Serena Smart Wood Blinds by Lutron Review – 6 Months Later

A long term review of the Serena Smart Wood Blinds by Lutron, the main features, how they’ve held up over the past 6 months, any downsides we’ve run into, and if we’d recommend getting them.

Helpful links:
Serena Shades website:
https://www.serenashades.com/products/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA3smABhCjARIsAKtrg6IDbOatf_vQ0mmku-7GlY9AWl3juG1MSgutrU44JnDV09Fm6RNA6gYaAoh4EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:37 Design
1:48 Installation
3:03 Blinds Set-up
3:48 Lutron App features
4:44 Smart Assistant control
5:11 The Pico remote
5:26 Downsides
6:39 Closing thoughts
7:40 Pricing options

Follow Josh on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoshTeder
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshteder/

Other helpful links:
Video production equipment we use:
https://www.amazon.com/shop/6monthsla…

Google Pixel 5 Amazon link: https://amzn.to/3ds51fW
iPhone 12 Amazon link: https://amzn.to/3bkkwrq
———————————————————————————-
6 Months Later website: https://6-months-later.com
6 Months Later Amazon storefront: www.amazon.com/shop/6monthslaterreviews
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Vendor partnership information & disclosures:

The Pixel 5 used in this video were provided to the channel by Google. Google did not sponsor or pay the channel to produce this video. All other Google products shown were purchased by the channel.

The Lutron Serena Smart Wood Blinds were provided to the channel at a discount. The channel still had to purchase a portion of the blinds and was not paid to produce this video. All comments and critiques of the product are original to the channel.

Any Amazon links we provide in our descriptions are in conjunction with our Amazon partnership. The channel receives a small percentage of revenue from any sales generated by viewers clicking the links.

#SmartBlinds
#Serena
#Lutron
#Apple
#Google

Serena Smart Wood Blinds by Lutron Review – 6 Months Later – Video published on YouTube by 6 Months Later Reviews: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cou-wVNxYmY

The Lutron Serena smart wood blinds are seriously 
impressive. Not only can they open and close on  

their own at specified times but they can also 
integrate with many of the major smart home  

platforms out there. In this video i’m going to 
take you through some of the best things about  

the Serena smart wood blinds, how they’ve held 
up over the past six months of use, any downsides  

we’ve run into with them and then ultimately my 
recommendation on whether or not you should get  

the Serena smart wood blinds. Now before we begin, 
full disclosure, Lutron did send us these blinds  

at a discount so we didn’t end up paying the full 
price for them but ended up paying around a couple  

hundred dollars. Alright, first up, let’s talk 
about the design of these blinds. The Serena smart  

wood blinds look like a pretty modern set of wood 
blinds. The blinds themselves are good quality and  

one interesting design choice is that there’s no 
cord hanging down for you to raise the blinds up  

or rotate them, which is a plus for me personally 
because i’ve always hated those designs. Sometimes  

those manual blinds can be really finicky and 
the Serena smart wood blinds have a much easier  

solution when you need to raise or lower them, 
you simply push up or pull down the panel at the  

bottom of the blinds. At the top of the blinds 
you’ll see the modern valance that i chose,  

though you can go with a more traditional look 
with the Easton valance. The valance is there to  

provide an aesthetic purpose but also it serves as 
a cover for the battery compartment of the blind.  

The batteries you will need will depend on if 
you do a single or double blind but my blinds  

have eight D cell batteries that should last for a 
few years. You can also get versions of the blinds  

that are powered or manual. You have several 
customizable options when you design your blinds  

including stain and painted finishes to match 
your home decor and you can request free wood  

samples from Serena on their website. Alright, 
so that’s the design, next let’s talk about the  

installation. Lutron does a good job of giving 
you adequate installation instructions as well  

as measuring instructions. Before you order the 
blinds to make sure they’re going to be the right  

fit. Unfortunately for my set when i measured 
them i knew they’d be a bit short of my window,  

but i wanted to test them out and i got them 
anyway. Now the installation took me way longer  

than i anticipated and that’s primarily because 
i don’t typically do installations where i’m  

drilling holes into drywall, so if you’re more 
experienced with that, it’s likely not going to  

take you the two hours it took me to install them. 
Part of this was due to me being really careful  

i triple checked my measurements and drew out 
where the holes would be on the wall with a  

pencil before drilling anything i also made sure 
the valance would fit over the brackets before  

continuing the installation and mine just barely 
fit over. Also i mistakenly thought that i could  

just get away with using a Phillips head screw 
bit in my drill and that turns out not to be the  

case you do need the hex bit that the instructions 
call for. Overall though, even though it took me a  

little bit longer than i anticipated, i didn’t 
screw anything up in the end and i was able to  

successfully install these blinds. Lutron does 
have an in-home installation service as well for  

those who would rather go that route. Once the 
blinds are installed you can pop the batteries  

in and connect it to the Lutron bridge which 
you’ll need to plug into your router in order  

to utilize the smart home functionality of the 
blinds as well as be able to use the pico remote,  

which is optional but something i recommend 
getting for those who want something besides  

their voice or a smartphone app to control the 
tilt of their blinds. The Lutron app is what you  

use for this part of the setup process and the app 
does a pretty good job of guiding you through the  

setup process it’s available on both the Google 
Play Store as well as the Apple App Store. To pair  

the blinds to the bridge you’ll need to hit the 
button at the top of the blinds which is designed  

more like a tab than a button and you’ll need 
to push it up which might be a bit confusing at  

first. It doesn’t work like most typical buttons. 
Alright so once you’ve got everything set up now  

let’s take a look at some of the main features of 
the smart blinds in the Lutron app. You have the  

ability to set a closed limit and view positions 
what direction the blinds are facing you can also  

set scenes as well as schedules scenes are really 
great if you have more than one device in your  

Lutron app but since I only have my blinds, I 
found that using this part of the app wasn’t  

all that useful. You can set a natural light 
optimization schedule which will adjust the blinds  

to have more of a tilt to block out the sun’s rays 
when the sun is facing the window. Now it doesn’t  

make as many adjustments as you might think 
throughout the day, especially in my case with  

a south facing window which pretty much gets sun 
all day long and when you set this up you can also  

set up what time you want your blinds to open and 
when you’d like them to close. You even have the  

option to have them open and close at sunrise and 
sunset and you can choose different schedules for  

different days as well. Now you can of course link 
your blinds to your smart assistant platform which  

is probably one of the easiest ways to control 
them. I’ve linked mine to the Google Assistant  

but you can also link it to other smart assistants 
like Amazon’s assistant as well as HomeKit. Not  

only can you ask an assistant to open and close 
the blinds but you can also ask an assistant to  

set the blinds to a specific percentage tilt. 
Josh: “Hey Google, set blinds to 80 percent.”  

Pretty cool, now let’s say you don’t have an 
assistant or don’t want to use one to rotate your  

blinds, that’s where the pico remote comes in. 
This remote not only allows you to open and close  

your blinds with a single tap of a button but 
also have precise control over your blind’s tilt  

as well. Over the past six months i haven’t had 
a single issue with my Serena smart wood blinds  

they’ve just performed flawlessly and i have 
no indication that their batteries are draining  

quicker than expected either. Now that doesn’t 
mean that there aren’t any downsides i found with  

the inherent design of the smart wood blinds. 
The first downside is the length of the blinds.  

Unfortunately they’re not going to fit over all 
windows and even for my window which to be fair is  

quite large the blinds come up a bit short however 
Lutron does offer other styles of shades like the  

honeycomb shade that can be used on much larger 
windows. Another downside with the design of these  

blinds is that the hole that allows the cords to 
go through the blinds those holes can actually  

leak a little bit of sunlight throughout the day, 
so some people may find that annoying but this is  

a design issue with all blinds designed this way 
not just the Serena smart wood blinds. The last  

downside i have with my blinds is direct sunlight 
leaking through the sides of the blinds themselves  

and that is on me that is my fault because i 
ordered the version of the Serena smart wood  

blinds that mount over the window frame versus the 
version that you can mount inside of the window  

frame that wouldn’t have that issue. If i had to 
do it over again i’d get the version that mounts  

inside of the frame. Overall the Serena smart wood 
blinds by Lutron have been a really great addition  

to my room. I love being able to see them open 
and close on a schedule and have the ability to  

precisely control their angle when open which is 
great if you have plants like my bamboo palm which  

doesn’t like direct sunlight but bright in direct 
sunlight and these blinds can definitely help me  

get that. They also have caused me to look out my 
window at the forest outside way more thanks to  

their automation which has been really refreshing 
during the work day especially during the pandemic  

when i’m working from home quite a bit. Before 
with my film equipment typically stored in front  

of my window, it would just be a pain to get up 
throughout the day and have to maneuver through  

my equipment to get to that little rod that 
can adjust the tilt of my manual blinds where  

with the smart wood blinds it’s just much easier. 
Plus the smart wood lines they just look great,  

they look like premium wood blinds and it’s also 
really nice that Serena offers so many different  

finishes to be able to match your room’s look 
and feel. The Serena smart wood blinds can cost  

anywhere from around four hundred dollars 
per window to close to nine hundred dollars  

depending on the size of your window. My version 
is the largest version that Serena makes of the  

wood blinds and normally would have cost around 
$850 US dollars. For more information i’ll link  

Serena’s website in the video description below. I 
hope you found this video helpful and informative  

and if you did and liked it make sure you hit 
that thumbs up button below and subscribe to  

the channel to see more six months later reviews 
on smart home and tech products like this one.  

Well that’s gonna do it for me, for 6 Months 
Later, I’m Josh Teder, thanks for watching.