Building the Foundations of a DIY Smart Home

How an idea turned into a modular, local smart home: from a home server to custom outlets.

Building the Foundations of a DIY Smart Home

The plan for a self-built smart home was set, and we slowly got to work building the foundations. We assembled a home server from old and new hardware, built into two IKEA tables. In parallel, a new technical setup emerged with a brand-new desk including a workbench.

We put Shellys into the light switches to control the lights. The couch now has built-in outlets (no worries about heat, we handled that). It was every day at the hardware store and every day tinkering for our own home, modular, not tied to the apartment, inexpensive and self-made.

During this time I really discovered the joy of DIY projects and, above all, learned how to turn ideas into reality: dive into new things, build, test, and have fun.

By the way, I use Home Assistant to control our smart home. Everything runs locally, and we now operate over 50 smart devices: from thermometers to window sensors to self-built presence detectors. It makes our home feel truly and sustainably smart.