Lanterns are a simple but elegant decorative element that can greatly enhance a room’s ambiance.From bushels of flowers in the kitchen to flickering candles around the patio, you will find a number of great ideas for decorating your home with lanterns to bring out the beauty that lives inside.
1. Muted Medleys in the Hall Lantern
Consider a tableau in grays, whites, and browns for an elegantly rustic look. Use the frame and millions of an arched window against a backdrop of weathered planks attached to the wall, and set three candleholders holding pillar candles flanked by two large lanterns with white-painted metal frames in front of them. A console table with baluster-style pillars has enough room beneath for a big basket, pillows, and a throw. Their gentleness and the delicate white flowers in two glass vases on the tabletop soften the overall look.
2. A Touch of Autumn’s Bounty Lantern
To celebrate the fall, use a multiple-sided lamp with three orange pillar candles of different sizes. The candles are the type that melts beautifully within themselves and are dripless. The lantern is decorated with a lovely spray made of autumn leaves and trailing bittersweet berries, pine cones, seedpods, and acorns, all tied with festive burlap ribbon.
3. In the Sands by the Blue Marina Lantern
Place two marina lamps of different sizes on the hearth of an enclosed fireplace for a simple but pleasing arrangement. One idea is to put two beeswax pillar candles in the larger lamp holds. A blue and white striped pillow in the rattan basket by the hearth echoes the colors of the lamps, and a little potted jade plant adds a pop of green.
4. Protectors of the Family Tree Lantern
Brown is the predominant color in this arrangement of two large, hanging lanterns placed on opposite sides of a wood-framed mirror above a rustic console table with drawers. For continuity, the pillar candles in the lanterns should be the same kind as the three candles that stand on the table in carved wooden holders. For a playful touch, add leafy branches and a bird sculpture.
5. Have a Holly Jolly One or Two Lantern
For something completely different, fill two Christmas lamps with a collection of colorful Christmas balls. Place them outside the front door to cheerfully welcome guests to celebrate the season. Decorate the tops with red holly berries and sprays of pine and eucalyptus, all tied together with unexpected black-and-white polka-dot bows.
6. Waiting to Welcome You Home Lantern
Two types of lamps can make your front porch cozy. Place two large lamps holding electric candles above the wicker chairs and two smaller, white-painted lamps holding white pillar candles on the wooden floor beside one of the porch columns. One trick is to have the lamps’ color repeat in the seat cushions, the window and door frames, and the columns.
7. Let the Stars Light the Way Lantern
Gather up some small lanterns with stunning and intricate metal pierce work and place them strategically on black stair treads. The lanterns have a Moorish feel and cast beautiful light and shadows on the white stair risers. This arrangement adds beauty to an otherwise ordinary flight of stairs and lights the way for guests.
8. Once Upon a Midnight Clear Lantern
If you possess a rough looking black lamp fit for a coal miner and don’t quite know what to do with it, soften it with the addition of pure white pillar candles and sprays of evergreens, some with tiny cones and branches of red dogwood. Place the arrangement in a black cauldron, and add a startling pop of color by a big red Christmas ball.
9. The First Noel Upon the Mantle Lantern
Lanterns in Christmas arrangements do not need to shout. Place one on a mantel on either side of a round mirror and give each one a modest candle to contrast with a brilliant starburst in the mantel’s center of the mantel. The brightness of the starburst is rivaled only by the collection of candles in the fireplace. The modesty of the lanterns balances them out.
10. Two Lanterns Suspended in Time
Hang two black, wrought iron lanterns on identical hooks fastened to wood brackets fastened to a plain wall. For a Spanish flavor, buy a pair with vinous wrought iron on their doors and glass, and buy sturdy and simple hooks. Place a simple votive candle in each lamp.
11. The Light in Twilight’s Corner Lantern
If you crave a cozy, well-lit nook to read or relax, hang a small but ornate lamp in an upper corner and add bare Edison bulbs, a hanging lamp in the form of a birdcage/basket, and a collection of candles in beautiful glass bowls and votive glasses. It all comes together to make a singularly cozy setting.
12. The Rustic Tower Becomes Us Lantern
If you have a rustic console table sitting alone in a seldom visited part of the house, dress it up with a stately lamp among a neutral-colored collection of objects. Add an herbal wreath whose frame is an upside-down table with sawed-off legs, a lamp, an old metal toolkit now filled with plants, and a basket holding a fringed throw.
13. Picnic in the Pumpkin Patch Lantern
Don’t forget to repurpose your lanterns for Thanksgiving. Instead of candles, fill them with collections of tiny pumpkins and other gourds and use them as centerpieces for an outdoor buffet table. More little pumpkins and sprays of red berries arranged around an especially heavy or severe lamp lighten it.
14. When You Wish Upon a Star Lantern
Tangles of fairy lights make two lanterns the perfect decoration for the holidays or any special occasion. The lights also highlight the brass/golden metal of the lanterns’ frames. Add two stacked, matching boxes filled with fairy lights to balance out the lamps’ verticality. Polish the surface where they all stand to reflect the lights’ brilliance.
15. My Special Little Flowerpot Lantern
Use a roomy lamp to hold a terra cotta pot of purple petunias. Leave the door open to allow the air to circulate and to allow the plant to spill out a bit. It becomes the room’s focal point when you place it on the floor beside a throw pillow with a cheerful pattern.
16. Lulls of Light in the Living Room Lantern
If you want your living room to glow from soft lights placed nearly everywhere, make the source of some of this light strategically placed lanterns. How about two lamps placed against an open French window and another big lamp, holding but one pillar candle, set on a nearby sheepskin rug? Place the other lights, reflected from shiny surfaces, in glass holders, baskets, and polished metal tubes.
19. Candles in the Enchanted Moss Lantern
Use an outsized, wood framed lantern to house three dripless pillar candles nestled into a bed of moss. The lamp’s somewhat rustic look, with its old-fashioned hinges and door clasp, contrasts beautifully with a glossy natural stone surface and pots of flowers that can be seen through its glass pane.
20. Souvenirs from the Secret Garden Lantern
Make a beautiful lamp go a little further than a moss garden or even a pot of flowers by filling it with a bouquet fit for a wedding. Use roses, poppies with fringed petals, white astilbe, stephanotis, sprigs of rosemary, artfully arranged twigs and even a cluster of grapes or any flower or foliage of your choice. Let them spill out of the lamp onto the table.
22. The Cornerstone of Summer’s Eve Lantern
For the feeling of a garden party in North Africa, place stunning Moroccan-style lanterns with arched glass panels, curved tops, and silvery pierced work on the edge of a ledge filled with a row of simple votive candles. Add even more panache by grouping them above a pierced work container and near colorful throw pillows placed against the ledge.
23. Soft Flickers on the Fireplace Lantern
The edge of a fireplace is an excellent place to put a lamp. This one shares the corner of the hearthstone with a tall, turned wooden candleholder and an oval sculpture in which a single pillar candle has been placed. The substantial lantern itself holds a grouping of pillar candles of different sizes.
24. Promises of a Grand Harvest Lantern
This fall, use a lamp to promise a plentiful harvest. Fill it with small gourds and a sheath of wheat tied with a ribbon. Lean an open-weave basket just right for holding apples or little autumn gourds against it, and place a ceramic squirrel nearby to point to it with confidence.
25. Food for our Furry Friends Lantern
Instead of an Easter basket, paint a couple of lanterns pure white and place a gray bunny on a bed of straw in each. Tie bunches of paper-mâché carrots to the tops of the lanterns and just out of the bunnies’ reach. A white pitcher full of pussy willows is a final springtime touch.
26. The Fire in My Heart Lantern
No rule says that you can’t throw an outdoor party even amid winter, and a little gray lantern helps make a winter party especially festive. Place one candle inside, and decorate the lamp with a hand-sewn gray felt heart tied with a red and white gingham ribbon. Put a votive candle in a Mason jar beside it.
27. The Silent Keeper of Winter’s Fruit Lantern
For a more contemplative look than festive, place a thoughtful little child statuette holding a basket filled with pine needles and red berries inside a large lantern and hang it outside. Add sprays of evergreen and small pine cones to soften both the lantern’s metal and the statuette’s concrete.
28. The Hearth Where We Come Together Lantern
If you have an unusual-looking but beautiful lantern, it will make a statement as a centerpiece of a table where the mats seem to be made of moss and placed on a crocheted white cloth. To echo the theme, fill the lantern with balls of moss. Recruit the kids to make the balls with you. Add bright turquoise blue dishes to go with the shades of green and white.
29. To Grandmother’s House We Go Lantern
To highlight the good things around your house, place one lantern on a stack of old books, hang one from the wall, and put one on the table or mantelpiece. Put a votive candle and beautiful white orchids in the largest, put pillar candles, orchids, and seashells in the lamp on the table, and arrange a blue metal bucket and sea urchins in the smallest lamp.
31. Lit Roses on the Ropes Lantern
For a wedding reception or outdoor party, hang these lamps on strong ropes from the sturdy limb of a tree. Brush up on your knowledge of knots. Put a candle in each lamp and decorate them with red and pink roses. The lamps are festive enough during the day, but as evening falls, lanterns and roses become very romantic.
32. Let the Light Come In Lantern
There is more than one way for a lantern to bring light. Find bright white lamps and place them in a sunny window. In the first, add baby’s breath for a display as brilliant as fairy lights as the sunlight pours through them. Light a candle in the second lamp beside it.
Lanterns are one of the most versatile home accessories – there are so many uses for them both in and outside your home. And with the wide range of lantern styles to choose from, you can find ones that work with your home’s style, whether modern, farmhouse, or classic.
