apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I usually stick to seasonal white light decorating only...so as not to create a bordello affect in my apartment...

I love the hanging lamp in this photo. Source, anyone?

It generally strikes me as laziness - they put them up, never took them down, but hey, it's nearly Christmas again so they might as well leave them up...

the effect here is very beautiful although i would not use them this way at Christmas nor would i use them year-round.

i opt for the traditional around the holidays and i think that this use would be perfect for setting a mood. @dnice - sometimes the bordello vibe is absolutely appropriate. *tee hee* but then i'd put them away so that the neighbors wouldn't catch my drift. when that special "he" sees the light (pun intended) he'll know that it's on like popcorn!

overall pretty - but not all the time.

The same effect in the picture could be had with some rope lighting tacked up under the chest - all the glow, none of the shame.

My husband desperately wants to hang Christmas lights around the privacy fence on our small townhouse patio. I refuse. It looks too Griswald to me, somehow. I have decided to compromise with the solar lanterns (the cheap knock-off ones) posted on this site a few days ago.

we leave our vintage camera tripod christmas tree up year round (see http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/creative-reuse/7-bizarre-yet-wonderful-christmas-tree-alternatives--071146) ... our love language is gifts, so we leave fun things for each other under it throughout the year. the white lights look great at night.

I'm a sucker for lights. I love my bordello effect! lol. I usually have pink and purple around Valentines day. White in the summer. Orange for fall. It really warms up my bedroom. Love love love those lights under the buffet.

I have used christmas lights for effect but in a way that you do not see the lights themselves. Like in the above photo, I would have stapled the lights to the underside of the furniture, so you don't see the lights, just the glow on the floor.

Not for me, but the effect is lovely there (I imagine the lights would look a bit messy during the daytime though). I do like using fairy lights for parties, no matter what time of year it is.

Perhaps you could re-think the idea that small white lighting treatments are "Christmas Lights." Maybe using little twinkle lights are a regional thing, and not merely a seasonal thing. But I like them and I see strings of twinkle lights everywhere, especially in restaurants and bars with outdoor seating. But also tucked into the greenery at malls, in backyards, and in very casual dining rooms.

In restaurant and bar applications, the lights don't seem to attract flying insects as badly at the other forms of lighting. Once again---maybe it's a regional thing.

i stuck mine in a canvas and hung it. I also have some on top of and behind the books in my backless bookshelf. It makes for awesome, hidden, ambient lighting.

No, I do not keep them up year round. It feels too dorm room for me.

I think I do okay without the string lights in terms of "setting the mood". Stapling the lights underneath the furniture reminds me of early 90's ground lighting Camaros on the BQE near exit 5. That and my electric bill is high enough.

Christmas lights are great for hidden accent lights all over and all year round. I recently saw a tv episode of Kitchen Renovations where they were renovating for cheap. One of the final touches was to put rope (Christmas) lights on top of the upper cabinets for a nice ambient glow. The tops were finished in crown molding so you only get the effect of something that usually costs much more.

Beautiful, but a potential fire hazard.

Not since college. And in retrospect that looked pretty cheesy then too.

It's not necessarily a bad thing to use Christmas lights to decorative effect. The outcome usually tends toward the naive, a quick fix, kind of dormy, where it mostly looks like a scraggly green wire and sometimes turn them on instead of the yucky harsh overhead light. I have also seen examples where the person took care and made them look dainty or dramatic, not too Christmasy, and more elegant. This usually goes along as an accent to a deliberate paint job and furniture arrangement, and a complete lighting scheme, and maybe chooses white cord instead of tree-camouflage green, more "all-purpose". Mantels where the cord runs behind things or other treatments like a canopy or post bed seem better than just sticking them somewhere because you had a half hour and couldn't think of anything else to do. I don't have Christmas lights up year round, but I might consider something with fun little themed bulbs that were not so Christmasy.

how the dust must be trapped inside those tangled wires...!!

the dust in my house gravitates towards the underneath bit of leggy sideboards, this must be a nightmare to clean.

l have been using them off and on for years around my various apartments...... but NEVER where they are strung around windows and walls with exposed cords and such.

And only white or solid colours and NEVER green!!!

l bunch them up and hide them under the sofa, perfect soft lighting for all seasons.

l've placed them behind plants, on top of bookshelves and behind curtains...... the solid colour ones look very cool because they will give a "splatter" effect of the walls.

And.. white lights under the bed..... very complimentary
for those moments when you (and your partner) need to be in soft, forgiving light!

Fun, cheap, and they save energy (l think)

Yes, but just started this year...Turned out the plain (white) lights look great draped around a huge standing mirror we have in our livingroom, especially with the reflection.
Really brightened the room up in a non-tacky way...

So they stayed!

I have a strand of red and a strand of pink lights stapled to the ceiling in my living room in a swirl pattern. It's really nice when you need to see but don't want brightness. Sets the mood quite nicely. I also have a strand of blue in my bedroom.

If people would stop referring to them as 'Christmas Lights' and more as just strings/strands of lights I think they'd seem less cheesy to have up year round. We just have it in our heads that they are Christmas lights and that's when it's appropriate to have them out.

But I understand that they're not for everybody. I'll enjoy mine until the wind changes.

White lights on our balcony railing, all year round. We pretty much only turn them on when we have a dinner party, but it does add a nice bit of festivity (IMHO)!

Outside yes, all year long. In bushes, along the fence. I swap them at Christmas and hang a lit pine garland instead.

marcspice: I love the idea of putting them under the bed to add a romantic glow to the room. I'm definitely gonna give that a try!

I have a string of them hanging from my headboard. They're the perfect brightness for reading and just nice overall.

I love Christmas, Easter, Halloween, etc lights. I dont care if they're cheesy.

I like. But only white lights. Colored lights are for more for Xmas.

White cord, white lights, tiny clear Command adhesive tab-hooks to hold them up, around the top of my very small galley kitchen only. The string is as close to the top of the wall as possible, and relatively taut.

It helps. Not so good for other areas of the apartment, not so good for larger kitchens.

I have some large bulb multi-color clear glass ones in a kitchen window. My elderly neighbor lady likes to see glow their silly bright colors when she's at her kitchen sink, so I keep them up. The kitchen is a den of kitsch anyway, so until the kitchen renovation fairy visits me, the lights are staying!

Year round!! All the way! Wonderful & Whimsical!
A string of clear/white lights around my balcony railing, and a string of clear/white "stars" in my window - which I adore!
Let the light shine...

I have some non-Christmasy globe lights from Smith & Hawken (via Target) that I leave on my patio all year--even in the winter they add a nice touch.

Having said that, I realize I now have no right to complain about people in my neighborhood who still have wreaths on their garages as we speak...

I have a tall white vase that I keep my Christmas lights in & it's sitting on my breakfast bar. It gives off just enough light to see in the kitchen & down the hall.

for some reason i think of extended use of these lights as a fire hazard, instead the carefree, bohemian party effect which, in a movie indicates this mindset for a character.

I love the ambience in that pic, and, marcspice, I also love your idea! Gonna try it.

I've always loved white lights on branches both white and natural mixed in tall pots for holiday time.

love the credenza too....wish Ikea still carried it....

In my 20's...not now!

I stuck about 5 bulbs of a strand of globe lights into each of 6 or 7 ball jars and set them upside down on my window sill.

ABsolutely :) I am obssessed with both string lights and paper lanterns and I can't resist them, ever. I have a string of multicolored 8" paper lamps and I draped a string of white rice lights around it, AND at some point I'd like to get a string of 2 or 3" white paper lamps to add to the cluster so I have 3 sizes of lights like a glowing bunch of alien grapes!

I also have a grid light set 4'x6' that I hung behind my wall tapestry. It makes it glow mysteriously :D

Not since uni. Outdoors in a garden or on a patio is nice though.

One of my neighbors still has their Christmas tree up! And they had the lights turned on when I was walking the dog last night! That's taking festivity a little far.

I put white lights on the inside of a wood birdcage - love the effect. Did the same thing in the bathroom with a small plastic see-thru purse.

Well, I had quite a good chuckle reading through all of the comments. One can clearly "see" who the ones are who are completely out of the loop when it comes to decor. "Mini lights" have been used as a decor tool for so so many years. Only the "old-fashioned" and non-decor minded refer to them in context as Christmas or bordello lights and...I've never ever heard these decor lights referred to like the latter. Stapling the mini lights on the underside of kitchen cabinets or laying them on top, strung throughout a large real or fate umbrella plant or fig tree (they remain completely unnoticed during the day if you get lights with a dark green cord), running along the baseboards in a room is nice (either purchase or paint the cord to match), all bunched up inside a large vase or 2 with the cord strategically hidden on the outiside has a dramatic effect in a room and is a great decor "prop". There are tacky ways of using them, stringing them around ceilings and walls etc in a haphazard way - well like any bad decorator, the result of course will not be tasteful, but decorating sense prevailing, it's a another decorating tool to use to create beautiful effects (eg in the photo here, it's use is perfect for ambience and decor for the evening, and I'm sure the lights are tucked away in a drawer during the day because they would be rather unsightly otherwise..again, common sense prevails). These lights are commonly used at wedding receptions, home show events, in bathrooms (again, lay them on top of a cabinet or at the back of shelving), interwoven through any plant, in rec room bar areas or closets. The effect is fabulous (as is in the picture above), provides lowlevel lighting, and is very safe unless your home was wired by a weekend warrier. I have lights wrapped throughout 2 large plants that I leave on 24 hours a day, and have done so for about 10 years In these particular rooms I rarely use the conventional lights because I don't need to. The lights do not get "hot" as there's not enough power to them.