It is that time of the year when you 'deck the halls with boughs of holly' and bring out all the decor to celebrate the festive season. Lighting is one of the major decoration elements in every house during Christmas.
Lighting plays a very important role in changing the appearance of the house. So if you don't want to go for a major makeover or renovation project for your house, consider changing some bulbs here and there, or just getting some string lights to do up your rooms.
Here are a few ways on how to choose the right kind of lighting:
- Find out which part of the house (indoor or outdoor) you want to light up. Keep it sweet and simple. Overdoing it will only spoil the show.
Indoor Lighting
- The lights will reflect the color of your walls, therefore, if you have beige, white or yellow coloured walls, you might like to use light, low-power white lights for the overall lighting. You can experiment on colors using different lampshades. We recommend a red or white lampshade for the festive look. It also gives a romantic illumination to the room
- For window sills, eaves and edges use string lights. There are several kinds available and they are pretty cost effective too. Check out some designs of string lights, here.
'How to' Tips
- You can fix a bulk of strings behind the headrest of your bed to make it look like a cascading sheet of light. Another idea is to place a few strings beneath your dresser or your study table (if there is enough space). This will brighten up the whole area with a soft light.
- You can hang some strings of light over the door of your bedroom.
- For all you creative and minimalistic ones out there, use those empty glass containers at home as lighting devices. Fill the containers up with string lights and place them on a table. Your home made lamp is ready!
Check out some images, here.
Outdoor Lighting
- Outdoor lighting is a little trickier than indoor. You have to get the wiring, the placing and the sizes right. Plan your installation first and always keep room for amendments.
- We recommend using LED bulbs as they consume less power and put on a brilliant show. They also last three times longer than incandescent. Also remember to buy bulb clips.
- Spacing is also important. For a medium size home, a 12-inch space between C7 bulbs is enough. For a smaller house, 6-7 inch is adequate.
- For a brighter glow, use less space between the bulbs and more space for a softer glow. Check out a few bulbs that you can use to do up your roof and the yard, here.
'How To' Tips
- Use the light clippers to fix your bulbs to the edge of your roof. Line them up with adequate space for the kind of lighting you want. You may also use the lights to illuminate contours to make the home look bigger.
- For the yard, wrap up the trees in string lights. Using the tiny bulbs for the fence is also a good idea.
- You can also program your lights to flash with music, for which you will need a control system and software. However, if you are unfamiliar with technical stuff you can opt for the simple pre-programmed ones. Wiki How has some options.
- Using wire mesh to make up reindeers or snowflakes is a pretty cute idea too. You can light them up with string lights.
- Don't forget the 'star of Bethlehem' for your porch. It is the oldest and most beautiful Christmas tradition to have and adds great light effect to the house.
Check out some more tips, here. To see how to decorate your Christmas tree, check out a video below:
