Top 17 'Tech-as-Decor' Smart Home Gadgets to Decorate Your Blank Walls and Empty Corners with This Weekend - Goh Ling Yong
That awkward empty corner staring back at you. That vast, blank wall above the sofa. We all have them—the decorating dead zones of our homes. For years, the go-to solutions have been predictable: a potted plant, a framed print, maybe a floor lamp if you’re feeling adventurous. But what if the answer wasn't just decorative, but also intelligent, interactive, and undeniably cool?
Welcome to the world of 'Tech-as-Decor'. This isn't about hiding your gadgets or wrestling with a Medusa's head of cables behind the TV console. It's the exact opposite. It's about choosing smart home devices that are so beautifully designed, they become the decor. This new generation of technology enhances your life not only with function but also with form, transforming those neglected spaces into focal points of both beauty and brains.
Ready to give your home a 21st-century makeover this weekend? We've curated the ultimate list of 17 smart home gadgets that double as stunning decorative pieces. Forget boring art and lifeless corners; it's time to decorate with light, sound, information, and interaction.
1. Smart Art Displays
The Gadget: Samsung The Frame TV or Meural Canvas
The undisputed king of tech-as-decor, a smart art display is the ultimate chameleon for your blank wall. When it's on, it's a brilliant 4K television. When it's off, it’s not a black void; it's a work of art. The Frame TV, for example, features a matte display that eliminates glare, making digital prints look stunningly realistic. With customizable bezels that magnetically snap on, you can match it to your room's exact style, from modern oak to classic white.
The real magic is in the art subscription services. You gain access to thousands of works from world-renowned galleries, allowing you to switch from a Van Gogh to a contemporary photograph with a few clicks on your phone. It’s the perfect solution for the indecisive decorator.
Pro Tip: Use the built-in motion sensor so the art appears automatically when you enter the room and turns off to save power when you leave. It’s a seamless touch that will wow your guests.
2. Modular Light Panels
The Gadget: Nanoleaf Lines/Shapes/Elements or Govee Glide Wall Lights
Think of these as interactive, light-up wall art. Modular light panels are geometric shapes (hexagons, triangles, lines) that you can arrange in any pattern you desire on a wall. They connect to your Wi-Fi and can display over 16 million colors, creating dynamic, flowing animations that can transform the entire mood of a room.
These panels are perfect for creating a statement piece above a desk, a headboard, or a media console. Use them to create soft, ambient mood lighting for a movie night, or sync them to your music to watch the colors dance to the beat during a party. The wood-look Nanoleaf Elements series even looks fantastic when the lights are off, offering a more subtle, biophilic design.
Pro Tip: Plan your design on the floor before sticking it to the wall. Use the companion app’s AR layout assistant to preview how your creation will look in your space.
3. Aesthetic Smart Speakers
The Gadget: Apple HomePod Mini, Sonos One, or Bang & Olufsen Beosound Emerge
Gone are the days of clunky black-box speakers. Today's smart speakers are designed to be seen and heard. The fabric-wrapped spheres of the HomePod Mini or Google Nest Audio add a soft, textural element to a bookshelf or side table. The sleek, minimalist cylinder of the Sonos One blends effortlessly into any decor scheme while delivering room-filling sound.
For a true statement piece, look to brands like Bang & Olufsen. Their Beosound Emerge is designed to look like a book, fitting discreetly onto a shelf, while the Beosound Balance looks more like a modern sculpture than a piece of audio equipment. These gadgets fill your empty corners with both immersive sound and impeccable style.
Pro Tip: Group two matching smart speakers (like a pair of Sonos Ones) to create a stereo pair. This not only provides a more immersive audio experience but also creates a sense of symmetry and balance on a credenza or mantlepiece.
4. Smart Mood Lamps
The Gadget: Philips Hue Go Portable Table Lamp or Dyson Solarcycle Morph
A lamp is a decor staple, but a smart lamp elevates it from a simple light source to an experience. The Philips Hue Go is a perfect example—a portable, rechargeable bowl of light that you can place anywhere. Use it to cast a vibrant magenta glow in a reading nook or a soft, warm candle-like flicker on your dining table.
For a more architectural piece, the Dyson Solarcycle Morph is a marvel of engineering and design. It can function as a task light, an indirect light, a feature light to highlight art, and even an ambient light with a warm, orange glow. It’s a versatile, sculptural piece that adapts to your needs throughout the day, making it perfect for a multi-functional space.
Pro Tip: Use your smart lamp’s app to create a "scene" that mimics a sunrise, slowly brightening and warming in color to help you wake up more naturally.
5. Smart Weather Stations
The Gadget: Netatmo Smart Home Weather Station
Why clutter your phone with weather apps when you can have a beautifully designed object tell you everything you need to know? The Netatmo Weather Station consists of two sleek, aluminum cylinders—one for indoors and one for outdoors. They measure everything from temperature and humidity to air quality and barometric pressure.
The minimalist, metallic design looks fantastic on a floating shelf or a minimalist entryway console. It’s a functional conversation starter that provides hyper-local, real-time data while adding a touch of sophisticated, high-tech flair to your decor.
Pro Tip: Connect your weather station to IFTTT (If This Then That) to create smart home automations. For example, you can have your Philips Hue lights turn blue if it starts raining.
6. Minimalist Smart Thermostats
The Gadget: Google Nest Thermostat or Ecobee SmartThermostat
Replacing your beige, plastic thermostat is one of the quickest and most impactful tech-as-decor upgrades you can make. Modern smart thermostats like the Google Nest feature a polished mirror finish and a simple, intuitive interface that feels incredibly futuristic. They learn your schedule, save you money on energy bills, and look like a piece of modern art on your wall.
The Ecobee takes a slightly different approach with a clean, squircle design and a user-friendly touchscreen. Both options are a massive aesthetic improvement over their predecessors and serve as a subtle nod to the intelligence of your home.
Pro Tip: Choose a finish that complements your wall color or other hardware in the room. The Nest Thermostat comes in several finishes like Sand, Fog, and Charcoal to blend in or stand out.
7. Artistic Air Purifiers
The Gadget: Coway Airmega, Molekule Air Mini+, or Samsung Bespoke Cube Air Purifier
Health and wellness are a priority, but air purifiers have historically been eyesores. Not anymore. Companies are now designing these essential appliances to be beautiful enough to be focal points. The Coway Airmega series features clean lines and a fabric-like grille that resembles a high-end speaker. The Molekule Air Mini+ has a sleek, anodized aluminum finish and a vegan leather handle, looking at home on any nightstand.
Samsung's Bespoke Cube takes it a step further with a furniture-like design and a customizable front panel, allowing it to blend seamlessly with your decor. Placing one of these in an empty corner not only fills the space with style but also quietly works to clean the air you breathe.
Pro Tip: Place your air purifier in a central location with good airflow rather than tucking it away. With designs this good, you’ll want to show it off.
8. Digital Pixel Art Frames
The Gadget: Divoom Pixoo 64 or LaMetric TIME Smart Clock
Inject some retro-cool, lo-fi charm into your space with a pixel art display. These devices are part clock, part notification center, and part ever-changing art piece. The Divoom Pixoo is a digital frame you can hang on a wall or place on a desk. Using a mobile app, you can display thousands of pixel art creations from a global community, create your own animations, or show useful information like the weather or social media notifications.
The LaMetric TIME is a fantastic desk or shelf accessory. It scrolls through time, weather, and custom messages in a fun, blocky pixel font. It's a small but mighty gadget that adds a ton of personality and a splash of color to a home office or kid's room.
Pro Tip: Use the Divoom Pixoo as a dynamic "now playing" display by linking it to your Spotify account. It will show the album art in pixelated form as your music plays.
9. Smart Indoor Gardens
The Gadget: Click & Grow Smart Garden or Rise Gardens Personal Garden
Bring life and technology to your kitchen counter or an empty corner with a smart indoor garden. These self-contained hydroponic systems make growing your own herbs, salads, or flowers ridiculously easy. They feature built-in, full-spectrum LED grow lights and self-watering systems, taking all the guesswork out of gardening.
Beyond the benefit of fresh basil at your fingertips, these gardens are beautiful living decor. The glow of the grow lights adds a warm, inviting ambiance, and the lush greenery introduces a touch of biophilic design to your home. Here at the Goh Ling Yong blog, we believe integrating nature and technology is the future of home design, and these gadgets are a perfect start.
Pro Tip: Choose a garden with a wood or bamboo finish to add a natural, organic element that contrasts beautifully with the high-tech functionality.
10. Stylish Smart Diffusers
The Gadget: Pura Smart Fragrance Diffuser or Vitruvi Stone Diffuser
Scent is a powerful, often overlooked element of home decor. A smart diffuser allows you to control the ambiance of your home through fragrance, all from your phone. The Pura plugs directly into an outlet and holds two different premium fragrance vials, which you can schedule to run at different times and intensities throughout the day.
For a tabletop option, the Vitruvi Stone Diffuser is a minimalist masterpiece. Carved from porcelain, it looks like a piece of ceramic art. While not "smart" in the Wi-Fi sense, it uses ultrasonic technology to scent your space and can be paired with a smart plug to integrate it into your smart home routines.
Pro Tip: Create a "Welcome Home" routine in your smart home app that turns on your diffuser with an uplifting scent a few minutes before you typically arrive home.
11. Ultra Short-Throw Projectors
The Gadget: Samsung The Freestyle or Anker Nebula Capsule
Why dedicate an entire wall to a TV when you can have a screen appear only when you need it? An ultra-short-throw or portable projector can turn any blank wall into a massive cinema screen. The Samsung Freestyle is particularly brilliant, with a 180-degree cradle stand that lets you project onto walls, ceilings, or anywhere in between. It has auto-focus and auto-keystone, so getting a perfect picture is effortless.
These projectors are small, stylish, and portable. When not in use, they can sit discreetly on a bookshelf or coffee table. It's the ultimate minimalist solution for a media room, allowing your blank wall to be just that—a blank wall—until it's movie time.
Pro Tip: Project a looping 4K video of a crackling fireplace or a tropical aquarium onto a wall to create a dynamic and mesmerizing digital "painting."
12. Levitating Smart Decor
The Gadget: Levitating Moon Lamp or Floating Bluetooth Speaker
For a piece of tech-as-decor that is guaranteed to stop guests in their tracks, look no further than levitating gadgets. Using powerful magnets, these devices float and spin in mid-air, creating a magical, gravity-defying effect.
The levitating moon lamp is a popular choice, casting a soft, ethereal glow while slowly rotating above its base. It’s perfect for a nightstand or a dark corner. Floating Bluetooth speakers offer a similar visual "wow" factor while playing your favorite tunes. This is the kind of decor that feels like it’s straight out of a sci-fi movie.
Pro Tip: Place these on a sturdy, level surface away from other electronics to ensure the magnetic field works perfectly and the object remains stable.
13. Smart Curtain and Blind Openers
The Gadget: SwitchBot Curtain or Aqara Roller Shade Driver
The most elegant tech is often the most invisible. Smart curtain openers are small, unassuming robots that you clip onto your existing curtain rod. With a simple voice command or a scheduled routine, they will physically open and close your curtains for you.
This adds a touch of effortless luxury to your daily life. Waking up to sunlight as your curtains automatically part is a game-changer. While the device itself is hidden, its effect—the graceful, automated movement of your drapes—becomes a subtle and sophisticated part of your room's "performance."
Pro Tip: Use the built-in light sensor on the SwitchBot to have your curtains automatically close when the sun gets too intense, protecting your furniture and keeping your home cool.
14. Smart Mirrors
The Gadget: Echelon Reflect or a simple LED Smart Mirror
Transform your morning routine by upgrading the mirror in your hallway, bedroom, or home gym. A true smart mirror like the Echelon Reflect looks like a simple, elegant wall mirror when off. When on, it becomes an interactive display for streaming fitness classes, turning an empty wall into a personal training studio.
For a simpler, more affordable option, many companies now offer bathroom or vanity mirrors with integrated LED lighting, anti-fog technology, and a small display for the time and weather. It’s a functional upgrade that adds a clean, futuristic glow to your space.
Pro Tip: Place a smart mirror in your entryway. It's the perfect spot for a last-minute appearance check while also getting a quick glance at the weather before you head out the door.
15. Architectural Speakers
The Gadget: Sonos In-Wall/In-Ceiling Speakers
For the ultimate minimalist, the best tech is the tech you can't see at all. Architectural speakers are installed directly into your drywall and then painted over to perfectly match your wall color, making them completely invisible.
While the installation is more involved, the result is unparalleled. You get high-fidelity, room-filling sound that seems to emanate from nowhere. It's the perfect way to add an immersive audio experience to a room without a single speaker, cable, or box cluttering up your carefully curated decor.
Pro Tip: Work with a professional installer to ensure optimal placement for acoustics. They can help you position the speakers for the best possible soundstage in your specific room.
16. Smart Coasters and Mugs
The Gadget: Ember Mug² or Ui Mug & Warmer Set
Tech-as-decor can also be small and personal. The Ember Mug is a temperature-controlled smart mug that keeps your coffee or tea at your perfect drinking temperature for hours. Its charging coaster is a sleek, minimalist saucer that looks great on any desk or end table.
The Ui Mug takes a different approach, using a special charging base that uses electromagnetic energy to keep the mug warm. When the mug isn't on it, the base can also act as a Qi wireless charger for your phone. It’s a tiny, elegant, and multi-functional piece of tech for your personal space.
Pro Tip: Choose a metallic finish for your Ember Mug (like copper or gold) to add a little touch of glamour to your morning coffee ritual.
17. Kinetic Art Displays
The Gadget: Sisyphus Kinetic Art Table
This is the grail-level item of tech-as-decor. The Sisyphus table is a stunning piece of furniture—a coffee or side table with a bed of sand under the glass top. A hidden, Wi-Fi-controlled robot magnetically pulls a steel ball through the sand, endlessly creating and erasing beautiful, intricate patterns.
It is a mesmerizing, meditative, and utterly unique centerpiece. It’s a piece of art, a piece of furniture, and a piece of robotics all in one. While it's a significant investment, it is perhaps the most perfect and literal execution of technology as beautiful, functional decor for an empty corner or a living room centerpiece.
Pro Tip: Use the companion app to create your own patterns or download new ones from other Sisyphus owners to keep the art fresh and engaging.
Your Home, Your Canvas
The line between technology and design is no longer just blurring—it has all but disappeared. Your home's blank walls and empty corners aren't problems to be solved; they are opportunities to express your personal style in a smarter, more interactive way.
You don't need to turn your home into a futuristic showroom overnight. Start with one piece that excites you. Maybe it's a set of light panels to bring a dark corner to life, or a smart art display to finally fill that space above the fireplace. By choosing gadgets that are as beautiful as they are brilliant, you can create a home that is not only smarter but also a more beautiful and personal reflection of you.
Which of these tech-as-decor gadgets would you add to your home first? Do you have a favorite smart device that doubles as decor? Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments below!
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
Stay updated with the latest posts and insights by following on your favorite platform!