Pretty Ways To Light Up Your Home This Diwali

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Bring in festive brightness with these fun lighting ideas

It’s not Diwali without a house full of lights. From the tiny flickering flame of the traditional diya to the twinkling bulbs of fairy lights cascading down a window, lighting has gotten so much more interesting with every passing year. The colours and designs on offer are just what we need to brighten up our homes beautifully.

Traditional Diwali lighting pretty much revolves around clay diyas and paper lanterns, with even those seeing an upgrade in recent times, but there are a lot of different ways you can light up your home for the festive season, and bring in an element of quirkiness while you’re at it. Here are a few simple ways to amp up your Diwali lighting this year.

Fairy Lights – On Everything!
A string of fairy lights can make even the drabbest room look bright and cheery. Diwali is the one time in a year you can go completely over the top with your lighting, and these tiny bulbs on a string are the perfect plaything. Wrap them around curtain rods, tape them onto your walls, fill them in tall bottles or jars, drape them over your larger potted plants, or just let them fall over the window to be a curtain of light. Most fairy lights come with different lighting modes, so you can change them every evening. They lend a dreamy, warm look to any space, and, since the bulbs are small, they won’t overwhelm the room.

Throw Some Light On Paper
The market is replete with paper lanterns in all shapes and sizes, and every year the variety gets a little more enticing. These are convenient and easy to assemble, but you can also make your own. There are plenty of tutorials online on making your own paper lanterns (a wonderful activity to do with children), but the simplest version is the paper bag one. Take a white or brown paper bag, fill it with a string of fairy lights and put it upside down on a table or on the floor. If the paper bag is too thick and the light is dim, try some interesting cut-outs on the bag and let the light shine through. If you want to place a diya inside the paper bag, make it a battery-operated one.

Go Metallic

Metal candle holders lend a traditional touch to Diwali celebrations. Brass diyas find a place in most home mandirs, but, for the festive season, you can place them in the middle of your rangoli, or on a table strewn with flowers. Designs have evolved immensely, so you can get a range of different options such as perforated lanterns or metal flower-shaped diyas and dot them around your home.

Be LED By These
LED lamps are much like string lights, except that they’re larger and come in a range of designs. They’re not too expensive and you can reuse them year after year in different ways around your home, even if it’s just for a dinner gathering with friends. LED lamps look beautiful in any setting, in any room, even just strewn across the floor. For an interesting display, drape them around doorways or over the head of your bed.

Lead Candle Light
You can’t go wrong with candles; a grouped display is always a thing of beauty. Go a step further. There are plenty of DIY candle-making kits available in the market. Grab a couple and make your own candles in an array of containers. Pour wax into old wine glasses, large bowls or transparent jars and create your new set of candles for the year. If this seems like too much work, make a fun potpourri arrangement by placing a store-bought candle in a container filled with dried flowers, spices and fruits. What’s better than a well-lit home? One that smells great too!