Everyone is excited about smart home upgrades, and these are becoming highly approachable for everyday homes. You no longer need to be a millionaire to have a video doorbell or a voice assistant. As a kitchen and bath renovation studio, we hear a lot about the many, many different smart home gadgets for the kitchen. From fridges that count your eggs to ovens that can be preheated from the living room, smart kitchens are pretty swanky.
But what about the bathroom? As it turns out, recent smart home developments have made smart bathrooms a highly luxurious, rewarding, and surprisingly simple set of upgrades. What can you really do with a smart home bathroom? You might be surprised to find out.
The single greatest recent innovation in smart home bathroom design is smart heated floors. Yup, they put a radio control unit into floor heating controls, so now you can use apps and voice commands to get your bathroom floor toasty warm before your morning or evening shower. This can be a life-saver on cold winter mornings when your feet do not want to touch cold tile.
Of course, where one smart home innovation starts, others are sure to follow. You can also now delight in smart towel heating bars and even smart heating countertops for the perfect winter bathroom experience.
Did you know that you can voice-control your bathroom fan? If you have the kind of bathroom fan that is wired directly to the light, now is your chance to be free of the fan's drone 100% of the time, and to enjoy your bathroom fan with the light off.
This upgrade involves placing a smart-control relay between the fan and its power source. If your fan has a tiny plug in the ceiling, you can use a smart outlet. If it's wired in, you can actually wire in a smart controller to make that loud yet essential bathroom fan under your control.
Do you like to listen to updates in the morning? Your daily shower and tooth brushing can come with news highlights or your favorite podcast with a simple mumble to your bathroom smart speaker. In fact, you can even set up a wakeup "routine" that starts the news a few minutes after your alarm goes off.
Of course, the real purpose of having a smart bathroom is to take the most luxurious bath in history. Start by drawing the perfect bath. An in-line water heater is ideal so that your water tank can't empty, but these are just cool, not actually "smart".
From there, ease into your bath and dim the lights with a voice command. You can even set the lights to your favorite color, we find red to be the most relaxing in the visible light spectrum, but you may feel differently.
Relaxing in your bath, speak to your smart speaker to play relaxing music from your favorite music app, or the next episode of a soothing podcast. Control your airflow by speaking to the fan, and get the floors heating with another word to your smart speaker.
In some bathrooms, you may even be able to connect the heat light or wall-mounted heater with a smart home control box. This is likely, however, to be another in-line installation instead of a simple plug-in switch. If you have a stand-alone heater, however, simply put a smart outlet in between the plug and the wall.
Lastly, you can even re-introduce the household intercom using a few smart speakers throughout the house. If you are lounging in the bath and want a cold drink (and there is someone in the house who will bring it to you), simply ask via the smart speaker in your bathroom. In fact, a bathroom intercom is useful for all sorts of purposes, and can save a lot of family inconvenience when used correctly.
Are smart home bathrooms worth the upgrade? Absolutely. This year is a great year for smart bathrooms because the options have become so beautifully convenient and luxurious. If you're thinking about taking your private oasis to the next level, Edesia Kitchen & Bath Studio is here to assist, inspire, and enact your vision of the perfect smart home bathroom. Contact us today to discuss.