Size matters, and that includes the area illuminated, using 5 inch down lighters is very different to 2 inch down lighters, the latter needs to reflect off some white surface to work, as the area illuminated is simply too small, if not reflecting the light then around 3W each is limit to get useful light.
In my old bedroom I had two GU10 LED lamps either side of the bed, if I turned them to shine on the ceiling (white) these two 3W lamps lit the room better than a 6W bulb in ceiling lamp, but aimed at where we would hold a book rest of room was dark, which was clearly the idea. Fitting 7W GU10 lamps is useless, my son lit his kitchen with 6 of these lights a very small kitchen and I needed a torch to read what it said on his central heating boiler.
I would say if you don't want pendent lights, then have at least one large area lamp in the room, having small spots on swivel mounts to light pictures on the wall great, but these add to general lighting, they are not the only lights.
LED's do not change colour as they dim, so dimming lights it just seems like a poorly lit room, it does not add ambiance, so instead look at wall lights, and up lighters, and lights in display cabinets. Two light switches can give three levels of lighting, split 1/3 and 2/3. Also as far as smart lighting consider PIR controlled for hall, stairs and landing. I wanted a handy torch to see the consumer unit under the stairs should the power trip, there was a socket above the door to under stairs so as a quick temporary measure I plugged in a Lidi rechargeable torch which auto lights with a power cut or if dark movement. It has been great, I sneak down stairs in the night trying not to wake anyone, so no landing light, and this unit auto switches on showing me all the rubbish in the hall. It was not put there to do that, but it is very handy.
So "Smart" to me means automatic, turn on TV and lights dim, or switch off, walk into a walkway and lights auto switch on, as it gets dark lights auto switch on, car head lights do that. But PIR's in a living room when your static will switch off, having a odd lamp that switches on as you get up to make coffee OK, but most of the lights need manual control.
So what do you mean by "Smart"? I have lights I can switch on/off with a remote control, and I can program them to switch on or off at set times, the device has the ability to use "If this then that" (IFTTT) so I can program it so if weather report says under 10°C outside it will turn on lights, why I would want to is another question.
The problem is working out what will work with what, and what they will do, there is nothing in the advert for my light switch that says it has three built on on/off timers. Using IFTTT you can have many more, but only three built in. The hubs used to control these devices are not cheap, so you want one hub for many items. This means the central heating and lights may use the same hub, that is what I have. So even though looking at lights now, you have to also consider central heating automated curtains and power sockets.
So your central heating boiler has to also be taken into consideration, if some time in the future you want to have each room independently controlled heating wise you may want to fit something like EvoHome to do that, so it would then make sense to use EvoHome for other automated functions.
Yes with my phone I can turn my lights on/off, although I normally use the remote control, or switch on the wall. Yes my central heating TRV heads can have geofencing as can my lights, so I could in theory have the lights and heating auto turn on when I am within x miles of the house, I have the ability, but never used it. I can see the temperature in four of my rooms anywhere the phone works, and change it, however I just use a simple timer.
So PIR switched lamps on landing to see your way to loo may sound great, until they wake SHMBO then it's a case of switching them all off again. However one spot light on a PIR lighting stairs maybe great. You can buy very cheap plug in units which turn your sockets into remote controlled sockets, with table lamps and standard lamps you can simply alter lighting in your room, I got a set of 4 from Lidi, I would get some thing like that and see how much you use it first, then decide on my permanent units.
Most of my "Smart" stuff was bought to help look after may ageing mother, it was made by Energenie or MiHome, it can do some very clever stuff, but with IFTTT lose internet and it all stops working, when mother died the probate people removed internet and all the special controls failed, all back up and running now. But not keen on relying on internet any more.
