Project Spotlight: Vacation Home by the Shore

We love solving problems, and we love it even more when we need to be creative. Last year we were asked to retrofit this vacation home by the shore in New Jersey. We designed and installed everything for a typical smart home including a highly specified lighting plan, beautiful glass keypads for easy scene control, a custom entertainment system, whole home audio, and so much more.

When we got to the outdoor sound system, we actually had to wire it from a kayak so we could keep everything concealed!

Automated, Exposed Roller Shades

The shades we installed were a definite improvement over what was already in the home. They’re virtually silent even when they all move together in perfect synchronization. And since they’re fully automated and feature an exposed roller, we had to pay special care to ensure the wiring was fully concealed.

Elegant, Granular Lighting Control

The homeowner asked for beautiful, low-voltage lighting, and we went with Lutron’s EcoSystem technology. It requires custom wiring and offers superior performance.

It also benefits everyone involved in a home project.  Electricians are thrilled to have fewer home runs throughout the building.  Interior designers are pleased that decisions regarding lighting zones can be tweaked at any time with granular control—even at the point of an individual lighting fixture itself.  Finally, home owners can enjoy new lighting designs down the road without having to rewire, even years after construction is complete.

After choosing the system, we got to work with a full lighting plan that included fixture placement, specification, cove lighting, and integration for previously installed pendants and chandeliers.

With lighting, detailed precision is absolutely important, and there was a wide range of specifications we leveraged. For instance, we wanted to highlight the art on the wall with individual lights, but we didn’t want the light to spread beyond the individual paintings onto the surrounding wall. Therefore, we specified the fixtures over the wall art with 28˚ beam spread, angled, and a frosted lense.

Custom Fit TV & Soundbar

The majority of TV audio systems have a generic soundbar with a grill that physically slides back and forth.  The grill slides to the width of the TV for the appearance of being custom. Unfortunately, the acoustics are inherently compromised from the start because the ends of the soundbar are hollow.

Therefore, we went full custom. We provided a soundbar by Leon Speakers that was built specifically for this TV and space. The acoustics matched the room perfectly, and the homeowner received a rich surround sound. This was then complimented with small aperture, trimless, ceiling speakers throughout the home.

Of course, we stayed custom by partnering with the builder to ensure the TV was perfectly fitted to the wall, directly over the fireplace. All of this is controlled in a single smart home system for ease of use.

Scenes

Everything we installed throughout the home is fully automated. Choose the Dine scene from the keypad on the wall or your smartphone and watch the transformation commence: the shades will close and the lights at the perimeter of the room will dim while leaving the lights over the bar area and the dining room table lit. Remember, this is a vacation home. Therefore, we designed an Away scene so that everything in the home hibernates for the winter: lighting, shading, HVAC, surveillance, fireplace, ice maker, whole home sound, and more.

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