I gave my living room a $60 upgrade and my husband actually looked up from his phone

Ten minutes between bedtime and collapsing on the sofa is all the review time I get. A $60 LED strip and a camera-matched TV backlight made my… Aliteq Sofia Marchetti · Home & Family Contributor

Buy this first: the Govee M1 LED strip — around $60, genuinely bright, great for gaming/movie nights, app is a bit much but you'll only open it twice.

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Buy this if your TV is the room's centrepiece: the Govee TV Backlight — camera-matched colour behind the screen, roughly $60, the single most 'wait, how is this only sixty quid' upgrade I've made.

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Buy this if you want it to just work, forever, no fiddling: Philips Hue — most reliable, best app by a mile, but you're paying for a Bridge and premium bulbs and it adds up fast.

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The honest catch: every one of these needs a clean, dry, warm surface for the adhesive or it will peel — mine did, once, on a humid week, and it was my fault for not wiping the wall first.

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Start with the Govee TV backlight if you only try one thing — it's the cheapest, fastest change I've made to how a room feels, camera-matched colour and all. Add the M1 strip if you want the rest of…

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