Picture this: It's the end of the day and you're mentally hanging by a thread after a series of tough meetings at work. However, the moment you walk into your living room and find yourself sinking into your couch, the world suddenly shifts into a kinder, more relaxing place to be. When done right, this could be the life you come home to everyday. For many of us, our living rooms are often the heart of our homes. While our bedrooms give us solace and a private space to be with ourselves, living rooms are typically
for more communal interactions with friends, family, and guests. So, it makes sense to invest in different ways to enhance your experience with it, such as with smart gadgets.
Now, when it comes to finding the right gadgets for your living room, the first thing you should do is note what things annoy you about it. Typically, these can be issues related to how it's constructed, such as oddly-placed switches or difficult-to-open curtains. These annoying factors often give a clue as to what kind of changes can make the most difference for you. Next, evaluate what kind of activities take place in the living room. For example, do you love karaoke nights, host house parties, or treat it more like a place to snuggle up while streaming movies? Once you have these two things in mind, you can start to prioritize what devices are necessary versus what can be nice to have one day.
Read more: 6 Smart Gadgets To Help Upgrade Your Garage Or Workshop
Smart Lighting
Among the most affordable and easy-to-install gadget options in this list are smart lights, which have so many interesting uses for your home, especially when it comes to your living room. Smart lighting can make a movie night more immersive, syncing it with your smart TV. Or, you can even make it match the vibe of whatever music you're playing through your speakers to make an ordinary cleaning day feel like a concert.
With the right setup, you can use it to set the mood for everything from a romantic date to a house party, or even just a relaxing night in with your kids. Smart bulbs can be great investments because they're known to last pretty long, up to two decades. However, it's important to note that the supporting technology that makes it "smart" may become obsolete. As with all types of app-based technology, it's possible that the developer will stop releasing new updates after some time, such as when the company stops manufacturing the product line.
Smart lighting has the added benefit of acting as a deterrent for the house. Even in your absence, you can set smart lights to follow your daily routine, such as lighting up your living room for a few hours during the evenings, just so potential thieves don't think there's no one at home at any given time.
Motorized Curtains
Everyone loves a good high ceiling, especially when it's framed with a set of thick, dramatic curtains. Except, of course, when you have to open and close them at the start and end of each day. Thankfully, a set of motorized curtains can save the day, giving you options to do this with just a single push of a button, a tap on your mobile app, or even a command to your nearest smart assistant. Not to mention, they're useful for when you want to make sure the temperature in your home doesn't fluctuate too heavily throughout the day and want to reduce your air conditioner bills during the warmer times of the year.
Moreover, motorized curtains make great smart devices for seniors or people who struggle with mobility, such as those who are wheelchair-bound or have grip issues. After all, they may not have the physical capacity or even the energy to do it themselves every single day, but would still appreciate a brighter home during the day.
Not to mention, it's a convenient way to optimize routines that can help protect their privacy, especially if the inside of their homes can be visible from public streets. That said, if curtains aren't your thing, there are also smart blinds that might work for your modern aesthetic a little bit better. Not only are they a little more compact, as they're designed to fold or roll upwards, but they also don't need as much maintenance as fabric curtains.
Smart Screens
Although most of us can access the world with our mobile phones, there are plenty of safety-related reasons why we shouldn't be handing them to other people, including those in the same household. Unfortunately, this can cause problems in a connected home that has a legion of smart devices that need to be managed via an app. For example, you can have everything from smart lights, smart plugs, or motorized curtains that a visitor may want to have access to without the need to pair with their phones.
To manage this, you can invest in smart displays to help keep all your other gadgets in check. Plus, apart from smart controls, smart displays can also do other things, like show you the weather, stream music, play videos, view calendars, and even make calls. Depending on what you and your family frequently view, there are several smart screen options that are best suited to display what you need, plus other unique features like rotating bases or quality cameras.
For those who are already pretty integrated with Amazon's Alexa, the Echo Hub, Echo Show 8, and Echo Show 15 are good options. If you're more into the Google Home ecosystem, the Google Pixel Tablet is also pretty popular. But, if you're not big on interactiveness and just want a neat way to display artwork, family vacations, or just videos of cute moments, there are plenty of highly-rated digital photo frames that can make your living room feel more lived in.
Smart Tables
These days, the line between furniture and smart gadgets has been blurred with so many smart furniture options entering the market, especially when it comes to tables. For example, the TooCust Smart End Table has a Bluetooth speaker and provides wireless charging. Alternatively, while it's marketed as a bedroom side table, you can also consider the HOMMPA LED Nightstand for the living room. It has a shelf, power outlets, and LED lights, as well as wireless charging capabilities. But why settle just for side tables?
These days, there are also smart coffee tables that have a ton of practical features packed into one device. Unlike side tables, coffee tables may be a little challenging not to run the plug towards the nearest wall. Unless, of course, you build your house with this in mind and have a plug in the middle of your living room. But take note, if you want something with a refrigerator, you should be prepared to spend some big bucks.
For example, there are smart tables that let you do a ton of things that ordinary tables can't. Apart from Bluetooth speakers, some tables also have wireless charging capabilities, USB charging ports, power outlets, and a refrigerator. And as a bonus, you might not even need to shout at any guests for not using a coaster because some come with tempered glass tops that can handle moisture from cans and are easy to clean.
Smart Diffusers
Scents are heavily tied to our memories. Whether it's the smell of our mother's cooking or the cologne of our lovers, there are plenty of ways smells play a role in our everyday experiences. So, it makes sense that we can also use it to shape them as well. Smart diffusers are a great method for doing this. For just under $40, you can get the Meross Ultrasonic Diffuser. Apart from being rated to be as quiet as a whisper, it also comes with an app wherein you can adjust the LED brightness, set schedules and timers, plus integration with smart home ecosystems like Apple HomeKit, Amazon's Alexa, and SmartThings.
But if you want a model that doesn't even need water to work, you can get the Airversa Waterless Essential Oil Diffuser instead. Despite its relatively compact package at 6.3 inches x 7.81 inches, it has a 400 mL essential oil capacity. Using its accompanying Sleekpoint app, you can turn it on or off or set schedules. Not to mention, given the average large American living room size is only 300 square feet, this diffuser won't struggle to keep up, since it's rated to work up to 2000 square feet.
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Read the original article on SlashGear.
