Every spring, HGTV unveils a fully loaded smart home designed to blend cutting-edge tech with livable style, and one lucky viewer takes home the keys. The 2024 edition landed in a sun-soaked desert locale, packed with automation, thoughtful finishes, and design moves worth stealing for your own renovation. Whether you’re chasing inspiration for a DIY upgrade or just curious what a quarter-million-dollar tech package looks like in real life, this year’s build delivered. Here’s what set it apart, how the giveaway worked, and which features you can tackle in your own four walls.
Key Takeaways
- The HGTV Smart Home 2024 integrated whole-home automation through a professional-grade control system that enabled climate zones, security, lighting, and outdoor systems to communicate seamlessly rather than operate independently.
- Desert-specific design choices like insulated concrete forms (ICF), cool roof membranes, native landscaping, and moisture-resistant materials demonstrated how smart home technology must align with regional climate and building codes for real-world effectiveness.
- The $2.4 million smart home giveaway included a Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV and $100,000 cash to offset significant tax liability, highlighting that winning a property of this scale carries substantial federal tax obligations many past winners have addressed by reselling.
- DIY-friendly smart home upgrades inspired by the 2024 build—including Lutron Caséta lighting, multi-zone thermostats, battery-powered window motors, and leak sensors—allow homeowners to implement automation without professional installation or six-figure budgets.
- Quality materials and thoughtful finishes, such as full-height slab cabinetry, large-format porcelain backsplashes, and wide-plank LVP flooring, delivered more impact than trendy accents, proving that fewer, better choices drive lasting design appeal.
- Smart home systems should anticipate resident needs through occupancy learning, automated schedules, and integrated monitoring—like pre-cooled bedrooms, dusk-activated outdoor lighting, and weather-responsive irrigation—rather than simply responding to manual commands.
What Makes the HGTV Smart Home 2024 So Special?
The 2024 HGTV Smart Home wasn’t just about voice assistants and app-controlled blinds, it was a full-spectrum integration of convenience, energy efficiency, and modern aesthetics. Every system, from HVAC to lighting, talked to each other through a central hub, creating a home that anticipates needs rather than waits for commands.
Key differentiators included whole-home automation via a professional-grade control system, not piecemeal smart plugs. Climate zones adjusted room-by-room based on occupancy. Security cameras, door locks, and garage access synced under one interface. The outdoor lighting ramped up at dusk without a timer, and the irrigation system pulled weather data to skip watering before rain.
Beyond tech, the build quality stood out. Engineered flooring with premium wear layers, quartz countertops with full-height backsplashes, and custom cabinetry built to actual room dimensions, not modular box sizes. The construction leaned on moisture-resistant materials suited to desert heat and dust, including impact-rated windows and low-VOC sealants throughout.
Location and Property Details
The 2024 HGTV Smart Home sat in Palm Springs, California, where mid-century modern architecture meets extreme summer heat and water conservation mandates. The 2,450-square-foot, three-bedroom, three-bath home occupied a corner lot with mountain views and a private courtyard entry, classic desert living.
The lot came pre-graded and utilities stubbed, saving weeks of sitework. Exterior walls used insulated concrete forms (ICF) for thermal mass, keeping AC loads reasonable when temps hit 110°F. The low-slope roof carried a cool roof membrane (reflective TPO) and a 6.5 kW solar array with battery backup, sized to offset most of the annual electric load.
Landscaping leaned native: desert willow, agave, and decomposed granite instead of turf. Drip irrigation on smart controllers. A covered patio with ceiling fans and misters extended the livable square footage most of the year. The pool, because it’s Palm Springs, used a variable-speed pump and automated cover to cut evaporation and chemical use.
Cutting-Edge Smart Home Technology Features
The tech stack in the 2024 home centered on a Crestron control system, which integrated lighting, shades, audio, video, climate, and security. Crestron’s a pro-install platform, not a DIY kit, but it’s rock-solid and scales without the flakiness of consumer hubs.
Lighting used Lutron Caséta dimmers and keypads throughout, with scenes programmed for morning, evening, and away modes. Fixtures were mostly LED downlights (3000K color temp) and linear strips under cabinets, controlled by motion sensors in hallways and closets.
Climate control split the home into four zones, each with its own thermostat and damper in the ductwork. The system learned occupancy patterns and pre-cooled bedrooms before bedtime. A whole-home dehumidifier (critical even in dry climates for overnight comfort) tied into the air handler.
Security featured hardwired cameras (not Wi-Fi) at entry points, a video doorbell, smart locks with auto-lock after 60 seconds, and glass-break sensors on main-floor windows. The garage door opener integrated so the system could alert if left open past 9 p.m.
Throughout the home, smart home sensors monitored water leaks under sinks, freeze risk near exterior walls, and smoke/CO levels, all feeding a single dashboard. The winner also got a prepaid monitoring plan for the first year.
Interior Design Highlights Worth Stealing for Your Own Home
The 2024 design leaned warm modern: clean lines, natural textures, and a muted palette of sand, terracotta, and charcoal. No farmhouse shiplap or subway tile in sight.
Kitchen: Full-height slab-door cabinets in matte gray, waterfall-edge quartz island, and a 48-inch dual-fuel range (gas cooktop, electric convection ovens). The backsplash used large-format porcelain in a book-match pattern. Pendant lights over the island were handblown glass, statement pieces that didn’t scream “builder grade.”
Primary bath: Floating double vanity in walnut veneer, a curbless walk-in shower with linear drain and floor-to-ceiling tile, plus a freestanding soaking tub under a picture window (frosted for privacy). Heated floor mat under the tile kept toes happy on cool mornings.
Living areas: Wide-plank LVP flooring (8″ nominal width) in a driftwood finish ran throughout. Baseboards were simple 5¼-inch MDF, painted to match walls, no fussy profiles. Ceiling fans with integrated LED uplight kept air moving without the visual bulk of traditional blades.
Window treatments: Motorized roller shades in a light-filtering fabric (3% openness) on all south- and west-facing glass. They auto-closed at peak sun to cut cooling costs, a feature you can retrofit with battery-powered motors if you don’t have low-voltage wiring.
For DIYers, the big takeaway: invest in fewer, better materials. One standout tile or a single slab countertop carries more impact than a dozen trendy accents.
How the 2024 Giveaway Worked and What Happened
The 2024 HGTV Smart Home giveaway ran from mid-April through early June, with two entries allowed per day, one online and one via text. No purchase necessary, but cable subscribers got bonus entries.
The grand prize package included the fully furnished home (valued around $2.4 million), a 2024 Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV, and $100,000 cash. The car and cash helped offset the tax hit: winning a $2.4 million home triggers a 1099-MISC, and federal taxes alone could top $800,000 depending on the winner’s bracket. Many past winners have sold the home to cover the liability.
HGTV drew the winner in late June and announced publicly in July. The home was professionally staged and photographed before handoff, so the winner received it move-in ready, even the pantry was stocked.
For those keeping score, past HGTV Smart Home locations have included coastal Carolina, urban Cincinnati, and mountain Montana. Each year’s build adapts to regional climate and code, which makes them useful case studies for real-world construction.
Smart Home Upgrades You Can DIY Inspired by HGTV Smart Home 2024
You don’t need a pro installer or six-figure budget to bring smart-home functionality into your place. Here are the standout systems from the 2024 home, translated to DIY-friendly alternatives.
Smart lighting: Swap out existing switches for Lutron Caséta or Leviton Decora Smart dimmers (both require a neutral wire, check your box first). Pair them with motion sensors in closets, hallways, and garages. No new wiring needed if you’ve got a neutral: if not, look at Lutron’s Caséta Pro with Pico remotes.
Climate zoning: If you have central HVAC with accessible ductwork, add motorized dampers and a multi-zone thermostat like Ecobee with remote sensors. This won’t give you true per-room control, but it balances hot and cold spots without tearing into walls. Expect to spend $600–$1,200 depending on zone count.
Security and monitoring: A video doorbell (Ring, Nest, Eufy) plus a couple of battery-powered outdoor cameras cover most entry points. Add smart locks with keypads (Schlage Encode, Yale Assure) so you can ditch the hide-a-key rock. All integrate with Alexa or Google Home if you want voice control.
Window automation: Retrofit battery-powered motors like Soma Smart Shades or IKEA Fyrtur blinds to existing roller shades or cellular shades. No electrician required, and you can schedule them to close during peak sun or open at sunrise.
Water monitoring: Stick leak sensors (Flo by Moen, Govee) under sinks, behind toilets, near the water heater, and by the washing machine. They’ll ping your phone at the first drip, which beats coming home to a flooded laundry room.
Energy tracking: A whole-home energy monitor like Emporia Vue clips onto your breaker panel (no licensed electrician needed in most jurisdictions, but check local code) and shows real-time usage by circuit. You’ll spot phantom loads, confirm your new smart home occupancy sensors are actually saving power, and catch a failing appliance before it dies.
Always wear safety glasses when working around electrical panels, even if you’re just clipping on a monitor. Turn off breakers before touching any wiring. If your home was built before 1990 and you’re not sure what’s behind the walls, hire a licensed electrician for anything beyond swapping a switch or outlet.
For more inspiration on bringing tech into daily life, explore cool home gadgets that don’t require a full retrofit.
Conclusion
The 2024 HGTV Smart Home proved that automation and livable design aren’t mutually exclusive. Whether you’re planning a ground-up build or retrofitting a 1980s ranch, the principles hold: layer systems that talk to each other, invest in quality materials where it counts, and don’t overlook climate-appropriate design. Start small, swap a switch, add a sensor, and build from there.
