Service · From €25,000
Smart home design and installation in Mallorca
For a new build or a full renovation: designed before first fix, installed with my own electricians, and documented as though someone else will inherit it. One day someone will.
The cheapest moment to get a smart home right is before the plaster goes on. The most expensive is eighteen months after handover, when the family has quietly stopped using half of it.
Most of what goes wrong in Mallorcan villas is decided in the first fix. Cable routes nobody thought about, a plant room the size of a broom cupboard, access points positioned where the electrician had a spare socket rather than where the signal is needed, and switch positions agreed on site by two people who don't live there. None of that is fixable later without opening walls.
What the design stage produces
Before anything is bought, you get a written specification: a room-by-room schedule of every circuit, every device and every cable, drawings marked up against your architect's plans, a plant room layout, and a costed bill of materials. It's the document your builder prices against and your architect coordinates around.
It's also yours. If you decide to take it to a different installer, take it — the specification is what you paid for, and it's written so that anyone competent can execute it.
What gets installed
- Lighting — KNX or Lutron for anything substantial, with proper dimming curves so the scenes actually look like something rather than being 40% of everything.
- Climate and underfloor — zoned properly, integrated rather than left on its own wall thermostat.
- Shading — motorised blinds, awnings and pergolas, scheduled against the actual sun path on your plot rather than a generic timer.
- Networks — structured cabling to every room, fibre between buildings where the run demands it, and enterprise access points with wired backhaul.
- Audio and cinema — distributed audio indoors and out, and a cinema room that runs from one tile.
- Security — cameras recording on site rather than in someone else's cloud, gates, intercom and alarm integrated into the same interface.
And then Apple Home over the top
All of it surfaces in Apple Home, so the household controls a €200,000 system from the app already on their phones. The engineering stays serious. The interface stays familiar. That's the whole idea.
Bring me in early. The useful moment is when the drawings are firming up but before first fix — roughly RIBA Stage 3 in British terms. After first fix I'm working around decisions instead of shaping them, and the result is always a compromise.
Working with your architect
I work to your architect's drawings, not around them. Schedules come back coordinated, in their format where they have one, and I don't make an aesthetic decision — switch plate finish, panel position, speaker grille colour — without them. No surprise trunking, and nothing lands on a wall someone spent three months detailing without them seeing it on a drawing first.
What it costs
| Scope | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Design and specification only | Fixed fee, quoted after survey |
| Villa, lighting + climate + network | €25,000 – €60,000 |
| Villa with shading, distributed audio and security | €60,000 – €120,000 |
| Large villa with cinema and full integration | €120,000 upwards |
Fixed project fee — not a percentage of what you spend. If I specify more than the house needs, I earn exactly the same, which is the point.
Start with a survey
Half a day at the house, €450 fixed. A written report on what you have, what's wrong with it and what putting it right would cost — yours to keep whether or not you use me.
Book a survey →Questions
Straight answers.
When should I bring you into a project?
Ideally once the layout is settled but before first fix. That's when cable routes, plant room size and switch positions are still decisions rather than constraints. I'll still take on projects later than that, but I'll tell you honestly what's been closed off.
Do you do the electrical work yourself?
I design and install the control systems, and the mains electrical work is done by registered Spanish electricians I work with regularly, who issue the boletín. It's one point of contact for you and correctly certified work for the property.
Can you work with an installer already appointed?
Yes. Sometimes the right answer is that I write the specification and supervise, and the contractor already on site executes it. That's often cheaper and avoids the friction of two firms on one job.
How long does installation take?
First fix runs alongside the build. Second fix and commissioning is usually three to eight weeks depending on scale, and commissioning always takes longer than people expect — that's the part where the system stops being wiring and starts being usable.