SMART HOME BUTLER · LIVING ROOM
Six versions of your living room, one button
Film night, reading, having people over, doing nothing at all. Each one wants different lights, blinds and sound. Rather than setting them one device at a time, save the whole set as a scene and land it with a single press.
One room doing the job of five
A bedroom has one purpose. So does a kitchen. A living room does not. The same sofa is a place to chat after dinner at seven, a study at eight, a cinema at nine and a spot to stare into space at eleven. Every switch means dimming lights, moving blinds, turning a television and speakers on or off, and usually nudging the air conditioning too.
Most people do all of that by hand. Lights on, dim them, close the blinds, television on, pick the input, speakers on, set the volume. Seven or eight actions, two or three minutes. Twice a day is fine. Four times a day is more than a thousand rounds a year.
The bigger problem is inconsistency. Tonight the film lighting is at 10%. Tomorrow someone stabs at the dimmer and it lands at 40%. The day after, the blinds get forgotten. The same task gives a different result every time, so eventually you stop bothering and watch with everything blazing.
Scenes exist to fix exactly that. Decide once what the room should look like for watching a film, and from then on it looks that way every single time, off one press.
Why more scenes is not better
Beginners tend to build fifteen of them straight away: sunrise, breakfast, work, nap, afternoon, reading, film, gaming, party, unwind, nightlight, all off. It looks thorough. Nobody uses it. Scenes are something a person has to hold in their head, not the system. At the moment you press the button you need to know that two more presses gets you to film night. Under five, that works. Over eight, it becomes a guessing game.
Scenes also have to be visibly different from each other. If reading and everyday differ by 10% brightness, they are the same scene and you are just reluctant to delete one. Four to six is the number that actually feels good in daily use, and one of them must be an all-off, because when you leave the room you want a single press and nothing else.
What that one button did in a single evening
The same table as a timeline makes the daily use obvious. One button all evening, three gestures: single press, double press, long press.
- 18:40
Home
The room senses someone and lands on Everyday by itself. Warm white at 70%, blinds left open, television and speakers untouched. Nothing to press.
- 19:30
Dinner done, time to read
One press moves to the next scene, Reading. The ceiling light drops, the floor lamp beside the sofa comes up, colour turns neutral, the speakers put on something quiet, and the blinds close halfway to cut the glare from across the street.
- 20:10
A film, on impulse
No stepping through the list one press at a time. A long press jumps straight to Film. Lights fall to 8% deep amber, blinds close fully, television and speakers come on together, and the air conditioning drops a degree.
- 22:00
Credits roll
One press moves to Unwind. Television off, speakers switch to something ambient, lights stay at a dim candle colour. The point of this scene is not being bright, so your eyes get to come back from the screen slowly.
- 23:20
Bed
A double press jumps to Shut down. Every light off, blinds confirmed closed, all audio off, air conditioning to its overnight setting. No walking back to check whether a lamp is still on.
The four things it quietly takes care of
Fewer actions
Seven or eight taps around the room become one. At four switches a day that is over ten thousand fewer presses a year, and it is the part you feel immediately.
The same every time
Film night is film night. Brightness, colour and blinds are fixed, so it is never too bright one evening and too dark the next, and nobody can drift the settings.
Everyone can use it
No phone, no app, no hunting for the right page. A button on the wall works for grandparents and children alike, which matters more than any other feature.
Nothing gets left on
Shut down clears lights, audio and air conditioning in one move. No more living room glowing all night or speakers humming until morning.
Before and after
| Moment | How it goes now | How it goes after |
|---|---|---|
| Starting a film | Dim lights, close blinds, TV on, speakers on | One long press, everything lands |
| Winding down after | Device by device, always missing one | One press moves to Unwind |
| Leaving the room | Walking back to check the lights | Double press clears the room |
| Brightness and colour | Guessed fresh each time, never the same | One scene, one fixed set of values |
| Family using it | Teaching them the app and the right page | A wall button anyone can see and press |
What you need in place
Home Assistant calls every device in the house an entity. The brand and model do not matter; what matters is which class it belongs to. These are the ones this setup uses. Missing one only means that scene does less, not that it stops working.
| What it does | Its class in the system | Essential? |
|---|---|---|
| Ceiling and accent lighting | light, usually several of them | Yes |
| The scene button on the wall | switch, or a scene keypad | Recommended |
| Blinds or curtains | cover | Nice to have |
| Television and speakers | media_player | Nice to have |
| Heating or cooling | climate | Nice to have |
| Getting alerts | notify on your phone | Recommended |
How the whole thing works
There are only four parts: a button that gets pressed, a blueprint that works out how you pressed it, a script that remembers which scene you are currently on, and a set of devices that actually move.
The two middle layers come ready-made
The hub ships with 22 tested automation blueprints. Think of a blueprint as a fill-in-the-blanks form: the boxes are already laid out, you only supply the content. This setup uses two of them.
scenes_loop_detail handles the scenes themselves. It lets you write each scene out separately: which lights, what brightness, what colour, how far the blinds travel, what happens to the audio. If your scenes are simpler and only change a few lights, scenes_loop_simple fills in far faster and does the same job. switch_trigger_things is what brings the physical wall button in, mapping single press, double press and hold to different actions.
| Box to fill | What goes in it | Suggested |
|---|---|---|
| Which button | The scene keypad on the living room wall | — |
| Single press | Move to the next scene | Cycle |
| Double press | Jump straight to one scene | Shut down |
| Long press | Jump to the one you use most | Film |
| How many in the loop | Your scenes in the order you want them | 5 |
| Contents of each scene | Light, blind, audio and climate values | As in the chart above |
Fill those boxes and one button runs the whole room. You never write six separate rules, and you never have to solve "which scene are we on" yourself.
Different homes, different sets
The six above are a general suggestion. How many you want, and which ones, depends on how your living room actually gets used.
| Your situation | How many | Suggested set | Why that shape |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio flat, living room doubles as study | 3 | Everyday, Film, Shut down | Small room, few lights, more scenes only add confusion |
| Family home, shared living room | 5 | Everyday, Reading, Film, Unwind, Shut down | The general set, covers nine cases out of ten |
| Working from home often | 5 | Swap Reading for Work: neutral light, blinds half closed | Steady daylight matters more than atmosphere |
| School-age children | 4 | Everyday, Homework, Film, Shut down | Homework runs bright with the audio muted |
| Entertaining regularly | 6 | The general five plus Guests | That is the ceiling, do not add a seventh |
Three worth adding once the basics work
Two blueprints cover the core. These three are extras; add whichever earns its place in your house.
| What you want | Blueprint | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Switching scenes by asking | voice_trigger_things | Tell Assist "living room film" and it switches. This is a text conversation input, so it needs no extra listening hardware at all |
| Scenes that change after dark | adascene_multi | Up to ten time slots a day. Move to Unwind at sunset and Shut down at half past eleven, so a forgotten button press costs nothing |
| Being told when a switch half fails | entity_state_trigger_notify | If the blinds stop halfway or a lamp never caught up, a message reaches your phone. Usually it means that device dropped offline |
Two details people miss
Fade, do not jump
Going straight from 70% to 8% is harsh on the eyes. Give the transition two or three seconds and the whole thing feels completely different.
Blinds are slower than lights
A blind takes fifteen seconds end to end; a lamp is instant. Send the blind command first and handle the lights after, and the switch reads as one smooth move.
You do not have to set this up yourself
None of the boxes above need filling in by hand. The WOOWTECH hub ships with HA-MCP, which lets an assistant connect straight into your system, do the work, and then go back and check that it really runs.
Prompts you can copy straight across
Every block below can be copied whole; the button on the right does it for you. Pick the one closest to what you want rather than using all five.
Set my living room up with a few one-press scenes. Four is enough to start: everyday, film, unwind and all off. The scene button on the wall should step to the next one on a single press, and go straight to all off on a double press. Work out which lights and devices are in there yourself, and skip anything you cannot find rather than guessing.
Set my living room up as one-press scenes, five of them, in the order everyday, reading, film, unwind, shut down. Each scene should handle lights, blinds, audio and climate together: Everyday is warm white 4000K at 70%, blinds open, audio off. Reading is neutral 4500K at 60%, blinds half closed, quiet music. Film is deep amber 2000K at 8%, blinds closed, TV and speakers on. Unwind is candle 2200K at 25%, blinds closed, ambient sound only. Shut down turns every light off, closes the blinds, kills all audio. The wall button steps forward on one press, jumps to shut down on a double press, and jumps to film when held. Fade the lights over about two seconds instead of snapping, it is easier on the eyes. If a device fails to keep up during a switch, message my phone. Once it is built, test it yourself, make sure it really runs, then tell me which devices you ended up using.
I live in a studio. The living area is small, there are only two lights, and it doubles as my study. Keep it to three scenes: everyday, film and all off. Everyday needs to be bright enough to read by; film should drop the lights right down and close the blinds. There are no speakers, the television is the only audio device, so plan around that. The wall button steps forward on one press and goes to all off on a double press.
A few changes to the living room scenes. Film is too bright, take it from 20% down to 8%. Reading should close the blinds fully instead of halfway, the afternoon sun is too harsh. Add a guests scene as well: warm amber at 85%, blinds open, speakers on a playlist, placed after reading in the order. When you are done, tell me how many there are now and the order.
Someone at home complained that the television switches off after they press one of the scenes, and I never asked for that at all. Work backwards for me. List every rule allowed to touch the television, then line them up against the moment that scene ran and see which one actually sent the off command. It may be an extra line sitting inside the scene, or a separate automation that happens to wake up at the same time. Tell me which one it is and why it exists before you delete it.
Common questions
The lights change but the blinds do not move
I have no idea which scene I am currently on
One lamp is always half a beat behind
What if someone presses the wrong thing and ruins the setup?
Can I put a button in more than one spot?
Do I have to rebuild everything to add a scene later?
A month from now
No lap of the room before a film, no walking back at bedtime to check the lights, and even the least technical person in the house presses that button without being asked.
Same living room as before. It just finally knows what it is supposed to look like right now.