We plan to fit a lot of lighting into the open plan space in our smart home extension.

All of the lighting will be smart and dimmable. We are not really fans of colour changing lighting but, we have the option to use some of our Philips Hue lighting in this space to also deliver an ambient notification. All of it has also been configured to enable control via our Amazon Echo devices. To facilitate this, all of them have a unique and obvious name: Breakfast Room Lights, Dining Room Lights, Dining Room Wall Light, Kitchen Lights, Lounge Lights, Lounge Wall Light, Pendant Lights, Walkway Lights.

The four sets of ceiling lights are also a group called 'Open Plan Lights' and can be controlled together.

We are fitting Alusso dimmable LED downlights into the ceiling in four distinct zones. Each LED light is 95mm in diameter, 30mm deep, fits into 70mm diameter cut-out a uses 5W (fully on). Each light also has a 3-way switchable colour temperature and we are using the middle setting to provide a nice neutral colour temperature and maximum light output. They have been tested with our smart controllers and work really well. They can be dimmed down to a very low level. They are also IP44 rated and we have previously used them in a bathroom. They come with a 3-year warranty and we have not had a single failure.

The ceiling light zones will look something like this.

Just inside the kitchen door (on the wall to the left) will be this quad 2-gang switch plate, to control the four ceiling light zones. This will be a deep wall box but it will only house the MK Grid Plus K4900 switches.

High up on the wall will be an larger wall box covered with a paintable, 200mm × 200mm access panel. I'm taking this approach to make it much easier to fit and wire up the smart controllers. Even with deep wall boxes, it is not possible to all the required smart modules behind the switches.

Within this wall box are two DIN rail mounted Shelley Dimmer Pro 2PM modules with Ethernet connectivity. Each can support two dimmable lighting zones. The use of Ethernet means they should be more reliable and responsive. The use of 2-channel units also means less IP addresses.

We have four pendant 'feature' lights over the kitchen counter. These are a coppered glass finish, to match the other copper detailing in the kitchen design.

All of them will be controlled using a Shelly Dimmer 2 module mounted behind a single MK Grid Plus K4900 switch on the wall at the end of the counter top. They can also be voice controlled as the 'Pendant Lights'.

A 47mm deep, 4-gang back back box will be mounted into the wall to the left of the bifold doors. It will house three Shelly Dimmer 2 modules for the wall lights and walkway lights. The top row of switches will be wired up to another access panel high up on the wall and this will house the three smart blind controllers.

The six MK Grid Plus K4900 switches will control the three smart blinds (top row), both wall lights and the walkway lights (bottom row).

This larger wall box will easily house the three Shelly Dimmer 2 Wi-Fi modules, to control the internal and external wall lights.

To both sides of the bi-fold doors, we plan to mount these 'swirl' dimmable LED wall lights.

In the bathrooms, we are using pull-cord light switches to stay within the regulations. These are generally not big enough to also house a Shelly or other brand of smart lighting module, so we have got our electrician to wire the switch and the supply to an accessible and covered enclosure, within which can have mounted a Shelly 1 Mini Gen 3 module. These do not support dimming but we have other smart lighting in our bathrooms for subtle night lighting as well as illuminated mirrors.

This approach gives a lot of flexibility to use other types of smart modules, including dimmable ones. We could also just wire the switch directly to the lighting.

We plan to have 'Kitchen Counter Lights', which are an LED strip running along the underside edge of the kitchen worktop. These will be intelligent controlled to be on when the open plan space is occupied. This includes the bit of worktop in the 'bar' area.

The 'bar' glass cabinets will also have internal lights. These will not have a visible switch to control them. These will be intelligent controlled to be on when the open plan space is occupied.

Outside, we will have a 'walkway' at the same level as the open plan space floor, with a flat threshold to the outside. At both ends of this will be a wall mounted sconce light. The 'Walkway Lights' can be controlled intelligently, by one of the 6-way light switches and via voice control. They will also be on when the garden is occupied.

I have another project that describes the smart home connected side path lights.