The future of the smart home is now. And thanks to online websites like IFTTT, creating a smart home is easy and more impressive than ever.

There are a lot of great IFTTT recipes that are sure to make your home more safe, more entertaining, and even smarter. So, sit back, read through some recipes, and create the smart home you've always dreamed of.

Safety First

The safety of your home is important. Your home might even be the most important thing you own. To keep it safe and secure, consider using home monitoring and monoxide detection recipes, to name just a couple.

One home monitoring recipe you should use is one that closes your garage door every night through an app called Garageio. If you're someone who forgets to close the garage door at night, which can be somewhat inviting for would be burglars, then it might be a perfect recipe for you.

Another recipe records video of your front door through Alexa, an Amazon smart device, and SkyBell, a smart video doorbell app that allows you to "see, hear, and speak" to visitors on your doorstep. No longer do you have to be home to know who's knocking at your door. (Plus, it's also great if you don't want to get off the couch to open the door.)

Unfortunately, there are other things you need to worry about, like carbon monoxide poisoning. If the idea of being poisoned by CO keeps you up at night, then consider the Nest Protect and LIFX carbon detection recipe.

When Nest detects monoxide in your home, the device usually sends alerts through its speakers or sends a warning to your phone. If you enable the recipe, then LIFX (a Wi-Fi LED smart lightbulb) will turn bright red when Nest detects monoxide. Another warning to warn against monoxide is always a good idea, especially because it is an odorless, colorless, tasteless, and hazardous gas.

In addition to detecting monoxide, Nest is also designed to detect smoke. If it does detect smoke, this recipe will send a text message to a trusted neighbor, who could further check up on you or your house. Not a bad idea if something does go wrong.

If you don't have a neighbor to rely on, or you want to take further action, you can circulate the air using Nest Thermostat with this recipe. Another good preventative measure to take if something does go wrong.

An Entertaining, Enjoyable Home

But let's not worry too much. Owning a home - a smart home - should also be entertaining. And a great way to have an entertaining home, in my opinion, is by having an enjoyable home.

What is an entertaining home? An entertaining home is one that is connected, automated, and set-up to help you better enjoy your life.

For me, having a cup of coffee in the morning is a great way to start the day. Unfortunately, that also means having to get up (sometimes early in the morning) to make coffee, which can be a bit difficult at times.

Thankfully, there is an IFTTT recipe that brews a cup of Joe the moment you wake up, which is bound to be perfect for any coffee lover.

Just connect a smart coffee maker to WeMo and run the recipe. It's that easy.

Another great way to make your home more enjoyable is by connecting your TV to Amazon Alexa and Harmony, a universal remote control, with this recipe. Once connected, this recipe will turn on your TV with the sound of your voice. You can even turn off your TV using this recipe. Pretty cool if you ask me. Now you can stay seated to turn on the TV.

If you want to check your social media while still watching Netflix or something else on TV, consider taking advantage of this recipe when you're tagged in a Facebook picture or receive an Instagram update from a specific user with this recipe.

Smart Home

But your TV can do more. You can get weather notifications with this recipe, which uses the Weather Channel and the ingenuity of Comcast.

Comcast Labs has even created more recipes to use, like this recipe that notifies Nest if the temperature in your home drops to below 50 degrees. Better yet, you can even set Nest to 72 degrees when your home gets too cold. A perfect temperature in the home goes a long way.

A Complete Smart Home

You'll notice that there are many, many recipes that you can use to make your home more secure, entertaining, and smart. These recipes can also be tweaked or changed to better fit your style and purpose.

Whatever you want, whatever you need, there is bound to be an IFTTT recipe that'll make your home a smart home.

What recipes have you used to make your home more smart? Have you created a recipe that you'd like to share? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below...

Image credit: Coffee maker by Karolina Grabowska via Pixabay