Our renovated living room is the heart of our home. It's where I sit and surf on Pinterest, where Sean reads books, or Chloe watches videos on the iPad. It's where we gather around the fireplace and where we entertain our family and friends. I thought I loved this room before, but now I love LOVE this room.


This room doesn't have a TV and I'm really glad we decided not to put one here. Instead of mindlessly binging on Netflix together, we actually have conversations and choose to sit and enjoy each other's company in this room. The team at Philips offered me the chance to try out the Philips Hue White and Colour Ambiance Starter Kit which works seamlessly with Google Home and I knew this would be the room in which to try them out. The Google Home could function as a speaker in this room, as well as a hub to control our compatible devices including the Philips Hue lights, our Nest Thermostat, and our Spotify music. That's one important thing to consider when looking at a system like Google Home; I appreciated that it worked with other systems we already had.

Lights add so much to the mood and I thought the sconces above our bookcases would be place to add some versatility. What better way to go from dim reading lights to evening dance party in an instant!


I already had the Philips Hue White lights so it was fun to try the coloured ones too. Chloe loved simply calling out "Ok Google..." to get the lights to change. We tried stumping the Google Assistant with weird colour requests but it handled everything from 'magenta' to 'silver' with ease. This GIF shows light pink, lime green, navy blue, gold, and dimmed 50%. How fun these lights are going to be at Halloween and Christmas!


You can also continue to control the lights through the Hue app on your smartphone, which is convenient if you're not in the room or even not at home. It has preset Scenes and you can change the lights individually to get the ambiance you want. You can also create schedules and have the lights come on at certain times. As far as a "smart home" goes, I think being able to control your lights remotely is a really great feature to have.

I never realized it, but the Philips Hue lights and Google Home were the missing pieces we needed to make the living room feel 'complete'. A few nights ago, Sean and I found ourselves kid-free at home. We turned on the fireplace, set the lights to a soft amber, put Van Morrison on Spotify, closed the pocket doors, and enjoyed the living room the way it was meant to be enjoyed. It was, without a doubt, a total game changer.


What do you think? Do you have smart, connected devices in your home?

Disclosure: I was provided the Philips Hue lights and Google Home for purposes of this review. All opinions are my own.