Sometimes a project starts because you can’t find what you want to buy. The bedside lamps I wanted — warm, dimmable, touch-sensitive, smart-home integrated, and actually good-looking — either didn’t exist or cost more than I wanted to spend. So I built them.
The design brief
The requirements were specific:
- Warm white light only (no RGB nonsense for a bedside lamp)
- Touch dimming — tap to toggle, hold to dim
- Home Assistant integration for automations
- Physical size: small, vertical, something that doesn’t dominate the nightstand
- Build quality good enough that I wouldn’t be embarrassed to have it in my home
I spent two weeks sketching form factors before landing on a slim rectangular column, about 180mm tall, with a frosted polycarbonate diffuser.
The electronics
The core is an ESP8266 (specifically a Wemos D1 Mini) driving a constant-current LED driver circuit. The LEDs are 2700K high-CRI strips — color accuracy matters more than brightness for bedside lighting.
Capacitive touch is handled by a TTP223 IC. Simple, reliable, and only requires a copper pad on the PCB as the touch surface.
The PCB was designed in KiCad over about three evenings. Getting the component footprints right for the first spin was a genuine achievement — both boards came back from JLCPCB working on the first try.
ESPHome firmware
The firmware handles three behaviors:
- Single tap: toggle on/off at last brightness
- Hold: dim up or down (alternating direction each hold)
- Home Assistant: full control via MQTT for automations (fade on alarm, dim at sunset, etc.)
Both lamps have been running daily for four months with zero issues. This project is done, and I’m genuinely proud of how it turned out.