Smart Home & Automation · Milan and Arluno

The finest home
is the one that listens
and acts on its own.

Soft lights that follow you at night, air that is always fresh, curtains that lower themselves for the film. Wired luxury automation for those who renovate, no-building-work retrofit for the home you already have. And furniture designed together with the technology — with a single point of contact: us.

Why a smart home with Mariani

Wired excellence — for renovations: a KNX bus, an open standard that runs for years without a hitch

Retrofit with no building work — for the existing home: hidden modules, wireless controls, not a single wall opened

Furniture and technology together — motorised curtains, lighting and invisible audio are born with the interior project, not after it

Certified integrators — in-house know-how plus a network of professionals we engage on your project

One point of contact — design, supply, installation and handover: no ping-pong between suppliers

Let's be precise

Home automation or smart home?
Not the same thing.

The two terms are used interchangeably, but they describe two different levels of intelligence. Understanding the difference is the first step towards asking for — and getting — the right system.

Level 1

Home automation

The home you command, from anywhere: lights from your phone, shutters by voice, heating checked from the office. Convenient — but you are still the one who has to do something.

  • Control by app, voice or refined keypads
  • Remote control of lighting, climate, shutters
  • Check the state of the house from anywhere
New build or renovation

Renovating? The right backbone is wired.

When the walls are open, there is one right answer: a wired bus on the open KNX standard. The essentials of a home — light, climate, shutters — must simply always work, and a wired system delivers rock-solid reliability: years of service without a reboot. Because KNX is a standard adopted by hundreds of manufacturers, you are never tied to one brand: tomorrow you can change keypads and components without touching the system itself.

One director for the whole house

A supervisor brings lighting, climate, curtains, audio, cameras and alarm into a single interface. The systems talk to each other — which is what makes scenes possible.

Scenes made to measure

"Cinema": the screen descends, the room darkens, the lights fade. "Leaving": everything off, alarm armed, shutters down. One gesture — or none at all.

Fine air, always

Mechanical ventilation exchanges the air while recovering heat, and sensors regulate it on actual CO2 levels. It is the comfort you never see but breathe — every day.

Light that follows your life

Presence and brightness sensors dose the light by hour and by room: full when you need it, soft at night, off when nobody is there.

Motorised curtains and blinds

Woven into your scenes and answering a single gesture. Chosen together with fabrics and furniture, because a motor should never be noticed: it should disappear.

Connected appliances

Premium ovens, induction hobs and dishwashers converse with the house: hoods that regulate themselves, cycle status at a glance. Plus the Quooker multifunction tap — instant boiling, chilled filtered and sparkling water — of which we are official retailers. Chosen with the kitchen project, not after it.

Existing home?
Retrofit — without breaking walls.

A smart home is not a privilege reserved for those who renovate. A finished home — even a period one — can be retrofitted: components on open standards such as Matter and Zigbee join the existing electrical system with no chasing, no dust and no recertification.

How much? For an apartment, from a few hundred euros up to about €1,500 for full coverage of lighting, shutters and scenes. The order of magnitude depends on the project — which is why the first step is a site visit.

Invisible modules behind your switches

Small actuators hide inside the existing wall boxes: your switches stay where they are and work as before — and quietly become intelligent.

Wireless controls where no cable runs

Need a light point where a wire never went? A wireless button mounts on the wall and runs for years on a battery. No chasing, no building site.

Sensors without cables

Presence, brightness, door and window contacts, air quality: battery-powered sensors are the nervous system that turns automation into a smart home.

Even dated systems can join in

Ducted air conditioning from twenty years ago, an old proprietary automation system: with the right interfaces they come online and talk to the rest of the house again.

Ideal for holiday homes and B&Bs

Check-in and check-out scenes: guests arrive and the house welcomes them; they leave, and lights and climate switch themselves off. Remote control, and zero waste between stays.

Our home ground

Where furniture meets technology.

This is where we play at home. The best technology is the kind you never see: you feel it in the comfort, never in the aesthetics. That is why interiors and systems must be designed together — and it has been our craft since 1928.

Curtains coordinated with the fabrics

Motorisation is chosen together with curtains, fabrics and tracks: the result is silent movement inside a textile project coherent with the rooms.

Invisible audio

Ceiling speakers concealed in the false ceiling: music fills the room without a single visible box. Yesterday's whole-home sound, with today's intelligence.

Light that celebrates design

Lighting scenes studied on the pieces you love: the right intensity and light points for a designer sofa, a bookcase, a painting. Light direction is part of the interior project.

Keypads as design objects

Material finishes, bronzed metals, minimal switch plates: the control points are not electrical accessories but furnishing details, coherent with handles and surfaces.

Screens and technology out of sight

Televisions, screens and projectors built into furniture and ceilings: the living room becomes a cinema when you want one — and a living room again a moment later.

See the project first, in VR

With our photorealistic renders and virtual reality you step into your home before the works begin — lighting and curtain scenes included.

Why Mariani

One point of contact,
for furniture and technology alike.

We have the in-house know-how to design the smart home together with the interiors, and a network of certified integrators and professionals in our portfolio, engaged directly on each project. You talk to us — we take care of coordinating electricians, integrators and installers.

Site visit and independent advice

We do not sell a system: we design a solution. We start from the real conditions of your home and your goal, and choose the technology accordingly.

Certified integrators

For the systems side we engage certified professionals from our portfolio, selected project by project. The direction stays in one place: ours.

The showroom where you see it all together

In Milan San Babila and Arluno you see furniture and solutions side by side — and with virtual reality you walk through your own project before deciding.

Advice we always give: be demanding when you request a quote for home automation. The system should be chosen for your goal and your home's starting conditions — not for whatever the installer happens to know best.
Frequently asked questions

The things we are always asked

Do I need to rewire my home to make it smart?

No. If you are renovating, a wired backbone is the best choice; but a finished home can be retrofitted: modules hidden behind your existing switches, wireless controls and battery-powered sensors. No chasing walls, no dust, no electrical recertification.

Wired or wireless home automation — which is better?

It depends on where you start. If walls are open during a renovation, a wired bus on the open KNX standard delivers reliability wireless cannot match: years of service without a single intervention. If the house is finished, wireless on open standards such as Matter and Zigbee is mature, dependable and far more sensible than breaking walls.

Does home automation work in a period home?

Yes — it is one of the cases where retrofit shines: nothing touches walls, mouldings or original finishes. Even dated systems — ducted air conditioning from twenty years ago, an old proprietary automation system — can be brought online with dedicated interfaces and made to talk to the rest of the house.

How much does it cost to get started?

A retrofit for an apartment ranges from a few hundred euros up to about €1,500 depending on how many rooms and functions you want to cover. A wired system for a renovation is a larger investment, defined at project stage. Either way the cost follows the project — which is why we always start with a site visit.

Do you manage the whole project?

Yes. We coordinate furniture and technology with a single point of contact: in-house know-how for the design, and certified integrators and professionals from our network for installation and configuration. And on the furniture side, delivery and assembly are handled by our in-house team.

Which systems and brands do you work with?

On wired projects we work on the open KNX standard, with supervisors such as Control4; on retrofit with ecosystems such as Aqara, Shelly and Sonoff, and multi-protocol hubs such as Homey or Home Assistant. The right system is chosen based on your goal and your home, not on the brand: we have in-house know-how and certified professionals in our network across these platforms.

Can I control the house with Alexa, Google Home or Apple Home?

Yes. Whatever system you choose, we integrate it with the voice assistant you already use — Alexa, Google Home or Apple Home — and with the Matter standard. And if you want to start simple, even a small project with smart speakers and a few well-chosen accessories improves everyday life: what matters is that everything is designed to work together.

Start now

Let's talk about your smart home

Reply within 24 hours. Site visit and advice with no obligation.

Message us on WhatsApp with a couple of lines about your home — new or existing, how many rooms, what you would like it to do on its own. We will tell you where to start. Or come straight to the showroom in Arluno or Milan San Babila.

or
info@marianidesign.it

Showrooms in Arluno (MI) and Milan San Babila — by appointment or walk-in during opening hours.