I use a mixture of the
Philips Hue and Friends of Hue products.
At its most basic you'll need a bridge which blogs into your router via ethernet and is what controls the lighting network. Then you'll need bulbs or lamps. The simplest setup would be to get one of the starter kits as that will contain everything you need in a box and is a pretty decent cost saving over buying separately.
Now is a fairly good time to buy as they've updated the range recently and so its been fairly easy to find the previous gen stuff at good prices. It's always worth keeping an eye on Amazon as well as they tend to go on offer quite a bit. That's how I built out my setup - I think I've spent about a third of the full retail price for all my gear.
For my own setup I have use lightstrips behind my monitor and TV. These give a nice illumination and help reduce eyestrain at night.
I also have a couple of Blooms and Iris' aimed at the walls. They aren't the brightest so I still need a 'task light' for anything other than ambience but these are the lights that create the large colour swathes.
For control, I either have macros set up on the Logitech Harmony but mainly I use an app called iConnectHue which is so much better than the official app that it's laughable.
This allows for a lot of autonomy so for example I have everything on timers and geolocation so that if I get home at dusk the lights will turn on when app detects I'm near home. I've also got lights in the bedroom at ramp up in brightness for a more natural wake up.
Finally I also use the new Dimmer switch. These are really cheap and act as a simple on/off switch and brightness control. They also unclip and can be used as a remote.
However, using iConnectHue you can actually program it to respond to different tap lengths etc which makes it incredibly useful.
To be honest it's something that you don't need in any way at all. But once you have it you can't imagine ever going back to traditional lighting.
I'm very similar in that I've set everything up to be controlled in some way or another. I picked up a few Wi-Fi plug sockets from a brand called Orvibo. They are similar to the Belkin WeMo range but half the price. I absolutely love just being able to sit down and press one button and have all my lights fade, the AV equipment turn on and go to the correct settings and thanks to the wi-fi plugs even the aquarium lighting is controlled. The new version of the bridge is HomeKit enabled so you can use Siri now. However, it means using the official app on iOS devices so I'll wait until iConnectHue supports it!
