apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

i have a cylindrical garden trellis about 4 feet tall. i twine a set of 50 white lights through it and tuck it in a corner.

I love the 2D tree, that's very cute. Like the garden trellis idea too, rouquinne. Nice post!

LED lights are quite affordable this year, and they take up a lot less energy. You can plug 43 strands of 20 LED lights into one outlet! We bought some for our daughter's college dorm room this weekend. They come in colored strands now, so you don't have to settle for those rather gloomy looking bluish-white bulbs.

I like the first tree, but my boyfriend and neighbors would call me the weird artsy bohemian girl...stating with distaste "why can't she just get a normal tree like everyone else?" LOL
Love it!

I love that first tree too, but hate the pot. Think it would look so much better in a tall, glossy white cylinder.

I also like the first tree. And it would be so much less wasteful than chopping down a larger one.

Sweet! I want the twig tree.

I like the first tree, but less wasteful? Tree farmers grow trees for Christmas use. That's the point.

i used some fairy lights here in a vintage antler set...

fairy antler photo

Maybe they mean it will waste less of your money Palmetto, and be usable over and over.

I recently built a fake fireplace for my girlfriend using lights. Simply sprinkle some white sand on the fireplace floor, add two gallon clear jugs (wine store) or craft store for some large candle covers, and insert those flicker christmas light strings, or white LED"s into the bottles. Gives a nice fireplace glow even with the room lights on. For an added touch - simply add some holiday bow/ribbon around the glass. She loved it.

Disclaimer: I saw this in a book I read at the library.

PS: Like this tip - here's another great one... Want to send a free holiday video card with no strings attached? Check out our site http://www.bubblejoy.com (no registration required).

wonderful!! I love the chandelier cover!

Does anyone know where you can get a twig tree like that or smaller?

I have a Christmas lights DON'T to share. I used lights a lot in college and over the semesters, I'd collected several sets. Being the creative and bright (pun intended) person I am, I decided to make a lamp by putting the lights in a large glass vase. I plugged it in and it was magical! 15 minutes later, half the lights when out and I smelled something weird. I realized that the actual plastic strings of the lights were melting on themselves and I could have burned my dorm down!

It was my biggest failure of a DIY project to date. But it was fun!

Kerbs, I made a few twig trees for my art studio and it was easy. Just grabbed some nice branches that had fallen in the street, dusted them off and painted them white. Put them in some old copper urns, filled up the urns with random heavy-ish stuff so they stand up straight and securely, then hid the heavy stuff with some beautiful river rocks. Wrapped the branches in white fairy lights and voila! The funny thing is several people looked around at my paintings, but asked if they could buy the trees.

Hey, I did the antler thing, too. But with bubble lights!

LED lights don't give off heat and so won't melt anything. They look great dumped in a clump into a glass vase. They cost more than mini-lights to purchase, but use a lot less energy and last a lot longer. They now come in a variety of colors and styles.

We have purple Christmas lights on the back ledge of our sofa. Because of the pillows you can't see the hardware and it looks great! We always get complements on how great the glow looks.