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Anton Frolov commissioned an illustrator to depict his home and turned the artwork into an interactive Home Assistant dashboard. The project uses layered images, device-state visuals and animations to make controls easier for his household to use.
Home Assistant user Anton Frolov has turned custom illustrations of his house into an interactive smart-home dashboard, using animated room and device images to show what is on and off. In a report about the project, Frolov said the visual interface was designed to make controls more appealing and usable for his family, who had not wanted to use his earlier dashboard.
Frolov said he had spent about a year automating his home with Home Assistant, an open-source smart-home platform. Many routines ran automatically, including air conditioners switching off when everyone left and a sprinkler adjusting its run time according to weather. But some tasks still needed a person to use an app. The garden lights were a particular problem: a timer shut them off, and the household needed to open an app to extend the timer before the lights went out.
Rather than add a physical switch, Frolov decided to commission an artist to draw the home. He supplied an architectural plan marked with furniture, room photos, style references, examples of dashboards and a technical brief. He asked for transparent image files, day and night versions and separate layers for devices, with still images for off states and short animations for on states. He said keeping every asset on the same-size canvas helped prevent alignment work later.
The dashboard uses Home Assistant’s built-in picture-elements card. The house illustration serves as the background, while images, icons and status labels sit over it as interactive elements. Frolov described using device states to swap images and conditional elements to show or hide items. The supplied report cuts off while explaining how the animated device images are configured, so it does not document every implementation step.
A Dashboard Built Around the Home
The project shows one way to address a familiar smart-home problem: a system can automate routines yet remain inconvenient when someone needs to intervene. Frolov said other people in his household did not want to use his previous Home Assistant interface. A picture of familiar rooms, with devices represented where they are located, offers a different way to find controls and check status.
It also shifts much of the work from dashboard coding to preparing and commissioning the artwork. Frolov said the illustration was the core of the project; once it was ready, the remaining interface used a standard Home Assistant card and a small number of overlays. His account is a personal project report, however, not a usability study. It does not establish that illustrated dashboards work better for other households or quantify how much easier the new interface is to use.
custom smart home dashboard display
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From Automated Routines to Manual Controls
Home Assistant can run automations across compatible devices, but Frolov’s account distinguishes between tasks that happen automatically and those that still require user input. His sprinkler routine used weather conditions to adjust watering, while the garden lights required someone to extend a timer through an app. He also considered a physical switch, but said it would not solve the timer issue and would not suit every device.
Frolov looked at floor-plan dashboards before choosing a commissioned illustration. He found examples using 3D models and pixel art, but neither approach matched what he wanted. He said the 3D examples he saw often used a static model with interactive icons layered on top, while pixel art would require him to draw or assemble the scene himself. He instead hired an environment artist whose existing work included illustrated spaces.
“For the first time, it’s one the whole family actually enjoys using.”
— Anton Frolov, describing the completed dashboard
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Limits of the Project Report
The supplied report does not give the project’s total cost, the time required to complete the illustration, or the exact number of devices represented. It also does not identify the artist by name in the supplied material. The report excerpt ends before Frolov finishes describing how the device animations work, leaving some technical details of the final setup unavailable here.
Frolov’s account says his family enjoys the dashboard, but provides no measurements of usage or comparison with the previous interface. It is not clear whether the setup has been tested with other households, whether the artwork is available for others to use, or how it behaves across different screen sizes.
animated smart home control interface
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Further Build Details Are Needed
The report describes the approach rather than announcing a commercial product or a wider Home Assistant feature. Readers looking to reproduce it would need the remaining implementation details, including the complete configuration and any adaptations Frolov made for screen layout and animated image formats. In the supplied account, he says he converted animation frames to WebP himself and recommends asking for WebP files at the start.
No release, follow-up test or broader rollout is identified in the source material. The immediate next step for readers is to consult Frolov’s full report for any material beyond the supplied excerpt and assess whether commissioning custom artwork fits their own home and budget.
Home Assistant compatible smart home artwork
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Key Questions
What did Anton Frolov build?
He built an interactive Home Assistant dashboard using a commissioned illustration of his home as its background, with device images and status information layered over it.
How does the dashboard show device status?
Frolov says the setup uses Home Assistant’s picture-elements card. Device images can change according to device state, while conditional elements can appear or disappear based on that state.
Why did he commission an illustrator?
Frolov wanted a floor-plan interface that would be more appealing to his household. He said family members had not wanted to use his earlier dashboard, and he preferred the illustrator’s style to the 3D and pixel-art approaches he had considered.
What artwork files did the project require?
His brief called for transparent images, day and night versions, and separate device layers with still off-state images and short on-state animations. He also advised keeping all assets on a shared canvas of consistent dimensions so the layers line up.
Does the report show that this kind of dashboard is easier for everyone?
No. Frolov says his family enjoys using the dashboard, but the report provides no independent testing or data showing that illustrated dashboards improve usability for other households.
Source: hn
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