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Anton Frolov commissioned an illustrator to draw his house and turned the artwork into an interactive Home Assistant dashboard. Device images and status indicators sit over the illustration, giving his household a visual alternative to the app interface he says family members did not want to use.
Anton Frolov has turned a commissioned, hand-drawn picture of his home into an interactive Home Assistant dashboard, layering controls and device animations over the artwork. In his report, he says the illustrated interface is the first dashboard his whole family enjoys using, addressing a practical problem with smart-home controls that had been designed mainly around his own use.
Frolov says he had been automating his home with the open-source Home Assistant platform for about a year. Some routines operate automatically: air conditioners switch off when everyone leaves, while a garden sprinkler adjusts its running time based on weather. Other tasks still require a person to use an app, including controlling the garden lights. Frolov had also set a timer to switch those lights off, with blinking lights serving as a warning that the timer was nearly up.
He says the existing Home Assistant app and dashboard did not appeal to other people in the household. A physical switch was not a complete fix, in his view, because it would not address the timer and some devices are awkward to operate at the unit itself. He chose a floor-plan approach after looking at other dashboards, but found the 3D examples he saw often used a static model with interactive icons layered over it. He also considered pixel art before deciding to commission an environment artist whose existing work suited the project.
Frolov prepared a brief with an architectural plan, room photographs, visual references, examples of dashboards and a technical specification. He asked for transparent image files, day and night versions, and separate layers for devices, including still images for off states and short animation loops for on states. He says having every asset exported on the same-sized canvas, in its correct position, saved substantial alignment work. For implementation, he used Home Assistant’s standard picture-elements card: the illustration sits behind positioned image, icon, state-label and conditional elements that reflect device states.
A Dashboard Designed for the Household
The project highlights a usability issue that can arise when a smart home depends on a single person’s preferred app or interface. Home automation can run routines without input, but people still need a workable way to handle exceptions and manual controls. Frolov’s account suggests that a familiar, room-by-room visual can make those controls easier for his household to approach; that is his experience, not evidence that illustrated dashboards will suit every home.
The account also shows that the main effort may sit outside the software configuration. Frolov describes artist selection, explaining the technical requirements and preparing reference material as much of the project’s work. For people considering a similar setup, the key trade-off is between a highly tailored visual interface and the time and coordination needed to create and maintain its artwork.
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From Automation to Illustrated Controls
Home Assistant is an open-source platform for integrating and controlling smart-home devices. In Frolov’s example, automation already handled some routine tasks, including switching off air conditioners when the household left and adjusting sprinkler operation in response to weather. The remaining issue was how people could control devices when an automated rule was not enough.
Frolov considered 3D and pixel-art floor plans before hiring an artist. His technical brief treated the illustration as a set of assets rather than one flat picture: separate device states, lighting variants and aligned image files could be placed independently in the dashboard. He says the garden required three versions—day, night and night with the lights on—and that he converted the requested animation frames to animated WebP himself. The report describes one person’s build, not a Home Assistant feature release or a platform-wide change.
“For the first time, it’s one the whole family actually enjoys using.”
— Anton Frolov, describing the finished dashboard
interactive smart home control panel
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Limits of the Published Account
The report does not identify the illustrator, state the commission’s cost or give a precise timeline for the artwork. It also does not specify how many devices or rooms the finished dashboard controls, or provide measurements showing whether other household members use it more often than the earlier interface. Frolov’s description establishes his own experience; it does not independently establish how the approach performs for other Home Assistant users.
The supplied account also ends while describing how image elements respond to device states. It does not fully document every implementation detail, such as the exact configuration used for the animated images or how the dashboard is maintained as devices and rooms change.
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Artwork and Configuration Details
No product launch, platform update or follow-up milestone is announced in the report. The immediate next step for readers interested in replicating the setup is to consult Frolov’s full account for the remaining configuration details, then determine whether custom artwork and the required image variants fit their own home and budget. Any later assessment of household use, maintenance or costs would be needed to judge how the approach holds up over time.
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Key Questions
What is the illustrated Home Assistant dashboard?
It is a dashboard built around a commissioned illustration of Frolov’s home. Controls and status elements are positioned over the picture so devices can be represented in their locations.
How did Frolov make the picture interactive?
He used Home Assistant’s picture-elements card. In his description, the illustration is the background, while image elements, icons, labels and conditional elements sit on top and reflect device states.
What did the illustrator need to provide?
Frolov requested transparent images, day and night versions, separate device layers and still or animated states. He says having the files share a common canvas size and alignment reduced later work.
Does the report say how much the commission cost?
No. The account does not provide the illustrator’s fee, the commission’s exact duration or a count of the devices controlled by the finished dashboard.
Does this mean illustrated dashboards work for every household?
No. Frolov reports that his family enjoys using this dashboard, but the account does not establish how other households would respond. The approach also involves commissioning artwork and preparing technical files.
Source: fediverse
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