Serena Smart Shades by Lutron

We got Serena Smart Shades by Lutron installed and they are INCREDIBLE! Any expectation I had has been blown out of the water. They are functional, beautiful, user friendly, easy to install and SMART - they literally check every box. The whole process was extremely smooth, from looking through samples, to ordering, to installing. We installed them in our bedroom and both of the girls bedrooms, and now I want them all over the house. I'll share our whole experience below.

SAMPLES

The first step is getting some samples sent to your house. You can get samples of the roller shade fabric, wood blinds and honeycomb shades. From there, you go through and see which one will work best for your rooms. It was so nice to be able to hold it up to our paint and curtains to make sure we got the perfect fit. We ended up going with the blackout roller shade Status in color Oyster, and for the girls rooms we did Mirage in color Cotton. Both are gorgeous - but I love ours more. There's more depth and warmth to them!

ORDERING

Once you decide on your fabric, you head to their website to custom order your blinds. First you need to measure your windows. They give you instructions on how to do this accurately on their website. Then you will go through and customize your blinds. You get to choose between battery powered, wired or manual. We went with battery powered and I'm so glad we did! You need to install 8 D batteries, but it says they should last 4-6 years. I love not having any cords or wires or anything on them. Then you decide if you want them mounted on the inside, the outside on the frame or the outside above the window. We went with an inside mount to make them blend in more and I love how it looks! We went with a fabric wrapped fascia that is the same fabric as the shades and it gives everything such a finished look. Lastly you choose the color you want, and then accessories! We got Pico Smart Remotes which lets you control them, and wall plates to mount them on the wall.

INSTALLATION

The blinds came way quicker than I was expecting which was so nice! They arrive in long boxes, and are packaged really well. Nothing was damaged or missing. The installation process was honestly SO easy. This was the part I was worried about the most. I enlisted my husband to help and each window maybe took 10 minutes to do. He was so impressed by how easy and quick it was (usually my projects take a lot longer ;)). Before we started I actually checked to see if there was an install video (we're visual learners), and there was! It's a step-by-step guide to installing which was really helpful. I'll link it here. You basically just screw in this back mounting piece onto your window frame, and then the shade clicks right on. Then you put the batteries in and turn it on! To make it work, you need to install the Lutron Electronics app, which allows you to control the shades through your phone, through your Pico Smart Remote and also through our Alexa devices. We also chose to mount the Pico Smart Remote on the wall so that we wouldn't misplace it. Because it's wireless, all you need to do is screw on a wall plate and click the Pico Smart Remote onto it and put on the front cover plate! It looks just like a switch, and is so easy to use. That was also a breeze to install.

FUNCTIONALITY

This is my favorite part, using the blinds! There are so many ways to control them. Through the Pico Smart Remotes on our wall, through the app on my phone, through our Alexa devices or from a schedule! On the app I scheduled our blinds to come up every morning at 7:30am. Then I know it's time to get out of bed. It's such a nice way to wake up in the morning! You could also schedule them to go down in the evening at whatever time you wanted. Everly's favorite way to use them is to ask, "Alexa can you open Everly's blinds". Zara and Rosie prefer to use the switch on their wall. You can set them to stop in the middle if you only want a bit of light coming in, and you set where it starts and stops on your window so that you get full coverage. They have made our day-to-day life so much more enjoyable and seamless and I recommend them to anyone in the market for new blinds! Head to my Instagram page @staceykasdorf to see them in action!

Best,

Stacey

This post is sponsored by Lutron Electronics, but all thoughts, ideas and opinions are my own.