Many articles about smart home technology, including the ones I have written, present smart home technology with a suburban environment in mind. The articles assume a suburban home with several bedrooms, a beautiful garden and not small rooms.
However, this does not apply to those who live in townhomes or condominiums. According to a post by Platinum properties in New York: “RCLCO, an analytics firm specializing in real estate data, conducted a study in 2016 showing that the average size of a home in New York City since 2000 has been 866 square feet. They also reported that more than half of apartments in competitive markets like New York are 700 square feet or less.”
With this in mind, an article focusing on smart home technology for small spaces was needed. There are many articles about maximizing space in a small apartment. Some ideas from these articles are:
- Create zones and privacy with room dividers.
- Using furniture that offers multiple functions; For example, a dining table can be used for eating during meals or as a desk at other times of the day.
- Use all available space. For example, you could place benches for seating or bookshelves for storage in alcoves in front of windows to utilize a space that would otherwise go unused.
But there are also ways to create more space in an apartment using smart home technology.
Robot furniture
Bumblebee Spaces is a San Francisco company “dedicated to minimizing the human footprint while radically improving the living experience.” Bumblebee Spaces was founded in 2017 by Sankarshan Murthy, a veteran of Apple and Tesla. They offer both stationary pieces of furniture and robotic pieces that disappear into the ceiling of an apartment.
Your furniture system consists of:
- A bed that is raised into the ceiling for storage and lowered from the ceiling for use.
- Storage units that replace dressers. These can be individually raised into the ceiling for storage and lowered for access.
- A stationary workstation that converts into a headboard with bedside tables when the bed is folded down for sleeping. The workstation features a pull-out keyboard drawer, space for multiple monitors, integrated power outlets for powering electronics, and storage space.
- A stationary console that converts into a headboard with bedside tables when the bed is folded down for sleeping. When the bed is folded up, it can be used as a seat or to display knick-knacks. For example, the storage space in the console can be used to hide electronics needed for a television that could be mounted above the console.
For safety reasons, the system has technology to scan the area under which the furniture is lowered to ensure it is clear of obstacles and people.
While the Bumblebee system is certainly designed to maximize the utility of small spaces, this system could also be used in a home to create a multifunctional space. For example, the bed and workspace could create a home office that can be converted into a guest room if necessary.
Ori Design Studio is a Brooklyn, New York company that also makes a line of robotic furniture. They offer queen-size cloud beds (ceiling mounted) that convert into a sofa, desk, or table when raised. They also offer robotic systems where the bed slides into a pocket within a large, movable furniture unit that provides plenty of storage space. The movable unit offers space for a television, a shelf or a fold-out desk.
However, Ori has a different business model. Instead of selling directly to consumers, Ori sells to developers who have Ori robotic furniture systems installed in homes that they offer to consumers (Bumblebee systems will also sell to developers). The Ori website provides consumers with search tools to find residential buildings that contain units with furniture systems installed.
Clean up clutter
Clutter can make any room seem smaller. But its impact can be even more noticeable in an already small apartment. Luckily, there are smart home technologies that can help keep your home clean and tidy.
An unkempt bed often becomes the focal point in a small room. Smartduvet uses conditioned air that heats/cools each person's bedside individually to ensure a comfortable night's sleep. Additionally, their unique technology uses the same air that is pumped into the bed for comfort to make the bed.
A control box distributes air evenly at the desired temperature on the side of the bed you select. The air can be heated to a specific temperature to keep you warm. On warmer nights, the Smartduvet allows room temperature air to circulate under the duvet so that the moisture released by your skin evaporates. This cools your body in the same way a breeze cools you outside on a warm day.
By directly heating/cooling your body, Smartduvet saves on utility bills by allowing you to reset your thermostat.
To create the bed, the Smartduvet uses patented technology to pump air into the air chambers built into the Smartduvet. This air forces the comforter to return to its flattened shape, no matter how much the comforter is twisted or folded (see a YouTube video below).
Smartduvet is Alexa compatible and can therefore be integrated into a farewell scene so that the bed is automatically made when the homeowners leave their apartment.
By tidying up you can visually create more space in a small room and make it appear larger. According to Architectural Digest, the best way to reduce visual clutter in a small space is to “conceal exposed wires.” And when you think about how many smart devices each person owns, the number of chargers and cables used in an apartment/house contribute significantly to clutter.
Wireless charging offers a way to create visual clutter, especially when the charger is built into a piece of furniture. Most wireless chargers are simply placed on a piece of furniture, adding to the clutter in the room. However, there are wireless chargers that allow homeowners to build the wireless charger into the top of a piece of furniture. For example, the charger shown above, available on Amazon, is highly rated and designed to fit into a standard-sized cable grommet. These holes are present in many modern desks and other pieces of furniture. If your furniture does not have cable entry holes and you have handyman skills, you can purchase the right tools to cut the right size hole and build wireless charging into any piece of furniture.
Another source of visual clutter are the numerous cables that connect power and video sources to a television. There are many different solutions for managing and hiding these cables, but the right choice depends on where your TV is located in a room. For example, if the TV is mounted on a wall, there are easy-to-install cable management solutions that route the cables within the wall on which the TV is mounted. Of course, if you live in an apartment you don't want to cut holes in your wall, so ducts that mount on the wall and hide the wires would be a better solution. If your TV sits on a piece of furniture, cable ties like the ones shown below are a good solution. Finally, there are console tables with built-in lifting mechanisms that can completely hide a television when not in use. I will delve deeper into this topic in an upcoming article.
Power cables lying on the floor also create visual clutter. Although these cords cannot be completely removed, they can be eliminated by collecting the excess. There are many inexpensive products sold to help keep excess cables clean, including cable ties and Velcro cable ties.
Diploma
Smart home technology can be just as important in a small city apartment as it is in a larger suburban home. A homeowner does not need smart home devices designed for suburban living, such as a smart lawn mower. However, robotic furniture, a bed that makes itself, and gadgets that reduce clutter can make small spaces much more comfortable and visually appealing.