1. People in and out of your home

When you’re selling a home, people are coming and going constantly. Whether it is the realtor showing prospective buyers around or service providers coming to make repairs or clean, it’s impossible for you to be home every time someone needs to get in. Instead of leaving your door unlocked or leaving a key under a plant, a smart lock can keep your house secure while still allowing access to those you trust. You can use an app to program new access codes into the lock, even setting schedules for when those codes can be used. And because you’re notified when they are used, you can keep a better eye on who is in your house and when.

2. What buyers look for

Smart home devices are becoming more in demand and expected for buyers. In a 2016 report, The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) said that 37% of clients find smart locks very important. Installing a smart lock on your front door is a simple and affordable first step towards making your house “smart.” With 42% of surveyed clients saying they are interested in smart home devices, a smart lock is a great way to spark buyers’ interest in your home.

3. Curb appeal

The first impression is sometimes the only impression when it comes to a potential buyer. While there are plenty of major upgrades that will increase your curb appeal, updating front door hardware is one of the easiest and most noticeable improvements you can make. Use the product selector to find the perfect door hardware for your home and refresh the front of your house in minutes.

1. Furniture

Your patio furniture has been in storage for the winter, and if you’re lucky, there are just a few cobwebs to dust off. More likely, it could use a good deep cleaning. Soon there will be guests sitting on those chairs. They appreciate your attention to detail and remember patio get-togethers as particularly polished when they’re treated to sparkling clean patio furniture. Check out these tips on how to clean your patio furniture and get it ready for entertaining.

2. Patio

Chances are, the winter wasn’t too kind to your patio. You can create a much more welcoming space by power washing your patio and cleaning off all of the dirt and grime that has built up over the past year. There are plenty of stores that allow you to rent power washers.

3. House

While you have the power washer, don’t neglect your house. A clean patio is great, but pairing it with an entire exterior that’s been freshly scrubbed will make your house truly stand out. Use the power washer on the exterior of the home as a quick and easy way to brighten your outdoor space.

4. Windows

Your windows are another easy way to make your space feel cleaner and more put together. The outside of your windows probably don’t get cleaned regularly, especially during the winter. Spend a little bit of time wiping them down to help get the outside and inside of your house ready for warm weather and guests.

5. Door hardware

One of the easiest and quickest ways to add some flair to your outdoor area is to make sure all exterior doors are fitted with fresh, up-to-date hardware. Maybe your current hardware is outdated and doesn’t fit the space, or you want to add an extra layer of security to the back entrance. It’s easy to choose the perfect product for your door. Once you’ve decided on the hardware, you can install it on your existing door, even if it doesn’t have the correct pre-existing holes, like Shavonda Gardner did on her doors.

Create a place to pause

Beyond the practical concerns of stabilizing a home’s temperature, the vestibule eases the transition from public to private life. If you’ve ever walked into a home whose front door lands you smack in the middle of the living room, you can probably understand the appeal of bridging the indoor-outdoor gap. A vestibule gives you an extra moment to adjust to the indoor temperature while allowing you to pause and collect yourself before greeting the household.

Combining exterior materials like outdoor siding with indoor materials like a finished ceiling and wood flooring reinforces the in-betweenness of the space.

Merge indoor and outdoor materials

Consider pocket doors

Increase intimacy

Make peace with your property

Pull it all together

Take it out back

Cut costs

A vestibule is a luxury that not every home or budget can pull off. If all you can spare is a little platform inside the front door, a single step can go a long way toward defining the entry space — even if it’s not a true vestibule with two sets of doors.

Get even more entryway inspiration from houzz.com.

This article first appeared on Houzz on January 23, 2017.

By Rob Martens, Futurist and VP of Strategy and Partnerships at Allegion, maker of Schlage.

Most people have heard of the Internet of Things by now, but few are familiar with the possibilities this platform opens for businesses and consumers alike. This platform, that has long been associated with the smart home, offers real and tangible value beyond the cool factor. Consumers and businesses fail to recognize that the Internet of Things acts as a key component to the daily operations of companies in several industries, such as fitness, agriculture and fashion. 

A sensor does not make a product or technology part of the “Internet of Things”, it’s all about creating a holistic experience for the end user. It’s time consumers and businesses drop this notion and realize the positive impacts this technology has or could have. From the clothes we wear to the food we eat, the IoT is creating new conveniences and helping us maximize our resources every day.

Beyond Fitness Trackers, IoT Taps into Equipment

Most people are familiar with wearables that track fitness like Fitbit. The IoT is also taking exercise machines a step further into the future by creating realistic and tangible user experiences. The Peloton Cycle Exercise Bike, for example, comes with a screen that allows you to connect to real-life classes hosted by fitness trainers, giving users access to world-class instructors and allowing them to compete with other users from the comfort of home. With the busy schedules many of us keep, it’s easy for self-care to fall to the bottom of the priority list. Connected fitness machines make it easier to prioritize fitness by saving time spent traveling to the gym, and encouraging healthy competition between users all over the world.

Hotels are even catching on, providing Peloton bikes within the room so guests can get their exercise without heading down to the gym. This is a smart idea in that it differentiates those hotels and draws guests away from the competition by offering a premium experience. The bike’s ability to import data from your wearables means you have access to the latest health metrics whether you’re using a hotel’s bike or your own. And perhaps best of all, when Peloton added tech, they didn’t sacrifice good design. The bike is one of the most attractive fitness machines on the market, and sturdily made so it can handle intense exercise sessions.

IoT Provides Solutions to Farmers and Harvesters

The IoT is even helping to maximize our agricultural resources. Farmers face immense challenges in creating a steady crop yield year over year – unpredictable weather, water shortages, and limited availability of land can impact the yield significantly. Brilliant IoT innovators have been focusing their expertise in this industry for years to create some pretty amazing resources to help solve those problems, increasing the quality, quantity and sustainability of agricultural production.

Large farms can now use remote sensors to monitor the amount of moisture in the soil and even the amount of growth the crop has achieved. Harvesters can now be controlled from anywhere in the world, provided there’s an Internet connection available. Inventors have even begun using artificial intelligence to analyze metrics about the crop and even weather patterns to make predictions about the future, taking some of the guesswork out of a traditionally unpredictable industry. This is not just great news for farmers – it’s great news for everyone because it increases crop yields to make food more widely available.

Fashion Meets Technology

The fashion world is even beginning to catch onto the many benefits of the IoT. Most people today appreciate the ability to customize; we want our clothes, our homes, our cars, everything we own to not only behave in ways that make the day go smoothly and conveniently, but to reflect who we are as people. We live in an increasingly connected world in which we interact with new people more frequently. First impressions are more important than ever, so the ability to express who you are through the clothes you wear has become equally important.

Services like NikeID allow you to customize your product (in their case, shoes) from the ground up. You start with a blank canvas, choose the basic structure of the shoe based on the functionality you want, and then you get to customize the fun stuff – materials used, colors and graphic prints. You can even choose how the bottom of the shoe looks. Another service called Trunk Club behaves as a personal fashion assistant, a luxury typically reserved for the rich and famous that’s becoming available to all thanks to the IoT. The service shows you several style combinations and asks for your opinion, building a profile of your tastes that allows it to make suggestions based on what it knows you like. It even seeks out the clothes that are best for your body type, as well as those that fit within your budget, so you aren’t pressed into spending more than you normally would.

1. Coordinating door hardware

If you're still rocking the same door hardware that was installed when you moved in, it may be time to for an update that coordinates well with other style elements in your home. Take a look at existing lighting and fixtures, consider the style of your home and choose a style and finish that adds the perfect finishing touch. You'll be pleasantly surprised by how well door hardware completes the look. Try our style selector tool to help you get started.

2. Adequate lighting

There's nothing more welcoming than a vibrant, well-lit space. If your entryway has the tendency to look like a dungeon, consider installing new lighting that brings it to life. You can even opt for smart lighting that illuminates as soon as you unlock your front door with one of our connected smart locks.

3. Organization

It's easy to get home and throw your bags, coat, shoes and everything else you're carrying on the floor or nearest table. Tackle the chaos before it starts by adding a little organization right when you walk in. Install hooks for coats and bags, a shoe tray for shoes, and even a decorative crate or bucket to catch miscellaneous accessories.

4. Landing strip

The landing strip is also a key component of the organization you need above but is so important, it deserves its own callout. Add a table or even a slim shelf for small entryways to catch keys, mail, your phone, and other small miscellaneous items you may be carrying.

5. Place to sit

Give yourself and your guests an easy place to remove shoes by adding a chair or bench to your entryway. You can even save a little room by using the space below to organize shoes and accessories.

6. Durable rug

Finally, add the finishing touch with a rug that is both stylish and can stand up against whatever you may track in from outside. Resist the urge to choose something too light that will need replaced after a few weeks of wear and tear but don't be afraid to have a little fun with prints and color.

Trim

Century Trim

Collins Trim

Greenwich Trim

Greyson Trim

Upland Trim

Knobs & levers

Broadway lever

Latitude lever

Manhattan lever

Merano lever

Northbrook lever

Bowery knob

Finishes

Satin nickel

Bright chrome

Polished nickel

Matte black