How to Design a Smart Home: An Expert Guide

smart home automation system
(Image credit: getty images)

There are an ever-increasing number of options now available to create a smart home, from Alexa-enabled devices to full-blown cinema rooms and whole-house lighting, heating and security solutions.

It’s easy to dismiss the idea of a smart home as a ‘fad’. However, consider how we now live in our homes – browsing the internet on our phones, remote working, and streaming the latest series on our TVs (activities which are often happening simultaneously in a family home) – and you realise how intrinsic technology has become.

Claire Lloyd

Claire is Editor in Chief of Homebuilding & Renovating website and magazine. She became Editor of Homebuilding & Renovating in 2016 and has been a member of the team for 15 years. An experienced homes journalist, her work has also appeared in titles such as Real Homes and Period Living.


She has a particular interest in green homes and sustainability, and interior design is a passion too; she has undertaken qualifications in this area. 


After finishing a major renovation of a period cottage, she is now onto her next project: overhauling a 1930s property in the Shropshire countryside.