How to get more out of your lamps: Whether bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, living room or balcony… With the smart lamps from Philips hue, you can bathe your house or apartment in cozy light. And you can control it from anywhere with your cell phone: Brightness, colors and more.
The range of hue lamps and lights is now huge: there are lamps for normal sockets, bathroom lights, outdoor versions and vintage light bulbs.
In this article, I show you some ideas of how I have used Philips hue lamps in my home and hope that they will inspire you for new projects.
Indirect light in the living room
Indirect light makes every home really cozy. The light does not dazzle and reflects well on white walls. With indirect lighting, you can also draw great contours, e.g. of shelves, sideboards or mirrors.
The hue Lighstrips, which you can extend up to 10 meters, are best suited for indirect lighting.
I used 8 meters in the picture of my living room. The original power supply didn’t fit under the paneling on the ceiling. That’s why I replaced it with a very flat power supply unit from Self-Electronics. It measures 29.8 x 29.8 x 16.7 mm and makes no noise. Incidentally, indirect lighting also looks good on stairs…
Staircase lighting with Lightstrips
Open staircases in particular are shown to their best advantage with indirect lighting. In my example, there is a steel beam under the stairs, to which I was able to perfectly attach a 5-meter light strip.
The strips are self-adhesive, making installation quick and easy. It is important that the LEDs point towards the wall. This ensures that the light is nicely diffused and does not dazzle.
You can also combine the staircase lighting with a hue motion detector. This gives you an automatic night light for going to the toilet and a safe staircase. The motion sensors are available for both indoor and outdoor use.
New Symfonisk lamp with Bluetooth speaker
IKEA has been cooperating with the speaker manufacturer Sonos for some time now and sells a lamp with a Sonos speaker in the base alongside shelf speakers and wall pictures. In contrast to the normal Sonos speakers, the prices are moderate.
Unfortunately, the Symfonisk lamp is not inherently smart, it only has an E27 lamp socket.
At this point, it makes sense to use a Philipe hue lamp and thus control not only the music but also the light via smartphone.
Fairy lights on balcony with hue filament
Philips has light strips for indoors and outdoors – but no classic fairy lights like the ones that hang in beer gardens. That’s why I made my own string of lights for the balcony.
On the illu-shop.de website, you can configure professional, weatherproof fairy lights in any length and color. In my example, I ordered a black cord with ten E27 sockets. Sealing rings for the sockets are included so that no water can penetrate.
I bought ten hue filaments (the smallest ones) as light bulbs and numbered them from 1-10 in the app. In the darkest setting, the fairy lights give off a warm light, more than 5% light output is already too bright for me personally.
Attention: After a few weeks, one of the filament bulbs failed. On closer inspection of the defective bulb, I noticed that there was some moisture inside. A glance at the data sheet revealed: “Protection class IP20” and therefore absolutely not waterproof.
I foolishly assumed that every light bulb is waterproof as long as the screw thread is in a sealed socket.
I have now sealed the transition between the plastic base (where the QR code is printed) and the actual bulb and am looking forward to the result. If anyone has any tips on this, I’d be happy to hear from you!
Wall lamps with Philips hue
These globe lights with an E27 socket are available in many DIY stores or on Amazon for a few euros. They look super simple and are very easy to install. Either on the ceiling or on the wall. I used the hue White for this. Make sure that the globes have frosted glass rather than clear glass. This means the light is better diffused and doesn’t dazzle.
Indirect work light in the kitchen
I also work with indirect lighting in the kitchen using hue light strips. As there was no mounting option under my kitchen cupboard, I had an aluminum profile cut to size at the DIY store and screwed it to the cupboard from below.
The aluminum profile only cost a few euros and ensures that the light strip does not dazzle. I used the small Philips hue candle lamps with an E14 thread in the extractor hood.
There are now even aluminum profiles from third-party suppliers that fit the Philips Lightstrips perfectly. Various lengths and different covers are available, which are either transparent or milky to better diffuse the light.
hue filament in Edison style
If you want to conjure up some vintage style in your home, then get the filament lamps from Philips hue. They work just like the normal hue light bulbs, but look much cooler and cozier. Retro feeling in Edison style. A glowing wire is recreated in the clear bulbs.
Different colors cannot be set here, but a lamp like this also looks better in the warm, yellowish tones.
The filament hue is available in three different versions: Globe (large sphere), bulb (elongated) and as a lamp (normal shape). The lamps look best when they are hung from the ceiling on black fabric cables or placed in a modern cage-shaped lampshade.
Desk lamp with hue e14
Philips not only offers the large light bulbs with the so-called E27 thread, but also small bulbs with the E14 thread. These small bulbs are available in color as well as in white only.
For my desk, I bought the very affordable FORSÅ from IKEA for currently 14.99 euros. It’s not only available in the black pictured but also in other colors. Equipped with a white hue lamp, it provides a very cozy, dimmable light on the desk.
Cozy light above the dining table
For the dining table, I bought an old industrial lamp on eBay for 50 euros. In this example, the lamp had already been converted to an E27 base, so a hue White & Color Ambiance light fitted in perfectly.
I like to use the app to set warm colors with a high proportion of yellow so that the light looks warm and cozy.
Alternatively, Philips Hue also offers complete pendant lights for the dining table. The Ensis model is minimalist and unobtrusive and can be attached to the ceiling above the table.
It shines upwards onto the ceiling and downwards onto the table at the same time. The top and bottom can be controlled separately via the hue app – either in white or in different colors.
hue smart plug for coffee machine
What could be nicer than getting out of the shower in the morning and having a hot cup of coffee? With the new hue smart plug, you can switch any device with a power plug on and off via the app.
My Bezzera espresso machine takes around 15 minutes to heat up. That’s why I’ve created a routine in the app that always starts at 07:30 in the morning. When I get out of the shower, the machine is already heated up and I can drink an espresso straight away.
The espresso grinder (Eureka Mignon Perfetto) is connected to the same plug and conveniently switches itself on and off at the same time.
Incidentally, there are now many other manufacturers of smart sockets, some of which can also be controlled via Alexa, Google and Apple Homekit.
Converted IKEA bedside lamp
I converted two old IKEA “Magnarp” lamps into bedside lamps. Instead of the rice paper lampshade, I bought preserving jars with tin lids and placed them upside down on the base.
I simply cut a hole in the tin lid and fixed it in place with the plastic ring that previously held the lampshade. The E27 socket contains a hue White & Color Ambiance. Perhaps this will be an inspiration for your new bedroom?
hue filament with IKEA base
IKEA has recently launched a very cool lamp base (E27 socket) called RÅSEGEL for just €9.99. The base is cast from solid concrete, has a typical grey concrete color and is therefore very heavy.
The thing looks quite stylish together with a hue filament (in the picture in flask form) and fits well on tables or shelves.
Floor lamp from IKEA
The classic Hektar from IKEA becomes even more beautiful when you screw in a hue White & Color Ambiance. The large lampshade is white on the inside and reflects the light perfectly.
In this example, the lamp is positioned right next to the sofa to provide cozy light for reading.
hue GU10 for balcony and terrace
I was inspired by various beach clubs here: I light the palm trees on the balcony from below, which gives them a cozy and Mediterranean flair.
To do this, I put the hue lamps with GU10 bases in a waterproof housing so that they can withstand wind and weather. I used the hue app to set the balcony lighting to start automatically at sunset and switch off again at sunrise.
Bathroom lighting
I also chose damp-proof lamps for the ceiling lights in the bathroom. There is also a hue light strip behind the drawer under the washbasin.
This discreetly illuminates the items in the drawer, even if you go to the bathroom at night. The strip is activated by a motion detector.
How does Philips hue work?
With Philips hue, you can control special light bulbs, LED strips and lamps via app. The basic requirement is the so-called hue bridge, the control center. The bridge is connected to your Wi-Fi router via LAN cable and communicates wirelessly with the various light bulbs.
You can download the hue app to your cell phone for free. You can use it to control brightness and color. You can also create different scenes in the app – for moods and times of day. There are also accessories such as hue motion detectors and hue dimmers that you can connect to your lamps.
Can hue lamps be controlled with the old wall switches?
Previously, the lamps could be switched on and off using the existing light switch, but the brightest level with white light was always activated when switching on. Since an update of the hue app, the switch-on behavior of the light switch can be programmed in the app.
You can either select full luminosity, an individually set brightness and color or the last setting before it was switched off. More and more renowned manufacturers of wall switches are now also offering switches for hue that can be used to dim or activate pre-programmed scenes.
Lars reviews products that he personally uses: tech gadgets, bicycles and accessories, smart home devices, and fun products for the kitchen and bathroom. This also includes the best deals and discount coupons. Lars not only shares his insights on this page but also creates videos for TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. In his main job, Lars works at a radio station in Hesse.