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String lights aren’t just for Christmas. Used in the right way, they can provide pretty lighting through your home without looking overtly festive or childish. Our fairy light ideas cover every room. As you’d expect, we have plenty of inspiration for kids’ bedrooms, but there are also some pretty ways to illuminate kitchens, hallways and even grown-up living rooms.
Living room lighting ideas – improve the light and set the right mood for relaxing
We’ve got them wrapped round our bedposts, laced over table tops and wound up the stair banister. Keep reading to see the many alternative ways there are to display fairy lights.
1. Fake a real fire
Image credit: Future/Matt Antrobus
Real fires might add a lovely glow to a room, but there are many reasons whether are impractical. Maybe you don’t have a flue and installing one will be problematic/just plain expensive? Or perhaps you have pets or young children and don’t want to expose them to actual flickering flames.
In these circumstances, we have a fabulous fireplace idea. Clusters of fairy lights can give the feel of glowing embers, without the risk or mess. Add in some fake tea lights on stands for extra impact and height.
2. Create instant task lighting in a kitchen
Image credit: Future PLC/Sussie Bell
Good kitchen lighting can set you back hundreds, do if you’re looking for a quick retrofit option that sheds light on your worktop, try fairy lights. String the under a shelf or wall cabinets to provide some handy extra illumination for chopping and other food prep. Or to create a little ambiance after dinner is served.
3. Light up a plain corner
Image credit: Future PLC/Colin Poole
Got a dark or dull corner you don’t really know what to do with? Hang fairy lights from a hook screwed into the ceiling for a burst of brightness. While you’re at it, you could hook up some house plants in macrame baskets. Just don’t overload your fixtures. You don’t want to bring down the plaster!
4. Bring more colour to a kids’ room
Image credit: Future PLC
String lights aren’t just about adding, ahem, light. They can be a great way to add colour, so they make an impact on or off. It’s one of our favourite easy children’s room ideas.
You don’t even need to buy the lights with embellishments. It’s possible to make your own and glue them on to a plain string of fairy lights, so you can get the look and colour scheme just as you want it.
5. String festoons between rooms
Image credit: Future PLC
In this stylish monochrome home, the owner has used festoons to bring extra light and style to the gateway between sitting and dining area. They fit in perfectly with the quirky ‘industrial country’ theme.
6. Highlight a motif
Image credit: Future PLC
Create a quirky lighting feature above a bed or on a wall by wrapping lights around a metal star or heart. In this coastal bedroom, it highlights a star motif tat’s used throughout the scheme.
7. Make a feature of furniture
Image credit: Future PLC
Want people to pay more attention to a favourite heirloom or new upcycling project? Drape fairy lights over the top to put your furniture in the spotlight.
8. Rest lights on your headboard
Image credit: Brent Darby
Use fairy lights as a softer way to light up your bedroom. They’ll cast just enough light to brighten up a late-night reading session, or early-morning cup of tea in bed. You can wrap them around your bed posts, or rest them atop of an upholstered headboard, giving the room with a warm, inviting glow.
9. Cascade lights from the ceiling
Image credit: Future PLC
Drape a canopy of shining stars in your own home so it feels like you are sitting outside under the night sky. Hanging twinkly icicles will add a magical feel to any old Tuesday evening.
Try this in a hallway for a very special entrance.
10. Brighten up an old box
Image credit: Future PLC/Dominic Blackmore
If you’ve got a box of logs, a collection of candles or a crate of random bits and bobs, then chuck some fairy lights in there. All of a sudden your functional wood or tired old collectables look magical.
11. Light up your firewood
Sticking with the theme, here, we’ve illuminated a hulking display of firewood by lacing a few delicate strands of mini bulbs in between the logs. Not only does it glam up the firewood but make it an attractive feature in your living room.
Related: Nursery decorating ideas – perfect for your new arrival
12. Pop fairy lights in a glass jar
If you don’t want to string them up over mirrors or doorways like everyone (and we mean everyone) else does then chuck them in a beautiful vase or giant jar to create a modern lamp or candle feature.
13. Wind strings up the staircase
Wind the twinkly lights around your staircase rail for some extra light on your way up at night and make your staircase look like a forest of fireflies lighting the way to bed.
14. Display on the table
Image credit: Future PLC
Snake fairy lights across the table instead of a candle if you’ve got children around or a particularly busy table. You can even style them in different colours to match your table scheme.
15. Trail lights through the trees
Hanging lights from a tree indoors may not be acceptable all year round but no one said anything about trees outside. Fairy lights can turn overhanging foliage into a magical canopy.
16. Place lights among the plants
Image credit: Future PLC
These solar-powered lights tucked inside a Kilner jar have a pretty vintage look. Tuck them in among favourite plants so you can admire your blooms as you relax in the garden of an evening.
17. Glorify a gazebo
Image credit: Future PLC
For an outdoor living room you can use day and night, string up weatherproof festoons around a gazebo.
18. Cover the hallway table
Brighten up your hallway table by lacing a sheet of fairy lights over the top. They’ll add extra light to the dark entrance hall and are guaranteed to have guests smiling as soon as they step through the door.
Related: Making an entrance – colourful and practical ideas for refreshing your hallway
Love our bright ideas? Come back soon for more inspo.
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