Bar Shed Automation: Turn Your Garden Bar into a Smart Space

The bar shed has become one of Britain’s most popular home improvements. A dedicated space in the garden — a proper bar, a dart board, a sound system, somewhere that genuinely feels different from the house. The problem is that most bar sheds are built beautifully and then lit with a strip of warm white LEDs from a dimmer switch and a Bluetooth speaker that has to be re-paired every visit.

Loxone changes that. A bar shed with a Loxone Miniserver is a space with atmosphere on demand — scenes, music, climate and access all working automatically from one device.

What a Loxone bar shed actually includes

At the entry level — our Soft Upgrade at £3,995 ex-VAT — a Loxone bar shed installation includes:

Lighting

• Multiple RGBW spotlights (colour-changing, individually addressable)
• Pre-programmed scenes: “Bar Mode” (warm amber), “Party” (dynamic colour), “Cleaning” (cool daylight), “Dim” (watching sport at low light)
• A Loxone Touch switch on the wall that cycles through scenes with a single press — no phone required

Heating

• Schedule control for an existing electric heater or underfloor heating
• Room thermostat integration — the bar warms itself to your preferred temperature before you arrive

Access

• NFC entry — a tap of your phone or a programmed fob on the door panel triggers both the lock release and an arrival scene (lights on, heating up, optionally music on)

App

• The Loxone app, free for every household member, lets you control everything remotely — check if you left the heating on, trigger a scene before you head outside, or let a guest in without giving them a key

No subscription, no cloud The Miniserver in your bar shed runs locally. If your broadband drops, everything still works. There is no monthly fee, no app subscription, no Loxone Cloud requirement.

Upgrading the bar shed: what the higher tiers add

If your bar shed is more entertainment space than basic hobby room, the higher tiers are worth considering:

Lite Upgrade (£6,450 ex-VAT)

Adds Loxone Multiroom Audio — ceiling speakers with a Loxone amplifier built in, integrated directly into the scenes system. “Bar Mode” on the Touch switch activates the lights and starts music at the right volume. Spotify and TuneIn play natively; no Bluetooth pairing required, ever. Also includes blackout-blind automation if you’re running a projector.

Plus Upgrade (£9,995 ex-VAT)

Full spec: multiple lighting zones (bar area, seating area, patio separately), indoor and outdoor audio zones (patio speakers, weatherproof and independently controlled), premium scene programming, external feature lighting (uplighters, LED strips under the bar, exterior mood lighting) and full access control with PIN keypad alongside NFC.

Lighting: the most impactful upgrade

The single biggest difference Loxone makes to a bar shed is the lighting. RGBW spotlights — red, green, blue and warm white channels per bulb — give you a complete palette without visible RGB harshness. Properly programmed warm amber feels like candlelight; it doesn’t look like a disco.

What makes Loxone different from Philips Hue (which also does RGBW):

• No hub required — the Miniserver replaces the hub
• No subscription — Hue’s subscription tier gates features; Loxone has none
• Wired, not wireless — Loxone Tree runs wired circuits, which are more reliable and have zero drop-out compared to Zigbee mesh networks
• Scenes tied to a wall switch — one press of the Touch switch cycles scenes without reaching for a phone

Music in the bar shed: how Loxone audio works

There are two approaches to audio in a Loxone bar shed:

Option 1: Loxone Multiroom Audio (recommended) Loxone’s own amplifiers and ceiling speakers are integrated directly into the Miniserver. Stream from Spotify, TuneIn or an internal NAS library. Control volume from the Touch panel or app. Tie audio on/off to scenes — “Bar Mode” starts music at 60% automatically. No Bluetooth, no pairing, no “where did the speaker go?” moments.

Option 2: Integrated third-party speaker If you already have a Sonos or similar, Loxone can integrate it via the local API. Less seamless than native audio, but it works and can be automated as part of scenes.

Common bar shed automation questions

Can the bar shed system connect to my house later? Yes. A Miniserver in a garden room can be networked to a second Miniserver in the main house when you eventually upgrade. The two systems appear as one in the app.

Can I control the bar shed heating from inside the house? Yes. The Loxone app works on your home network and remotely. You can turn on the bar shed heating from the kitchen while you’re making drinks.

What if I want to add outdoor speakers to the patio? Outdoor weatherproof speakers are an add-on available on the Lite Upgrade and Plus Upgrade tiers. They connect to Loxone Multiroom Audio as a separate zone — music inside and outside can be the same source at different volumes, or completely independent.

Does Loxone work if I lose internet? Yes. Everything runs locally. Internet loss only affects remote access via the app when you’re not on the home network.

How long does a bar shed installation take? Soft Upgrade: 2 days. Lite Upgrade: 3.5 days. Plus Upgrade: 5 days. We pre-stage the Miniserver at our Mansfield workshop before arriving on site, which keeps on-site time shorter.

Getting started

See the three tiers with full specifications and bills of materials or book a free site visit to discuss your bar shed with a Westgate engineer.

We cover Nottingham, Derby, Sheffield, Mansfield, Chesterfield and Lincoln. Fixed prices. No sub-contracting. No subscription ever.