Hi Balinda,
We have quite a few options for Smart Home gear being based in the UK (north of Manchester if you want more detail), and the limitation to your Smart Home is your budget and imagination. Just by way of information, I’ll outline my own convoluted Smart Home path, it may provide some clarity on how not to do it 
… My Home Automation journey started with the use of Philips Hue lights quite a few years ago (the v2 Bridge had just come out and I got that one, so maybe back in 2015), and these bulbs were just operated initially via the Hue Bridge and the phone app, or via the Amazon Alexa skill once I had got used to Philips Hue - they worked great, and still do, but are a bloody expensive way of getting Home Automation! I also bought a Philips Hue Dimmer Switch for the bathroom, which is still in use.
Shortly after the purchase and household growth of Philips Hue bulbs I bought a few WiFi (Tuya) enabled electrical sockets, as Philips didn’t make anything but lighting at the time. I then used the Smart Life / Tuya app and started controlling these devices from my phone - I subsequently added Tuya WiFi door sensors and movement sensors. I also added a Nest Thermostat for controlling the heating and hot water - this was prior to Google taking ownership of it - another app for that one!
This ad-hoc growth in my house automation was a bit chaotic to be honest, as I was using different phone apps for doing different things - some devices didn’t speak to others, and most of the really convenient automation i.e. lights coming on and off when doors opened or closed, or on entry into a room was a bit convoluted and had to be done via the Amazon Alexa app. The Alexa app is good, but limited.
A neighbour then told me about Home Assistant, and I looked at it, but dip my toe in as I didn’t really understand it (I think I may have downloaded it and installed it on a Windows machine 
) and I never got to grips with it. I struggled on, trying to get different manufacturer’s stuff working with others, and found stuff to lack interoperability and making compromises… after a short time, I came back to looking at Home Assistant as a solution to my Automation woes.
I started to use Home Assistant (HA) about three (maybe four) years ago on a Raspberry Pi 4, and whilst confusing at first, I realised it should have been the starting point for my whole Smart Home setup, but lack of knowledge about it at the beginning of this journey was my problem. The ad-hoc growth of Smart Home kit I was using could now be rationalised! The great thing about using HA is the flexibility it allows you with differing Smart Home protocols, and the huge range of Automation it also allows you to set up (using a plugin like Node Red allows for even more complex automation). I also use the Nabu Casa cloud service, as this allows you to control Home Assistant via your phone when not at home and provides seamless voice integration with Alexa - in addition it also supports Home Assistant development.
Over the last year, I have moved all the kit over to the ZigBee protocol (which Philips Hue uses, although theirs is a bespoke tweak to the regular ZigBee protocol I believe) and found Zigbee to be a very solid protocol to use. My WiFi-based stuff was always losing connection, and didn’t seem to be reliable, so I removed it from my setup and I’m selling it off - however, my homemade sensors using ESP32’s have been rock solid. Most of the off-the-shelf Zigbee based sensors I have bought have been Aqara ZigBee type of kit. They just work, and have a good battery life too (I have PIR sensors, push buttons, door sensors, Temp & Humidity sensors, vibration sensors, water leak sensors - vibration sensors attached to taps, water leak sensors attached to cheapo pressure mats for sensing when sofa or bed is occupied)
I have a large number of push-button controls from single-button Aqara ones in every room to 4 and 6 button Loratap ones in Kitchen and Living Room. These single buttons, now offer manual control of the lighting as the buttons are multi-function and enable single press, double press and long press options, which are then programmed to toggle lights on or off using pre-programmed scenes, (which are groups of lights programmed to be a set brightness and colour) - this is in addition to any automated light settings I have i.e. porch lights automatically coming on when it is dark and front door opening… and then turning off automatically when I have left the room…
I also use cheap Google Nexus 7 (2nd Gen) tablets as portable dashboards in most rooms for the control and reading of data - good WAF on these as the custom dashboards are easy for She Who Must Be Obeyed to control lights and sockets, and also to see if the domestic hot water is hot enough to go for a shower or a bath.
As a closing remark, I would say get an account on AliExpress as most of the kit for SmartHome setup is available there for about half to a third of the price of UK-based suppliers - and, in my experience of using it, I have never had an issue and stuff gets delivered in about 6 to 9 days. It’s invaluable for electronic sensor components if you progress to building your own sensors as I now do. If I can do it, anybody can!
If you need any further clarification on the above, or any further help please do feel free to shout up - I’d be happy to pitch in. This community group has been invaluable to me, and I’m happy to pay back and help others who need it.
Cheers,
Mike.
Especially with the smart switches controlling smart lights, implementing dual control and one-touch scenes — that’s the feature my wife uses the most.
Should keep me busy through 2025!
- “built in” electrical stuff is slightly different as you use different drywall boxes etc, and we use 240V for domestic supplies - the internals tend to be from the same suppliers. A lot of stuff on