Don’t let a lack of time ruin your colorful Chesterfield sofa or shelves lined with first editions. Automated shades, like Serena’s wooden Venetian blinds, can be programmed to go up when you wake up and down when you go to sleep. But more importantly, they have the ability to automatically adjust the position of the slats based on the sun’s position in the sky. And with manufacturers offering hundreds of styles and materials to choose from these days, there’s no need to settle for a corporate-office look circa 2005.
“Automatic window curtains save you time during your morning and evening routine by allowing you to set a schedule for your window curtains to open and close automatically,” Laboda says. “And you don’t have to sacrifice functionality for looks.”
4. Smart light bulbs
WiZ 60W A19 Color LED Smart Light Bulb
Taking the smart outlet idea and running with it, smart bulbs like the WiZ not only have on/off functionality and easy integration with your usual smart home hubs, but they can also adjust warmth or coolness, change color, banish the winter blues, and set mood lighting for a room much quicker than lighting the fireplace and draping a bright red scarf over a lampshade.
“These bulbs are inexpensive, practical, and just plain fun,” says Jennifer Levy, Manhattan-based interior designer and founder of CAVdesign. “You can change the color temperature to mimic daylight, which is great for the winter. You can set it to wake you up to a virtual ‘sunrise,’ or create a fireplace ambiance. I use mine in my home office/guest room, but I’d love to use one in the kids’ rooms as a night light or to create a role-play atmosphere.”
5. Smart Thermostat
Some devices are meant to save you time and money. In the winter, you probably spend a lot of money, both in time and money, just to keep your house warm. In the summer, the same goes for keeping it cool. And back in the day, you had to run to the basement to adjust the heater or move the air conditioner from window to window to find the optimum temperature that kept everyone comfortable.
Self-regulating thermostats, like the Nest Learning Thermostat, take the hassle out of manually adjusting the temperature and are of course compatible with major smart hubs like Alexa Amazon and Google Nest. They also self-regulate, so you don’t have to run out and adjust the heating every time a cold draft blows in and rattles the windows.
“These products have been around for a while, but one of their defining features is that they ‘learn’ your behavioral patterns and create settings based on that,” Levy says. “Another great feature of Nest that I personally use is being able to monitor the temperature in my Airbnb home in upstate New York and adjust it through the app before guests arrive.”
Google Nest Learning Thermostat
6. Self-leveling laser level
If you’re starting to get the impression that smart devices are dominating the field of home time-saving devices, you’re right. Voice-activated smart hubs are clearly becoming a force to be reckoned with. But designers like LaBoda swear by older, but cutting-edge, technologies like self-leveling laser levels. They make it quick, easy, and effortless to achieve the kind of accuracy previous generations could only dream of: 1/8 inch at 30 feet (with a range of up to 165 feet). (The general standard for tolerances in construction is 1/4 inch every 8 feet.) In other words, instead of relying on shaky tape measure measurements and eyeballing, use one of these and you’ll rarely have to rehang a painting.
“Laser levels can save time on design projects by providing quick and accurate horizontal and vertical reference lines, making them useful for a variety of tasks from hanging art to installing wall panels,” says Laboda.
DEWALT Line Laser, Self Leveling, Cross Line
7. Color matching apps and sensors
Painting a room in your new home can be a lot of fun. But it’s not fun to spend hours poring over color swatches trying to make your kid’s room look the delicious mint green you wanted, not day-old pea soup. Color-matching apps have come a long way to more accurately match and represent the actual color that’s on your walls. Some of these apps, like the Nix Mini 3, do this using color sensors. The Nix Mini 3 has hundreds of thousands of name-brand paint color references built in, with no adjustments required.
“Color matching apps are useful tools that reduce the need to endlessly flip through paint fan decks and spend money on unnecessary paint samples by quickly matching color samples to the closest brand of paint on the market,” Laboda says.
Still, since you’re the one who’s going to live in that space, it’s a good idea to double-check the results of your color-matching app with an old-fashioned eye. “No matter how fancy the tool you use, I’m a big advocate of getting samples and trying them in your own space,” says Levy.
8. Augmented reality goggles
Augmented reality has always held promise as a way to blend virtual environments with physical reality. If you think about it, this is basically what architects and interior designers (not to mention aspiring homeowners) do. And yet, people still tend to ignore the potential of AR and virtual reality, dismissing it as a multi-thousand-dollar gaming gadget. But new models like the Apple Vision Pro are so technologically advanced that experts like Levy can imagine it becoming a tool of their trade.
“Apple Vision Pro is a game-changer and has huge potential,” she says. “Imagine being able to rearrange your virtual living room and change the feel of the space by rearranging the furniture, or trying out a complete makeover with new furniture, wall colors and lighting.”
9. Variable Speed Air Conditioners and Heat Pumps
One of the first lessons you learn as a new home buyer is that it’s not always easy to keep your home at a comfortable temperature. It often takes longer than expected to keep the temperature cool enough for the baby to sleep, yet hot enough to keep older family members warm. Variable-speed air conditioners and heat pumps take the guesswork out of running from control to control. Anthony Carrino, host of HGTV’s Kitchen Cousins and spokesperson for Trane Heating & Air Conditioning, loves the company’s XV20i variable-speed air conditioner and XV20i TruComfort variable-speed heat pump.
