Why You Should Install Lutron in Your Home
Years ago, a room might have had one switch and one overhead fixture. Today, that lighting has changed. Even a modest custom home can have pendants over an island, under-cabinet lighting, accent lighting inside cabinetry, decorative fixtures, and landscape lighting all working at once.
As homes have become more open, lighting has become more layered. That is one of the reasons we have been fans of Lutron Lighting for decades.
At Garabedian Properties, we view Lutron as a smarter way to make a home function.
GET IN TOUCH WITH BRAVAS
📞 972.488.5100 | 🌐 Bravas | 📩 Brandon.Trimble@Bravas.com
Why Lutron Makes Sense in a Luxury Home
One of the biggest challenges in modern homes is that there is often no good place for a “bank of switches.” We call this “wall acne”. Open-concept layouts, larger rooms, and floor-to-ceiling glass windows leave less wall space while requiring more lighting control than ever before. Lutron solves that by consolidating multiple lighting loads into a single keypad, allowing Owners to control an entire room or sequence of rooms without covering their walls in ‘acne’.
In practical terms, that means a single keypad can manage a kitchen, breakfast area, and great room together. Instead of five to ten separate switches, an Owner can have one elegant control point.
What Are Lighting Scenes?
With Lutron, an Owner can create scenes. A “Welcome” button can light the natural path through the home when you arrive. A “Goodbye” or “Whole House Off” button can shut off lights throughout the house when you leave. Instead of walking around room to room making sure nothing was left on, one command handles the entire home.
An entertaining scene can soften certain fixtures, turn off others, and create a completely different mood for a dinner party. A movie scene can dim the room appropriately without making the space feel dead. A nighttime scene can turn on select lights with a warmer light, so you are not blinded on the way to the bathroom at 1:00 in the morning.
This is one of the most important points: Lutron is not just about turning lights on and off. It is about programming a home to respond better to how you live in it.
Better Than Just An App On Your Phone
A lot of “smart home” products claim you can control everything from your phone. That sounds impressive until you are standing in your kitchen, arms full, trying to unlock an app just to turn on a light in a room.
No one wants to come home and fumble through their phone to turn on the lights. That is why keypads matter. They simplify the experience rather than adding another layer of friction.
The app is still useful. Owners can fine-tune scenes, adjust dimming levels, and make changes after they move in. If you decide your lighting should come on at 75 percent instead of 100, that can be changed. The point is to let the home do more, not make our Owners do more.
GET IN TOUCH WITH BRAVAS
📞 972.488.5100 | 🌐 Bravas | 📩 Brandon.Trimble@Bravas.com
Differences Between Caseta, RadioRA 3, and QSX Homeworks Lighting Systems
Not every Lutron product is designed for the same type of project. Depending on the size of home, the style of home, or whether the home is being built or renovated, you will need a different lighting system.
Caséta is more of an entry-level, DIY product. It works well for smaller applications, but it does not offer the same keypad flexibility and is not ideal for larger homes with many devices and lighting loads.
RadioRA 3 is often a better fit for retrofit situations, especially in homes that are not undergoing major remodeling or new construction, because it can provide better control without rewiring the house.
HomeWorks is the system typically associated with larger-scale luxury homes and new construction, where the wiring and infrastructure can be planned correctly from the beginning.
Not every Owner needs every system. A good integration plan with the right builder can match the system to a distinct project.
Do You Have to Install Lutron in the Entire Home?
The short answer is no! A Lutron system does not mean every room has to receive the same treatment. Brandon explains that many projects focus the more advanced controls on the main living spaces, primary suite, and outdoor areas, while simpler switches are used in guest bedrooms and children’s rooms. Those areas can still be integrated into the larger system without dipping into the global budget.
We appreciate that approach because it reflects how we think about our Owners. Not every dollar needs to be spent everywhere. It should be spent where it improves the Owner’s experience the most.
Lutron Integration Extends Beyond Lighting
One of the strongest arguments for Lutron integration is that it does not stop at lighting.
The keypads can also be used to control shades, televisions, speakers, screens, and other systems integrated into the home. A single command can shut down the house when you leave by turning off lights, lowering shades, powering down TVs, and simplifying what used to require a long checklist.
Brandon uses a car analogy in the episode: when you start your car, you push one button, and you are good to go.
“When people get in their car, they understand that they just need to push a button. About a thousand other things are going at once. You’ve got a ton of different mechanical and electrical things going on, but the simplicity of just hitting a button and triggering all of that, and then you just get in and drive off, is kind of the great concept.”
GET IN TOUCH WITH BRAVAS
📞 972.488.5100 | 🌐 Bravas | 📩 Brandon.Trimble@Bravas.com
Automation and Vacation Mode
One of the more overlooked features discussed is Lutron’s astrological clock. Lutron uses Ketra Lighting that adjusts with the real sunrise and sunset times throughout the year. That means landscape lighting, exterior lighting, and even shades respond automatically to changing daylight conditions and daylight-savings time without the Owner having to reprogram their lights.
Remember the burglars from Home Alone? Joe Pesci knew when the lights were going to come on, indicating an Owner was on vacation. That is now a worry of the past! Lutron created “Vacation Mode”, which randomizes activity to make the home look occupied while the Owners are away. That is a far better approach than the old plug-in timers many of us grew up with.
Why We Recommend Lutron For New Builds and Older Homes
We recommend Lutron because it solves real problems:
- It reduces wall clutter.
- It makes larger homes easier to manage.
- It integrates with other systems- Alexa, Apple, Sonos, Spotify, and others.
Lutron allows Owners to automate their home without complicating it with multiple apps.
The goal for our custom homes is not to add technology just for the sake of saying the home is smart. Our goal and our approach is to make the home more intuitive and function better for our Owners. That is what good integration should do, and that is exactly why we install Lutron in our homes.
If you have questions about building, renovating, or designing a luxury home, you can always reach our team directly at:
📲 Call us anytime at: 817.748.2669
