Your Design Vision. Protected and Elevated.
You spend months sourcing the perfect fabric, specifying the precise paint color, curating every finish and fixture. Then the low-voltage guy shows up and drills holes for ugly speaker grilles. Cable runs appear where your sconces were supposed to go. A plastic thermostat lands in the middle of your hand-troweled plaster wall.
That's not how we work.
VIP Smart Homes is built to be the AV/IT partner interior designers actually want on their projects. We preserve your design intent, support your client relationship, and deliver technology that makes your rooms look better - not worse. Every decision we make starts with the same question you'd ask: does this serve the space?
The Light That Makes Your Design Sing
You chose that paint color under 3500K showroom light. But in the client's home at 6pm under warm LED downlights, it reads muddy. The silk drapes look gray. The walnut island looks orange. The art you spent weeks placing is flat and lifeless.
Ketra is the only lighting system that solves this. Every Ketra fixture produces full-spectrum natural light that shifts color temperature throughout the day - from warm candlelight at night to crisp midday sun - rendering your colors, fabrics, and finishes exactly as you intended them.
At dinner, the room glows warm and intimate. At morning breakfast, it's bright and clean. For your client's art collection, the light is calibrated to museum standards. For a dinner party, skin tones are flattering and warm. One system. Infinite scenes. All of them making your design look its absolute best.
Ketra is a Lutron brand, which means it integrates seamlessly with Lutron keypads, motorized shades, and whole-home control. We're an authorized Lutron dealer and have programmed Ketra scenes for some of the region's most demanding residential projects.
Full tunable range from warm candlelight to bright daylight - your colors read correctly at every hour.
Museum-grade color rendering. Fabrics, art, and finishes show their true tones - no color shift, no distortion.
Invisible speakers, flush keypads, concealed displays, hidden wiring. Nothing in the room that wasn't specified by you.
We Make You Look Great
The worst thing an AV integrator can do on a design project is make your client feel stupid. Technology that requires a manual is technology that will be unplugged by Thanksgiving. We build systems your clients actually use - and we teach them how, patiently, without jargon, without ego.
When we hand over a completed project, your client doesn't feel like they've been handed a spaceship. They feel like they've been handed back their home - only better. They know how to dim the lights. They know how to start music. They know how to close the shades from bed. And they remember who delivered that experience.
We also teach you. If you're not fluent in Ketra scenes, Lutron keypad layouts, or where the AV rack needs to live in relation to your millwork - we'll walk you through it. No condescension, no billable hours for a phone call. We want you to specify smart home systems with confidence on your next project, whether we're installing it or not.
Designed Around the End User
Every family lives differently. The couple who entertains every weekend needs different scenes than the parents with three kids and a nanny. The art collector needs museum-grade lighting on a different timer than the household. The client who travels six months a year needs remote access and occupancy simulation. The audiophile needs a dedicated listening room; the audiobook listener needs background audio everywhere.
We don't sell packages. We don't install the same "smart home system" in every house. We listen - to you, to your client, to how the home is actually going to be lived in - and then we design a system around that.
The best compliment we've ever received: "It just does what I want, and I never have to think about it." That only happens when the design is custom from the beginning.
A Process Built Around Your Process
We slot into your existing workflow - whether you're leading the project, collaborating with an architect, or coordinating with a GC. Here's what working with us typically looks like:
The best time to bring us in is at schematic or design development - before walls close. Early involvement means we can coordinate speaker locations with your ceiling plans, keypad placements with your wall finishes, and cable pathways with your millwork. Late involvement means compromise.
You own the client. We support you. We don't go around designers to "upsell" clients. We don't pitch additional scope outside of what you've approved. If the client asks us something outside our lane, we loop you in.
Itemized proposals, clear drawings, and scope documents your GC and architect can actually read. We mark up plans with speaker, keypad, and device locations for your review before anything gets installed. You approve. Then we build.
Keypads, thermostats, and visible hardware come in dozens of finishes and materials - metal, stone, wood, custom engraving. We help you specify finishes that match your design, and we coordinate sample delivery so you can approve in person.
Your client walks away loving their home - and remembering you as the designer who brought in the right team. We make the handoff smooth, patient, and warm. That's what builds repeat projects.
Technology That Disappears
Ketra & Lutron Lighting
Full-spectrum tunable lighting, architectural dimming, and motorized shade integration. Your colors, art, and finishes rendered correctly at every hour of the day.
Explore Lutron →Invisible Speakers
Stealth Acoustics speakers that mount behind drywall, tile, or stone and disappear completely. Audio everywhere, hardware nowhere.
Explore Invisible Audio →Concealed Displays
TVs behind art, mirror TVs, motorized lifts, and recessed installations. Screens appear when needed and vanish when they don't.
Explore Theaters →Elegant Keypads
Lutron Palladiom and Alisse keypads in metal, glass, or stone finishes with custom engraving. Beautiful enough to be part of the specification.
Whole-Home Automation
One scene controls lights, shades, music, climate, and locks - triggered from a keypad, voice, app, or time of day. Your design performs as one system.
Explore Control4 →Enterprise Networking
The network that makes everything else work. Wi-Fi in every corner of the home, concealed access points, and infrastructure that won't fail two weeks after handoff.
Explore Networking →
What You're Probably Wondering
At what phase should I bring you in?
As early as possible - ideally during schematic design or design development. We can review your drawings, flag coordination issues before they become problems, and help you specify the right scope. Bringing us in after drywall is up means compromises; bringing us in during DD means the tech disappears into the design.
Do you work with architects and GCs too?
Yes. We collaborate regularly with architects, GCs, electricians, millworkers, and other trades. We speak their language when we need to, and yours when we need to. On most projects we coordinate with multiple trades to make sure the tech scope aligns with everyone else's work.
Will you "go around" me to sell the client more scope?
No. Your client relationship is yours. If a client asks us about something outside approved scope, we route the conversation back to you. If we see an opportunity we think you'd want to know about, we tell you first - not the client.
Do you offer trade pricing or referral programs?
Yes. We have a trade partner program for designers, architects, and design-build firms we work with regularly. It includes direct access to our team, advance sample coordination, and reciprocal referrals. Reach out and we'll walk you through the details.
What if my client already has smart home equipment from a previous install?
We assess what's there. Sometimes existing equipment can be integrated, refreshed, or expanded. Sometimes it genuinely needs to be replaced. We'll give you an honest answer either way - and we won't oversell a replacement if the existing gear is doing its job.
Can you train me and my team on what to specify?
Absolutely. This is one of our favorite parts of the work. We can do lunch-and-learns, in-home walkthroughs of completed projects, or one-on-one sessions on specific topics - Ketra scenes, Lutron keypad layouts, speaker placement, network requirements. No charge for design partners we work with.
Do you work outside the Pacific Northwest?
Yes. Our home base is Seattle, but we regularly design and install for clients with properties across the country and globally - including vacation homes, yachts, and private aircraft. If your client has multiple homes, we can bring consistency across all of them.
Let's Build Something Beautiful Together
If you have a project coming up - or you just want to meet for coffee and talk shop - we'd love to hear from you. No pressure, no pitch. Just a conversation about what you're working on and how we can help.
Start the Conversation