Wendy and Paul Lynch came to us in 2020 with their plans for a new build home in Castlederg. 

Scott met the couple at the Selfbuild Extend & Renovate Show in Belfast when Wendy was searching for a company that could consolidate all the tech she needed to control in her home into one system.

After seeing the Loxone hardware at Epitome Living’s stand, and chatting to Scott about how easy its systems are to use, Wendy was sold that Epitome Living was the right smart technology installer for her. 

We completed the Lynchs’ smart technology installation in 2022, with the addition of a home cinema alongside the building management controls we install in most projects.

The key difference between living rooms, kitchens, dining rooms, and bedrooms is that the former are social spaces, and the latter are private spaces. Social spaces consider the needs of the individual alongside the needs of whole families and guests. In private spaces, however, the needs of the individual are prioritised.

Throughout our years in business, we’ve seen gentle technology touches added to a property outside that make a huge difference to how the home looks and feels. Likewise we’ve also seen clients go all in with their outdoor technology to create gardens that are party-ready at the touch of a button.

The worst thing you can do, particularly if you’re building, is forget how impactful the outdoor space around your home is.

The kitchen: the heart of the home. 

For some, it’s a strategically thought out space with workflows considered to the nth degree. For others, the only feature that matters is the microwave.  

We started our blog series on our dream living spaces with our dream living room. This time, we turn our attention to the kitchen. 

What matters to us when we’re designing a technology plan for a kitchen is how the space is used and how it can be zoned to create the best possible experiences in each area, for each time of day. 

With the right technology in place, breakfast, lunch, and dinner can match the natural flow of the day to promote wakefulness in the morning or help you slow down and unwind in the evening. 

Traditional approaches to outdoor technology don't always work…

That’s particularly true when it comes to lighting. 

The approaches we see most often involve burying a wire or two to bring electricity to a shed, or installing cold white floodlights that turn on when someone enters your driveway. They do the job, but they aren’t exactly offering much else.

Home cinemas can’t be one-size-fits-all. It might be a cliche to say that our home cinemas are bespoke to each client we work with, but they are. Epitome Living is design-led, meaning that we take as much time to understand our clients’ lives as we do specifying products. We aren’t wed to working with the same brands for every project. Instead, we pick products based on what’s going to work best in any given space.

Epitome Living's dream smart home living room includes integrated, layered, dimmable lighting and seamlessly elegant audiovisual (AV) solutions involving TVs and speakers so the space works for the whole family.

The purpose of viewing media in a home cinema is to maintain the quality of the original content. Unlike a simple TV-on-the-wall set up, or even a TV with a sound bar, a home cinema accurately reproduces the content as it was intended to be viewed. 

There are complaints doing the rounds on the internet that TV shows and movies are becoming too dark to see, with dialogue that’s too hard to hear. The problem in this case is that the devices we watch them on haven’t kept up with the technological advances of the film and television industry.

We tend to think of school technology as whiteboards, projectors, and iPads. It is that (you don’t need to tell us how important AV is). But it can be so much more.

If energy efficiency for a school building is the goal, automating systems like lighting and heating can help to manage costs extremely effectively, and require zero input from the school’s staff to work as they should.

You can now experience an ambient assisted living solution (AAL) designed and installed by Epitome Living at the Sync Living Independence and Mobility Hub in Jennymount Business Park in Belfast. AAL uses discreet technology systems to create safe, easily monitored environments for people who want to lead independent lives.

Our CPD courses explore the design and installation of technology in contemporary homes and are suitable for architects and interior designers. We're the only smart technology installer in Ireland offering this training in smart technology, so don't miss out on getting yourself or your team signed up. 

Installing a smart system in your home can be costly. Wiring is one cost, hardware is another, and we know it all starts to add up. We’re not detached from the fact that when you’re building or renovating, you don’t often have an extra few thousand pounds in your pocket for some ‘nice-to-have’ technology. But what if smart technology wasn’t seen as a ‘nice-to-have’? What if it was seen as an investment that saves you time, money, and energy in the immediate term and in the future?

The simple answer? 

The same as what happens when the power goes out and you don’t have a smart home. 

We’re always on the look out for tech developments, particularly when it comes to smart building technology, as we want to give our clients the best experience possible with what we install for them. 

We asked the team what their 2026 home tech predictions are, and here’s what they came up with.

A non-exhaustive guide to the energy efficiency grants available for homeowners and commercial building managers in Ireland through bodies like the Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland (SEAI).