Adding Smart Motorized Blinds: a house log

Last month, I wrote a post about the smart tech we enjoy most in our house. And in it, I promised a more detailed post about our motorized blinds. They are hands down one of my go-to smart home features that we have brought in. So let us dive into where we got them, why we chose them, how they are powered, their pros & cons, and – of course – how much they cost!

NOTE: I cannot explain why I insist on calling them “blinds” when they are technically roller shades.

Let us start with the question I heard most… even from Sherry! She was quite reluctant, but has become a full smart blind convert!

Why Install Smart Blinds or Shades?

Motorized blinds have long been my white whale of smart devices, even since we began incorporating them in our last house (this 2018 post outlines 10 ways we use smart devices there). Each morning and evening, I would manually open or close blinds in 6 windows across our 3 bedrooms. Was it a terribly difficult or time-consuming task? No. Should you feel sorry for me? You most certainly should not.

But as we began to automate our family’s wake-up and bedtime routine, the blinds simply seemed like the next logical step. And my few friends who had motorized blinds consistently gushed about how much they liked them.

We did not switch to automated blinds at that house because it would’ve involved replacing or retrofitting 15 blinds that we had already purchased throughout our upstairs. That sounded QUITE pricey. And even if we were to try adaptor kits like this one from Tilt – that $200 kit (per window!) would swiftly add up to thousands of dollars. Yes, thousands. To retrofit blinds you already paid for and own. So, ultimately, it was cost-prohibitive. Even my enjoy of smart stuff has its limits.

Luckily, the math changed when we moved into our current home, where we (1) owned zero blinds or window coverings at all and (2) only had 5 windows that needed blinds!

That is because we chose to leave the windows in the common areas bare to maintain the clean, modern look. So there were simply 3 windows in our bedroom and 1 in each kid’s room that needed covering. Even the bathroom was frosted and did not need anything!

We chose to do roller shades instead of blinds since they would “disappear” more when open. That would assist maintain that bright, modern feeling that we enjoy in this house. From the street, it also makes all of our windows look similarly treated (simply big panes of glass), so it is not especially obvious that the bedrooms have roller shades and the kitchen and living room do not.

Also, in my opinion, roller shades are practically BEGGING to be automated. Perhaps I have simply been traumatized by the low-cost plastic-y roller shades of my youth, but they have a reputation for being difficult. I consistently picture re-pulling a roller shade over & over again to get it to roll up neatly. Or bracing myself for that sudden, violent snap back to the top if you do not pull at the exact right angle to lock them in a fully-down position. So the idea of a roller shade I never have to touch with my hand? Sign me up.

Long story long, I made a fresh case to Sherry that now was the time to go smart on our window treatments. Although she was still hesitant, she agreed that we should price it out. When the cost came back (more on that in a second) – well, it still took some convincing. But I was unrelenting in my #smartblindgoals and since we only needed five of them, she indulged me. And well, now she’s a loud and proud smart blind lover.

What Smart Shades Did We Choose?

We ended up ordering Bali Blackout Roller Shades with brought in smart motorization through Blinds.com (not sponsored, we paid with our own money, yada yada). We picked up blinds from Blinds.com once before – a blackout accordion blind in our beach house’s bunk room. And since we were glad with their options and their customer service (they even replaced the shade for free when it was not fitting quite as we expected), we simply went with them again for this house.

They carry Plenty of options that could be motorized – roman shades, cellular shades, sheers, light filtering, etc – but once we narrowed down our criteria to: blackout, roller shade, and “Smart Home Compatible” – it gave us two options: Blinds.com’s own line of shades, or the Bali brand shades that they sell. We went with the Bali one because our friends the Vargos had been quite glad with theirs, and they have more/slightly higher reviews.

Once we selected the base product, there were still tons of style options to choose from – the first being fabric color. Due to Covid we were not able to order samples at the time (this was May of 2020) but our local Home Depot had a swatch book in the store that we could browse. We landed on one called Acadia Vintage Veil. It is a light neutral sand color with a subtle natural texture that makes these look and feel nicer than your run-of-the-mill vinyl roller shade. Sort of the texture of seagrass wallpaper.

You can customize the rest of your shade style to your preference, simply be sure to choose “Z-Wave Motorization” for your Lift option to get the smart technology if you want to come over to the smart-blind dark/bright side.

How Does The Smart Shade Get Power?

Motorized shades typically get their power from one of three sources: solar, batteries, or an electrical plug (although solar was not an option with the shades we picked up). There are pros and cons to each one, so you will have to decide what is best for your home. Here are some things to consider:

Solar Powered Blinds Pros & Cons

• PRO: Cord-free and eco-friendly
• PRO: Automatically recharge without your assist
• CON: May not work on windows without much direct sun
• CON: Solar power strip will be visible from outside

Battery Powered Blinds Pros & Cons

• PRO: Cord-free and no need to have an outlet nearby
• PRO: Rechargable versions can reduce cost of replacement batteries
• CON: Battery packs may be too bulky for some window frames
• CON: Require regular recharging or replacement

Plug-in Blinds Pros & Cons

• PRO: Reliable power source that does not need recharging
• PRO: Does not require bulky battery packs or visible solar panels
• CON: Needs an electrical plug nearby
• CON: Cords, although small, may be visible near your window

As you can see above, we chose the plug-in option for our smart shades. I will talk more in a moment about how we dealt with the cords, but we ultimately chose that we did not want to worry about recharging or replacing batteries on these puppies for the rest of our lives. Although the cord looks giant and obvious in that photo above, I was standing about two inches away. When you are not standing right next to the side of the window trim that you run it down, it is not quite noticeable at all.

For example, I am a few feet in front of this window and it is not truly visible at all.

In fact, every person we have shown our blinds to asks if they are battery-powered because they do not see the compact cord running down the side of the window trim.

For reference, our window trim only sticks out from the wall about 3/4″ and the cord is around 1/8″ thick. Quite, quite small.

Do I Need Any Other Equipment To Make Them Smart?

Yes, most likely. The technology has changed a bit since we picked up them two years ago, but if you intend to control your motorized blinds through an app or voice assistant like Alexa you need to purchase a Bali gateway device (you can buy your own or add one from the customization screen). One gateway controls up to 15 devices, so tally up how many blinds you are getting to see if you need more than one). Right now, Blinds.com shows this as a $135 add-on to your order.

However, since these particular blinds work using Z-Wave technology, we were able to use a compatible Z-Wave gateway instead. Z-Wave is in short a low-power signal that is used to connect a variety of smart home products into a network using your wi-fi, typically controllable through a single app. So if you already have a Z-Wave hub, you should not need to purchase the Bali gateway device. We picked up a Samsung SmartThings hub (seen below) for $75 back when we got our blinds, but it now seems to be discontinued. This Aeotec Smart Home Hub is similar and should do the trick.

Then all you will need is to download a free app to set them up and control them. Bali now has their own Bali Motorization app, but we set ours up using the Samsung SmartThings app (shown below). It gives us the ability to control the height of the blind, set schedules, create presets, etc.

But if you truly want to make the most of your smart shades, I recommend getting a voice assistant device like an Amazon Echo or Google Home so you can raise and lower your window treatments without breaking out your phone. We programmed our shades with a variety of commands in our Alexa app to make it straightforward to controls groupings of shades (all of them, or simply one room) and to incorporate them into some of our morning and nighttime routines (more on that in a bit).

How Much Did They Cost?

Our five smart roller shades cost us about $300 per window,for a grand total of $1,450. I know. Sherry’s face was like that “wut” emoji with the giant sweatdrop. But we certainly spent more on non-motorized blinds for our last house when you tally up the 16 woven blinds that we used throughout the downstairs (which we never even lowered – hence us forgoing them in the common areas here) + the 15 white faux wood blinds that we brought in throughout the upstairs. That house had a total of 29 windows that we picked up coverings for.

So while $300 is certainly the most we have ever spent per single window covering, it is honestly less than I expected for smart blinds (some of our friends who got them before us paid around $400 per window but prices have been going down as the technology gets more mainstream). Blinds.com also has sales frequently (we waited for one when we ordered ours back in 2020). We also saved because our windows are not quite tall (although we spent more to get the blackout liner because that was one of our prerequisites). All those features aside, it appears that the smart motorization adds about $145 – $190 to the cost of each shade at the time of this writing (depending on which power source you choose).

Were They Difficult To Install & Set-Up?

Nope! Installation of our smart shades was simply like any regular blind installation, with simply the small addition of (in our case) a long thin cord that needs to be plugged in. You mount a couple of brackets and snap the shade into place – bingo, bango, you are fairly much done.

There is some setup involved in connecting them to your wi-fi and establishing your smart commands or routines, but ours was truly straightforward. The exact steps will differ depending on your Z-Wave device and controller app so I will not try to cover the specifics here (but Bali’s how-to video can give you an idea of what is involved). Rest assured that our set-up was no more difficult than any other wi-fi connected device we have ever owned.

How Did You Hide The Cord?

I thought I’d circle back to the its-a-small-cord-but-it is-there discussion for a second. The short answer is: we simply ran it diagonally along the top corner of the window trim where there is a seam anyway and then down the side of the window trim. And we used compact nails to hold it in place (see the one in the top corner on the side of the window trim?)

If you think about how frequently you stare at the side of your window trim (it is truly not too frequently in our rooms), the good news is I bet you will not notice them quite much. The cord runs down the right side of this window trim below, scoots behind the headboard (it is especially thin) and down into an outlet beneath the bed. In fact every single room photo that we have shared above (except for the extreme close-ups) has been on the journal as we shared various rooms and not a single eagle-eyed reader has said: “what is that cord?” It truly is not something you see unless you are actively looking for it.

One other thing to mention is if you are pairing your motorized blinds with curtains (we consistently did blinds + curtains in our previous more traditional homes like our Richmond house and the pink house) – the cords will be fully hidden behind your curtain panel. Heck, they could likely snake down to a nearby plug without being detected at all!

But since we chose to go curtain-less on our windows (we simply hoped blackout curtains on the glass bedroom doors), we simply ran the cords down the side of the window molding.

The only instance where this did not work was near our bedroom door, where the cord has to take a bit of a longer “journey” to get to the outlet. So we used a cord cover kit to assist it blend in with the baseboard (in hindsight that made it a LOT thicker, so you might want to simply try running it down with small finish nails and painting it to match the wall).

Thankfully in this instance, it does not both us because it is hidden behind the open door unless we are sleeping at night, at which point we close the door… but there are zero lights on to stare at said cord cover.

Were They Worth It?

Unsurprisingly, I absolutely think so. And even Sherry, who was extremely skeptical at first, is a complete smart blind convert. Here are some reasons why we like them so much:

Automating Our Morning & Evening Routines

Simply as I had hoped, having voice-controlled shades save us the trouble of individually opening and closing them every morning and night – and because we integrated them into whole smart house routines, the lights dim as well and the whole house in short prepares itself for bed at night or a new day in the morning, which feels delightfully efficient.

Whenever we say “Alexa, Good Morning” they all go up at once and at night, saying “Alexa, It is Bedtime” makes them all go down in unison. It is REMARKABLY satisfying and has become a go-to party trick when friends are over. Nearly everyone who sees them asks us to send them links to the exact things we picked up so they can do it too. It truly is not that hard, and once it is set up it is a quite pleasant luxury. Certainly not a need-to-have, but to us it is most certainly a pleasant-to-have.

Here is a video of it in action:

Note: You can also watch this video on YouTube.

Beyond making mornings and evenings feeling more auto-pilot, living at the beach can mean plenty of outfit changes due to being hot, putting on a bathing suit or taking it off, or wanting to don painting clothes (ok, that one has nothing to do with the beach & everything to do with our Hands-on pursuits). But the point is that we frequently change a few times a day and want a little privacy, so one voice command (“Alexa, Close Bedroom Blinds“) means they all go down at once. We use this multiple times a day in multiple bedrooms beyond simply the am and pm routines we have set. So convenient.

Making Blinds More Kid-Friendly

By making our kids bedroom shades (and lights) voice-activated, we have also made it easier for them to control the lighting and privacy in their own spaces. Rather than having to deal with a blind cord or a shade that snaps up or down if they do not pull it at the exact right angle, our kids can operate our motorized smart blinds fully hands-free. Even better: there are zero handprints staining the fabric because nobody touches them. So whether our kids are changing clothes or trying to make their room dark for fort-building, it requires zero parental involvement and there is something quite cute about hearing them ask Alexa to “enable dark mode” or whatever funny name they use for their own room commands.

Creating Quiet Kid “Alarm Clocks”

Now that our kids are at distinct schools (elementary and middle) which have distinct start times, we hoped a soundless and more natrual-light-related way to cue them it was time to get up and get ready – you know, so some blaring alarm does not wake up their sibling across the hall who can keep sleeping. And these smart shades turned out to be an unexpected solution! We used the Alexa app to create separate routines for their individual shades to raise up partway, lighting their room sufficient to wake them up at the right time (we can also add their room lights turning on to that schedule but have not needed to – simply the shades is a pleasant gentle nudge). It certainly would not work for all sleepers, but both of our kids wake up unprompted thanks to the light shining in at exactly the time that we set their blinds to slide up for their specific school schedule during the week.

Brought in Security When We are Away

Since we can set the blinds on schedules, we created a custom “Blinds Away Mode” in the Alexa app that will raise and lower the blinds at specific times whenever we are on vacation. Simply like you might put lights on a timer to create the illusion that your house is still occupied, our blinds can open and close simply like they would if we were home. Imagine what Kevin McAllister would do with this technology!

Are There Any Downsides?

Apart from them being pricier than your typical non-smart shades or blinds, the only hiccup we have had is that the blind farthest from the Z-Wave Hub quite occasionally loses its connection and does not respond with the two others in our bedroom. Our house has never had remarkable internet, so if you have a good signal it likely would not ever be an issue for you. Even with our spotty internet, it is not frequent and consistently resolves itself in a few hours, so it is more of a momentary weirdness than a deal-breaking issue. Each shade has a button on the right side that can be pressed to lower or raise it manually – nearly like you’d operate a garage door. So we have never been stuck with a blind we could not control. We typically simply ask again and it works or we press that button, but it is a fairly occasional glitch.

With plug-in power, there is consistently the possible hiccup of a power outage, but in the two years we have lived here, we have not experienced one (and we have a back-up generator so it should not be an issue). The Bali website recommends having a local remote if you worry about it as an straightforward solution, but if you experience frequent power outages, you may want to consider a battery-operated shade instead.

Any Other Pointers?

Consider buying one test blind before buying a whole house worth of them. We did this, even though at the time we were desperate to replace the rapidly-disintegrating packing blankets we had been using as makeshift window coverings. It was a true practice in patience.

And we are so glad we did because we caught a mistake that we certainly would’ve regretted about our shade design. We had originally chosen “Standard Roll” for our fabric direction because it sounded, well, standard. It was not until we received our test blind that we realized this meant that instead of seeing our fairly textured fabric selection wound up at the top, it simply looked like a tube of white blackout liner (you see the backing on the roll at the top if you choose Standard Roll – not the front of the fabric). It looked nearly as if you picked up wrapping paper and it was wrapped inside out around the cardboard, hiding the design you picked.

We would certainly recommend ‘Reverse Roll” since seeing a seamless span of fabric instead of a bright white roll of blackout liner at the top is what makes these look noticeably nicer. Simply like our previous experience with Blinds.com customer service, they were understanding of the confusion and offered to replace the initial blind that we ordered for free. And with that kink worked out, we felt confident placing our order for the rest of the house.

What Else Should I Smart-ify In My House?

Funny you should ask!

Okay, no one asked this, but I hoped to end this post by mentioning the original post that I did many years ago called: 10 Ways We Use Smart Technology To Make Our Home More Efficient. It is a truly good place to start if you want to add some smart tech to your house – even simply some basic $15 and under lights or plugs. And the updated go-to-smart-tech rundown that I did last month is full of all the newer stuff we have brought in, a few things we have since ditched, and what we enjoy most. We also lately installed a wireless video doorbell, which took simply 5 straightforward steps.

So there you have it. My extremely thorough thoughts about smart blinds. “Alexa, publish this journal post!” Wait that did not work. Boo, I have to use my hands.

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