This Easy, Renter-Friendly Halloween Hack Makes Your Kitchen Glow

Decorating your house for the holidays is fun, but some rooms present their own unique challenges, like the kitchen. It can be tough to preserve precious counter space while still making room for festive cheer, which is why one TikToker’s holiday light hack is low-key ingenious.

TikTok user @autumnwithally is a fall holiday enthusiast who found a smart solution to transform her rental kitchen into something a little bit spooky for Halloween. Using orange incandescent string lights ($6), Ally shared the secret to giving her kitchen the perfect “lit-from-within” holiday glow in a recent video.

“This is a PSA,” she said, showing off a string of orange lights running through empty spaces in her kitchen cabinets. “Look for holes in your cabinets and run lights up there. And then put them at the top of your cabinets so your kitchen looks like this. You can use clear lights; these are orange lights for Halloween.”

In the caption of her post, she added, “This is my favorite easy (and rental-friendly!) kitchen upgrade! It makes the kitchen feel so warm and welcoming!”

While this might not work exactly the same in some kitchens — particularly if your cabinets run flush against the ceiling — you could also attach them to the bottom of each cabinet, depending on your kitchen’s specific layout. 

Commenters came through with additional suggestions for how to step up any kitchen holiday light game. One person wrote, “Yes!! I did this with LED tape lights so I can change the colors for the season/ holiday!” Another added, “If you have an Amazon Alexa or Google Home or an iHome, get some smart plugs … life-changing.”

In another video, Ally joked about the orange kitchen lights impeding her ability to, you know, see anything, captioning the clip: “The orange kitchen was a must, what can I say … ” A commenter summed it up flawlessly, calling it “a small price to pay for seasonal joy.”