Edgemont

Background

Light is more than what we see—it’s something we feel. The Edgemont retrofit set out to demonstrate exactly that: change how a home felt to live in, hour by hour, without changing the home itself.

The house sits outside Ellensburg, Washington, surrounded by mountains, apple orchards, and open pasture, and it receives daylight from every side. Inside, creek boulders run through the custom build. The owners didn’t build the house—they bought it—and they loved it as they’d found it: the colors and finishes, the contemporary farmhouse style, and the way it already felt to live in. But they wanted a richer daily experience of these spaces: light that moved with them through the day, energizing in the morning and warm by night, and shades that added privacy and sun control without changing the design. They weren’t looking for a remodel, and they didn’t want an invasive construction process.

The homeowners initially came to Elite Automation asking about Lutron shades. Because the house was finished and occupied, anything specified had to go in without cutting holes or pulling new wire—which made wire-free Palladiom shades the natural starting point and opened the door to a HomeWorks system that also controlled Ketra lighting and could run on the home’s existing wiring. The homeowners’ interior designer led fabric and finish selections; every component was chosen to complement what was already in place. As the integrator put it:

Design Goals

•    Introduce tunable, full-spectrum light that carries the home from morning energy to evening warmth, following the natural rhythm of the day.
•    Specify controls, shades, and outlets that complement the home’s existing palette and finishes, so the technology blends into the design rather than standing apart from it.
•    Deliver the entire system as a retrofit—no opened walls, no remodel, and minimal disruption to daily life.

The Challenge

In new construction, architectural lighting, window treatments, and controls are designed into the architecture from the start—drawn together with the finishes and built in before the walls close. At Edgemont, every element had to be added to a home that was already finished and lived in.

That set practical demands at every turn. Shade fabrics had to be selected to work with the home’s established palette and furnishings. The lighting had to reach every room through existing wiring and fixtures—a matter of changing out old controls and lamps rather than opening ceilings and walls. All of it had to happen with as little disturbance as possible to the family’s life in their home.

Then there was the quality of the light itself. For a house that draws daylight from every side, the electric light inside felt artificial and out of place—static and unchanging against a landscape that shifts hour by hour. The gap between the two was a problem worth solving.

There was also the question of how the new hardware would read. Keypads and equipment on a wall are easy to notice; the homeowners wanted technology they would feel in the quality of the light, but not necessarily see in the room.

The Solution

Controls That Recede

The controls show the discipline of the project most clearly. Elite Automation specified Sunnata controls in satin finishes matched to the home’s existing paint colors, so they read as part of the wall rather than a row of devices on it. Every receptacle in the house was replaced to match.

The project began with shades. Throughout the house, the team installed Palladiom wire-free roller shades, working with the interior designer to choose fabrics that tied into the home’s existing palette. Because the shades are battery-powered, they added daytime privacy and sun control to each room with no new wiring run through the walls—and tucked quietly out of view when raised.

Light That Follows the Day

Ketra lamps and luminaires give the home tunable, full-spectrum light that changes with the time of day. Mornings are bright and energizing. Midday settles into a clean, neutral white that lets the home’s colors, materials, and finishes show their true character. As evening arrives, the light warms to a soft, candle-like glow that makes the rooms feel calm and intimate.

Ketra lamps went into existing fixtures and controls into existing wall boxes, with no modifications to the building wiring. Ketra lighting and shades now run throughout the house—the whole property on one system, without a wall being opened.

The home moves from one mood to the next on its own, without anyone reaching for a control—the arc of daylight extended indoors, whatever the weather outside.

Sold on Site, Not in a Showroom

Most dealers sell Ketra by bringing clients into a showroom. Elite Automation keeps showrooms, but won this project in the house itself, through an on-site consultation using the Lutron Luxury Experience app—demonstrating the light in the rooms it would fill.

The Results

The change at Edgemont is meant to be felt. The home now moves with the day—energizing in the morning, calm and warm at night—and that difference in how it feels to live there is the project’s objective. What they didn’t get was disruption: a construction-free experience that left the colors, fabrics, and finishes they loved exactly as they were. 

What does disappear is the technology. The paint-matched controls blend into the walls and the shades sit quietly within each room’s design, so what the homeowners notice is beautiful, responsive light—not the equipment producing it. As Elite Automation described the work:

For Elite Automation, the work also opened a door: what began as one project with the homeowners’ interior designer has grown into an ongoing partnership, with more projects in planning—evidence that delivering new-construction quality without new-construction upheaval is a reputation worth building on.

Nine years in business, the company came to custom integration from software engineering rather than the audio and video route most of the industry traveled. Where other dealers pivoted into lighting and shading, it was the focus from the start.