WHEN TECHNOLOGY MEETS INTERIOR DESIGN
These days, exceptional interior design demands the adoption of technology. While technology used to be a stumbling block to flawless interior design, today, the best interior designers have the skills to incorporate technology into home designs to enhance the style, functionality, and sustainability of spaces while maintaining the integrity of their design.
Installations such as TVs and sound systems that would get in the way or were an eyesore are now able to simply blend in or disappear.
So, whether you are remodeling your home, or performing a much-needed upgrade, here are some technologies that your interior designer should be aware of.
Mirror TVs
One of the most common challenges interior designers face today is successfully blending entertainment with style. One product that has effortlessly accomplished this is the Mirror TV. Mirror TV functions like your normal TV; allowing you to watch all your favorite shows and movies. However, unlike a normal TV that turns to a dark screen when turned off, a Mirror TV is designed to look like a framed mirror, beautifully adorning your walls.
Mirror TVs are stylistic and practical and great for living rooms, bedrooms and bathrooms. Smaller sizes are great for bathrooms and kitchens, while the large sizes are ideal for living rooms and bedrooms.
Beautifully framed mirror TVs relieve you of the monotony of installing many plain mirrors as well as having bulky TV equipment in each room. It is also pretty captivating the instance you turn a mirror into a TV by the touch of a button.
They have lots of options to choose from in terms of color, finishing, and frames.
TV Lifts
Gone are the days when flat screens were only mounted on walls. TV lifts are all the rage for modern homes and offices. Functionally, it helps to make minimalistic designs a success—you have a TV that doesn’t occupy space on the walls, and no unsightly wires either. The most common TV lift devices are Pop-Up, Pop-Down, Wall Panel, and Monitor lift systems.
The Under Bed TV lift is a unique mechanism that stores your flat screen under your bed. This eliminates the need for installing cabinetry at the foot of your bed. It is a compact and sleek pop-up design that helps create a different dimension in your room as its revealed and concealed by the use of a motorized flap.
An in-ceiling TV lift ensures complete integration of your TV and space while offering functionality and discretion. It offers you the theatre experience as you operate it automatically from your seat.
Motorized Panels
When it comes to interior design, motorized panels offer a wide range of benefits. These panels are designed to hide TVs or hide rooms. They can slide back at the push of a button to expose a TV when being watched and make it disappear when not needed.
Motorized panels are a functional and aesthetic solution for both home and office. They can be custom made in a variety of textures, patterns, finishes, and grains. You can choose between artwork and fabric movable panels. These panels are great at hiding anything you don’t want people to see all the time.
Invisible Speakers
Invisible speakers, commonly known as tape-in/plaster speakers, have become popular fixtures in both homes and offices. The concept of invisible speakers is not entirely new. However, advances in sound technology have made these systems quite trendy. They are installed in wall and ceiling cavities, taking up no extra space. And, they don’t just blend into the wall or ceiling, they become part of it. More so, these high tech speakers sound quality remains crisp, even through walls and ceilings.
Trufig
If you’re taking the time to invest in the most up-to-date technology for your home, you also want to ensure your surroundings and contents are aesthetically pleasing. Trufig is a revolutionary flush mounting system that provides you the option of keeping the integrity of your design vision, eliminating conspicuous and bulky design flaws. From phone plates to switches/dimmers to home automation keypads and electrical outlets, this innovative technology eliminates protrusions from finished wall surfaces, complementing the architecture and creating a harmonious design, rather than distracting from it.
Custom Lighting Controls
Sublime interior design always takes into account lighting controls. A typical centralized lighting system makes a huge improvement by reducing “wall acne”. A bank of 6 or 7 light switches can be replaced with a clean single gang keypad. That being said, options from Forbes to Lomax, Meljac and Bocce take it one step further and definitely add a new level of excitement to design. These companies offer a variety of button and toggle solutions that blend in nicer with the decor. They can be integrated into your lighting system but also be programmed to control your window shades or even your music.
Working with the Right Interior Designer
As technology continuously advances, it is imperative that interior designers are aware of these emerging trends and their correlation to interior design. This allows for ingenious contributions in functionality, style, aesthetics, and proper use of space. Regardless of what you’re looking to upgrade in your home, finding an interior designer is the easy part, but finding one that knows all the new aesthetic options available will make the difference between an average upgrade or a technologically-superior one.
