As much as I love smart home technology, I was never a fan of big, imposing speakers or outsize flat panel televisions. I don’t like cable clutter and I don’t want to see stacks of stereo components or touch panels strewn about the room. In fact, I really don’t want to see tech at all with few exceptions. Here is some smart home tech that disappears, leaving your home’s design with few distractions.
Trufig
When I see outlets or light switches that interrupt the movement in a beautiful slab of marble or cut into intricate tile work, I get bummed out. TRUFIG feels my pain, and creates solutions for both of these problems, along with HVAC vents and anything else that might protrude from your walls and visually distract from the beauty of your home’s deisgn. The solutions are trimless and flush, so technology blends seamlessly into its environment. like a chameleon.
Legrand Adorne
Legrand Adorne switches, dimmers, outlets and nightlights let you lean both ways: They can make a statement or simply disappear. They come in beautiful metallic or colored finishes, but I prefer their paint or wallpaper-friendly wall plates that let them recede into the paint or wallpaper color and call minimal attention to themselves.
Samsung Frame
When is a TV not a TV? When it moonlights as art. The Samsung Frame makes me so happy at our beach house, where I don’t want our small living space to be dominated by a big, black TV. Instead, it looks like a oak-framed family photo, until it’s time to watch a movie with the family.
InvisQi Chargers
This fits in the “impress-your-friends” category: Mount the InvisiQi charger underneath your countertop, desk or nightstand (18-30mm thick, works with most organic surfaces) and you’ve got an invisible phone charger wherever you want it. Genius.
Sonance Speakers
Where are the speakers in this picture? Exactly. Sonance figured out a way to embed them behind your existing wall or ceiling surface and not miss a beat when it comes to sound quality (pun intended).
GE Lighting
For a more affordable sound solution, GE Lighting has put speakers where you’d least expect: In lightbulbs. Add up to 10 in your ceiling or lamps and you can create surround sound in any room, with no hub required.
Baldwin Door Hardware
My front door has beautiful hardware on it, so I’ve never wanted to replace it with a smart lock… until now. Baldwin Evolved‘s handlesets give just a small indication of the smarts they contain: A blue light across the top is a subtle indicator that your lock can be controlled with an app or your phone as a Bluetooth “key”. So chic, and so clever.
