with a smartphone app and with voice (using a smart speaker or a smartphone assistant like Siri).
Though we think the Lutron Serena Shades are the best choice for smart shades, if you cant find the right fit for your decor needs, or you want Z-Wavebased motors to fit into your home-automation setup, Graber Motorized Shades are a very good alternative.
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