disclosure: This post is sponsored by Serena Smart Shades by Lutron Electronics

This is one of my favorite spaces in the house.

The upstairs craft room.

It’s where I create.

It’s where I craft.

It’s where I plan and hope and dream and make all those crazy ideas I have come to life.

And now?

Just when I thought I couldn’t love it any more?

We just added even more functionality and ways to use the space.

All with this one new addition.

Can you spot it?

Can you see?

I’ll give you a hint with a few more pictures.

From this.

To this.

From this.

Yep.

You guessed it.

It’s these amazing Serena Smart Shades by Lutron Electronics.

Before we added these shades, I didn’t have anything at the windows and there wasn’t a lot of privacy if I wanted to craft later in the day. And now the days are about to get even shorter and get dark about 5:00 at night, so I knew I needed something at the windows. The shades also help control the natural light in the space, so if I’m working on something that needs more light? I can adjust them up or down.

We installed them ourselves and installed the app on the phone that lets you set Serena on a schedule that opens and closes the shades throughout the day. I can just set it and forget it.

Here’s what the app looks like on my phone. The Serena system operates with Lutron’s Smart Bridge hub, which uses patented Clear Connect technology and also connects with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant, and Caseta by Lutron smart lighting control system.

It’s so easy to use.

When I first started using it, it was so much fun that I literally danced.

I just slide the control up and down to adjust the height of the shades. You can program them to all raise and lower together, or you can adjust the shades one by one.

Program them throughout the day and let the app do all the work.

Here’s a close-up of the texture of the shades I chose.

You can select an interior or exterior mount, submit your measurements online for your order and wait for your shades to arrive. Next, you choose whether you go with a pro or do it yourself. If you are more comfortable with professional installation, you can visit serenashades.com and connect with local pros to take care of everything from in-home design consultation, measuring, installation, set-up, and removal of all packaging.

Or you can choose the DIY route (which is what we did).

Installing the shades ourselves sounded a little intimidating, but it was SO EASY. Serena gives you everything you need to help with the installation. From free fabric samples to online video tutorials, serenashades.com offers everything you need to help with installation. It only took us about 20 minutes to install each shade.

Also, the shades operate off of D batteries, so it’s so easy to replace the batteries when you need to.

This is what the shades look like when they arrive at your home.

Pre-measured.

Pre-cut and ready to go.

This is the front of the shade. There’s also a back part of the shade.

That looks like this.

You start by attaching this to the top of the window with screws.

Once the back part is installed, you clip the front part onto this back section.

Then the last step is to add the batteries.

Open up the back of the shade, add the batteries and add your shades to the app. We also attached a white facia board to the front of the shades that you can order separately.

That’s it.

The shades are ready.

See how the shades are all lined up perfectly?

They did that all by themselves.

The craft room is happy.

I’m happy.

All the projects I’m about to create are happy.

And it all started with a really really SMART shade. 🙂

disclosure: This post is sponsored by Serena Smart Shades.

All opinions are my own.

Please see my disclosure page for more information.

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