Do you like cooking and having friends over for a relaxed dinner? Do you need to focus in your living room during the day then make it cosy for the whole family at night? Do you struggle to wake up in the morning? Making your home smarter, can help you orchestrate your home around your needs. In fact, IKEA Home smart expert Rebecca revealed that’s exactly why the Home smart hub is called #DIRIGERA (the Swedish word for conduct).
For everyone who isn’t sure how to start turning their home into a sweet symphony of smart products, here’s our step by step guide to creating a smart home:
Start with your needs, not with products.
This step makes such a big difference to how smart your home can become so ask yourself what you want to get out of your smart home. It could be lower energy bills, feeling safer at night, flexibility to transform a multifunctional space from day to night, controlling all your rooms no matter where you are… you get the picture!
Next, think about the different spaces in your home (maybe start with one so it doesn’t feel overwhelming), the people using that space and all the different needs you might have. This will help you work out the feel and mood you want to create throughout the day as well as different times of year, weekends vs weekdays and other occasions. This will also give you an idea of the ‘scenes’ to create when you get started on the IKEA Home smart app.
Get inspired
Have a play with the IKEA Home smart interactive room planner to explore different moods, rooms and products to get ideas of how you can make your home work in harmony with you and your family.
Pick your instruments
Now it is time to think about products. A lot of people start with smart lighting as it has such a transformative effect on your space (more on that here) and there’s lots of options to choose from.
Speakers in our #SYMFONISK series made with Sonos are another great starting point as many are multifunctional, for instance the
SYMFONISK (Table lamp with WiFi speaker). Plus you get voice control.
After that you could think about blinds and air purifiers depending on your needs but you can always add more later and start simple.
Make music and set the scene
Once you have your smart home products, you’ll need the IKEA Home Smart App and the DIRIGERA hub to start controlling your ‘orchestra’. The real magic happens when you combine different products to a preset Scene. Then you can create your own routines that frame that perfect dinner party, help you unwind in the evening or wake you up with a pleasant light and soft music.
Keep fine tuning your home
Naturally, you’ll find you and your family gravitating to certain scenes, products and features but you can make your smart home smarter and smarter as time goes on by making changes.
You might use different scenes at different times of the year. Some things you might love so much you want more of but if you feel something is underused, try it in a different place or another room entirely. You could even create new scenes to make the most of it.
As time goes on you can keep adding new products into the mix that really make your home sing. You can also add extra controls like the
TRÃ…DFRI (Gateway kit, shortcut button) that help you change scenes in one press, be that one next to your bed that mutes lights and sound to help you wind down and go to sleep or a button by your front door that turns everything off as you leave - the options are as endless as your imagination!
Sit back and enjoy
Smart homes are meant to make life better and more enjoyable as well as helping you feel safer, breathe easier, reduce energy use and save money. But that’s not all. A range of controls means everyone in the family can conduct their part of the home using the app, buttons, remote, voice or motion controls.
Have you made your home smart yet? We’d love to see the moods you’ve created in your homes in the thread below 👇
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