Help needed to control home appliances

Hi Folks,

I am currently looking into completing a college project on IoT.

My objective is to build a demonstrative apparatus to bring in at the end of the year which portrays a domestic appliances automation system.

I would like to control lighting (turn on/off and maybe to 50%) , temperature (monitor current temp and change to a specific temp i would like).

I would like to do all this over the internet on my phone or laptop it doesnt really matter once it shows i can acess my project from anywhere.

I would like to show that when i leave work i can check the house temp and change it if needed and also turn on lights. (but remember i will be only demonstrating this on an apparatus and not at my actual home as it needs to come into college with me).

Any ideas what best thing i can do?

Blynk is one way. Or you can run a basic web site on an ethernet or wifi connected arduino. Or you can run a web site on a more powerful server (Pi perhaps) and have the arduino talk to it over serial.