The Ultimate Maker Home: 10 Raspberry Pi Projects to Build Your Own Smart Ecosystem
As the year slowly comes to an end we find ourselves increasingly looking at our home automation setups for the upcoming year. That’s why we’ve collected an assortment of different projects to show the Raspberry Pi’s capabilities from automating gardening. scheduled pet feeding and automatic garage doors. Check out the list and resources attached to upgrade your living space!
1. Central Home Automation Hub (Home Assistant)
This is the foundational smart home project. The Raspberry Pi runs an open-source platform like Home Assistant or OpenHAB to act as the unified brain for your house.
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Centralizes control of all smart devices (lights, switches, thermostats, cameras) regardless of brand, allowing them to communicate with each other. It enables advanced automation routines that run locally.
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What you’ll need: Raspberry Pi 4/5, a high-speed MicroSD card (or better yet, a USB SSD), and an Ethernet connection.
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Local Control—automations execute faster and continue to work even if the internet is down.
2. DIY Smart Mirror (MagicMirror²)
Transform a regular mirror into an interactive information dashboard that shows real-time data overlaid on your reflection.
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Displays time, weather, news headlines, calendar events, and custom messages when you look into the mirror.
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What you’ll need: Raspberry Pi, a thin LCD monitor, two-way mirror glass, and the open-source MagicMirror² software.
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Personalized Display—modules can be customized to show specific data or even integrate with your other smart home controls.
3. Network-Wide Ad Blocker (Pi-hole)
Protect every device on your home network from ads and trackers with a centralized DNS sinkhole with software like Pi-hole.
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Intercepts DNS requests for known ad and malware domains, blocking them across your entire network, including smart TVs and mobile apps that lack ad-blocker support.
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What you’ll need: Raspberry Pi, an Ethernet cable (recommended for reliable DNS), and the Pi-hole software.
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Set-and-Forget Security—once configured, it works for every new device that connects to your Wi-Fi without any individual installation.
5. Automated Pet Feeder
Never worry about missing feeding time again! This project ensures your pets get the right amount of food, on time, every time, and can even dispense a treat remotely.
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Uses a small motor to dispense a measured portion of dry food from a hopper at scheduled times or upon remote command.
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What you’ll need: Raspberry Pi, a Stepper Motor or Servo Motor and driver board, a container (hopper) for the food, and a small custom-built screw or dispensing mechanism.
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Scheduled Reliability—program precise meal times and portion sizes, with optional features like a webcam for remote monitoring.
- Smart Pet Feeder Tutorial
6. Smart Speaker or Voice Assistant
Create your own fully customized voice assistant that can interact with your home and internet services.
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Serves as a hands-free interface for triggering automations, controlling devices, asking questions, and playing music without buying a major commercial smart speaker.
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What you’ll need: Raspberry Pi, a quality USB microphone array (for far-field voice recognition), and a small speaker.
7. Automated Garden Watering System
Eliminate the risk of over or under-watering your plants by giving them a digital caretaker. Perfect for the holidays and for a range of different plants!
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Uses a soil moisture sensor to monitor water levels and a temperature/humidity sensor to track climate. It activates a small water pump via a relay only when the soil is dry.
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What you’ll need: Raspberry Pi, moisture and temperature sensors, a relay board, and a 5V water pump.
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Data Logging—the Pi records environmental data over time, allowing you to fine-tune growing conditions for optimal plant health.
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Automated Garden System Built on Raspberry Pi for Outdoors or Indoors – MudPi
- Mudpi water automation system
8. Universal Remote Control (IR Blaster)
Consolidate control of all your infrared (IR) devices (old TVs, stereos, window AC units) into one central interface using a Raspberry Pi.
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An IR LED connected to the Pi learns and mimics the signals from your old remotes, allowing you to control all legacy devices through your smartphone or home automation hub.
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What you’ll need: Raspberry Pi, an IR LED emitter, an IR receiver, and LIRC software.
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Unified Control—create a single button that turns off your TV, stereo, and lamp simultaneously, even if they’re not natively “smart.”
- Instructables Raspberry Pi Zero Universal-Remote
9. Media Center and Streaming Hub (Kodi, Kavita, Jellyfin)
Reinvigorate an older television by turning it into a powerful, dedicated media streaming appliance or host your media server on your local network so you can binge from the lounge, kitchen and even the bathroom!
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Runs media center software like Kodi (via OSMC or LibreELEC) to organize and play local movie/music files and stream content from various online sources.
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What you’ll need: Raspberry Pi, MicroSD card, and an HDMI cable.
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Networked Library—easily access and stream media files stored on a NAS (Network-Attached Storage) drive or computer anywhere else on your home network.
10. Smart Garage Door Opener
Add app-controlled access and security monitoring to an existing “dumb” garage door motor.
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Allows remote opening/closing via a web interface or app. A magnetic contact sensor reports the door’s current status (open or closed), sending alerts if it’s left ajar.
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What you’ll need: Raspberry Pi, a relay module (to simulate the button press), and a magnetic door sensor.
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Status Alerts and Convenience—get instant notifications if the garage door opens unexpectedly or if you leave for work and forget to close it.
Conclusion
We think that these 20 projects have been able to demonstrate the power packed into a DIY Smart home system running on a Raspberry Pi. By centralizing the tools you use daily via Home Assistant, protecting your family using Pi-hole or just simply making sure your pets are fed when you’re out, you’ve made your life several levels more comfortable. What did you think about the projects shared here? Do you have nay unique ideas/projects that you’d like to share? Leave them in the comments or contact us so we can talk about it!
