doityourzelf

Who doesn't love a little bit of mood lighting? A night fighting aliens, building towns, and exploring the Old West isn't complete without a red glow by my side or a nice amber behind my monitor. Over the last few years, I've acquired a mighty collection of smart lighting, and luckily, three of them are in pretty solid deals just before the official start of Amazon Prime Day

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Govee Floor Lamp 2 | ~~$164.99~~ $119.99 at Amazon
Nanoleaf Shapes | ~~$149.99~~ $127.49 at Amazon
Nanoleaf Lines | ~~$159.99~~ $139.99 at Amazon

Govee Floor Lamp 2

I've used a handful of Wiz lights, plus the more expensive Govee Floor Lamp Pro, and the Floor Lamp 2 would still be my choice. [[link]] Though it's smaller than the Pro and more expensive than what Wiz put out, it offers quality, a built-in speaker for ambient sounds, and it's Matter-enabled which means it can fit into any smart home setup.

Thanks to an intuitive app, it can cycle through scenes (which are lighting with a specific theme), and you can get super specific with which colors you want to project forward. If you happen to have Govee TV backlights, like me, you can sync the two up to match what's playing on your TV. It's a pretty nifty setup that works entirely by itself but also contributes to a smart home well. I often speak to my phone and ask it to turn on lights around the house. It does so with little hassle.

$165 is quite a lot to put down for a smart lamp, but that $45 discount does make it a rather attractive package

Nanoleaf Shapes

The whole point of the Nanoleaf Shapes is to create your own kind of smart lighting. You go around a mate's house and find they've picked up the same set? Chances are they won't look the same even if you've bought the same pack. The kit I've highlighted here is the seven-pack, which comes with a hub-style light with a few controls and connection to the mains, then six other lights that you connect to it. This is two less than what I have, but for the money, this is the pack I'd be going for.

You can hook it up to a smart assistant like Amazon's Alexa, but the built-in controls are pretty solid, and it even has noise detection, should you want it to pulse in time with music you're playing. For me, I found the noise detection mode to be a tad gimmicky but it's neat for the right environment.

If you don't want your smart lighting to be too smart, you can control the Nanoleaf Shapes from Nanoleaf's app and go without adding them to a smart home. My favourite thing to do is hook up the Shapes and just let them work through a few different colors as I play games or watch movies. They add a lot to the ambience of my room.

Nanoleaf Lines

Just imagine the things you can draw with [[link]] nine lines. That's the phrase that popped into my head as I made nuclear signs, axes, swords, and well, settled on a big triangle. But, in fairness, the triangle is a pretty great shape, and coincidentally manages to spread light from my Nanoleaf Lines with ease. Like the Nanoleaf Shapes, this comes with a hub section, with controls, that can then be connected to a sequence of lines, that not only powers them but allows you to customize them as you see fit from the Nanoleaf app.

The benefit of these lines is that they are sturdy and long enough to even fit some small figures on them, so mine are load-bearing in a way. Like Nanoleaf's other offerings, you can hook these up to a smart assistant [[link]] but they can function just fine with the included buttons. The upside to putting them into a smart home is that you can automate them to schedule your day. This means they can slowly light up after your alarm goes off and slowly go down as you drift off. It's a neat little addition to an already solid set of lights.

With a tidy $20 discount, this pack gives you nine lines and nine connectors to bridge those lines together. The 12-pack gives you three extra lines for another $30, though I'd stick with the cheap option here. I think it gives you the best bang for your buck, and is the one I currently use.