Smart Homes with Home Assistant - and Why I’m Building a Better Way to See It All

🏡 Bringing Everything Together

If you’ve ever dabbled in smart-home tech, you’ll know the feeling: one app for lights, another for cameras, a third for heating, and half a dozen others for everything else.

Each one works in isolation — but your home doesn’t.

That’s where Home Assistant comes in.

Home Assistant is an open-source platform that unites all your smart-home devices under one roof. It runs locally (so your data stays yours), and it lets you automate, control, and monitor almost anything - from light switches to solar inverters. It’s incredibly powerful… but it can also feel intimidating for newcomers, as you will also require some electrical knowledge on installing smart modules in switches, wiring up CT clamps to monitor energy etc.

If you're interested in a full smart home solution but don't have the knowledge, my company Element Connect Ltd can provide you with a full solution.

⚙️ The Problem With Dashboards Today

Once you start using Home Assistant, the next natural step is building a dashboard - a control panel to see what’s happening around your home at a glance. This could be for your phone, computer, or on a tablet mounted to the wall.

But if you’ve tried creating one, you’ll know it can be time-consuming and technical. YAML files, card layouts, custom themes… it’s easy to spend hours tweaking rather than enjoying your smart home.

I found myself thinking:

What if designing a smart-home dashboard could feel as simple as rearranging widgets on your phone?

💡 The Idea: A Drag-and-Drop Dashboard Builder

That thought became the foundation for the project I’m building — a smart-home dashboard platform for Home Assistant users.

It’s a web-based builder that lets you design your dashboard exactly how you want it:

• Drag and drop components like lights, sensors, and cameras.
• Add sidebars and organise multiple pages.
• Personalise the layout for phones, tablets, or wall-mounted screens.
• Connect directly to your existing Home Assistant instance.

All without touching code.

And that was the birth of CasaBoard

The platform runs on a modern stack — Next.js, React, Tailwind, Supabase, Prisma, Postgres, and Stripe — and it’s built with speed and simplicity in mind. There’s a 14-day free trial, after which you can continue through a paid subscription if you love it (and I think you will).

🧠 Why This Matters

Smart homes should be about convenience, not configuration.
I want to make it possible for anyone — from seasoned Home Assistant veterans to first-time users — to build dashboards that feel like their own.

Your dashboard should reflect how you live:

• Maybe you want to monitor your garden lights at a glance.
• Or have a “movie mode” button that dims everything and starts Netflix.
• Or just check that every door is locked before bed.

The goal isn’t just control — it’s confidence and comfort.

🚀 What’s Next

I’m building this in public, and I’ll be sharing updates on LinkedIn over the coming weeks - from design decisions to new component types.

If you’re curious about Home Assistant, smart homes, or simply love seeing products come to life, follow along.

And if you’re already a Home Assistant user — I think you’ll like what’s coming.

👉 Follow me on LinkedIn for updates
👉 Visit element-software.co.uk to learn more about my software development company
👉 Visit element-connect.co.uk to learn more about smart home solutions