Holiday bedroom lighting: how to light the room for two

Most holiday lighting goes on the front of the house and around the living room tree. The bedroom gets nothing, which is a shame, because it's the room where you actually end the night together. A few strands in the right places turn it into the coziest room in the house for the next six weeks.

Skip the ornaments and the big tree. What the bedroom needs is a glow you can switch off from bed.

Holiday bedroom lighting, in short

• Turn the overhead light off for the season, evenings at least.
• Keep every light 2700K or warmer, and match the tree lights to your lamp bulbs.
• Put warm white fairy lights on the headboard.
• Add a small lit tree or lit branches, on a dimmer.
• Lay a lit pine garland on the dresser or along a shelf.
• Use flameless candles near the bed and anything fabric.
• Put it all on a timer or smart plug so the room is glowing when you walk in.

Start by turning the big light off

A ceiling light is the fastest way to make a room feel like a hotel hallway. It lights everything evenly from above, so nothing has a shadow and nothing looks soft. Holiday lights can't fix that if the overhead is still on.

So switch it off for the evening and let the season do the work. Your bedside lamps, a few strands and a candle or two are plenty. If you need to find a sock, turn it on for ten seconds and turn it off again.

Keep it warm: 2700K or below

The single biggest difference between holiday lights that look magical and ones that look cheap is color temperature. Cool white LED strands (usually 5000K to 6500K) read blue and a little harsh, especially next to a lamp. Warm white strands sit around 2700K, and some go down to 2200K, close to candlelight.

• Pick warm white, every time. Check the box for the Kelvin number. If it just says "white," it's probably cool.
• Match the tree to your lamps. If your bedside bulbs are 2700K, buy 2700K strands. When the two don't match, the tree looks green and the lamps look orange, and the room feels patched together.
• Go warmer, not cooler, if you're unsure. A room that's a little too amber still looks romantic. A room that's a little too blue never does.

Our warm bedroom lighting guide covers bulbs in more detail, and the Lighting Planner can work out the rest of your room.

Fairy lights on the headboard

This is the one to do if you only do one. A strand of warm white fairy lights along the headboard puts a soft glow right behind your heads, which is the most flattering place light can come from.

• Use the thin copper or silver wire kind. They nearly disappear by day and look like scattered points of light at night.
• Weave, don't wrap. Run the strand loosely along the top edge and let a little of it drape. Tight coils look like a store display.
• No headboard? Tack them to the wall in a soft arc above the bed with small removable hooks, or run them behind a sheer panel.
• Battery or plug-in both work. Plug-in is brighter and you never have to think about it. Battery packs are easier where there's no outlet, but put the pack where you won't roll onto it.

A small lit tree or lit branches

A full tree in the bedroom is a lot. A small one, two to four feet, on a dresser or in a corner, is exactly right. So is a tall vase of lit branches, birch or bare twigs wrapped in fine lights, if you'd rather skip the tree look entirely.

• Put it on a dimmer. A plug-in dimmer between the tree and the outlet lets you take it down to a low glow for the last hour of the night. Full brightness is for decorating. Half or less is for living with it.
• Keep the ornaments simple. A few in one or two colors, gold and deep green, or all clear glass, look calm. A bedroom isn't the place for every ornament you own.
• Light it from inside. Even on a small tree, push some of the lights in toward the trunk so it glows from within instead of only on the surface.

A lit pine garland

A garland on the dresser, along a shelf or across the top of a window brings in green, and with a strand of lights tucked through it, a second soft source of light at a different height. That mix of heights (headboard, dresser, tree) is what makes a room feel layered instead of lit.

• Real or good faux both work. Real cedar or pine smells wonderful but dries out fast in a warm room, so keep it away from heat and lights that run hot, and swap it if it gets crisp.
• Tuck the strand in, don't drape it on top. The bulbs should peek out from the needles.
• Keep it off the bed. Garland belongs on furniture, not on the headboard where it can shed into the sheets.

Candles: flameless near the bed

Candlelight is part of the season, and it's the warmest light there is. Near the bed, near curtains, near a garland or a tree, use flameless candles. Good ones have a warm, flickering glow and many come with remotes or built-in timers.

Real candles can go across the room, on a tray on the dresser or a windowsill without curtains, in glass holders. Never on the bed or the nightstand right next to it.

Timers and smart plugs

The best part of holiday lighting is walking into a room that's already glowing. A simple outlet timer or a smart plug makes that happen without either of you remembering.

• Set the lights to come on at dusk and go off an hour or two after you usually go to sleep.
• Group them. Put the headboard lights, tree and garland on one smart plug or a power strip on one timer, so one switch handles the whole room.
• Check the strands before they go up. If a wire is frayed, a plug is cracked or a section gets warm to the touch, throw that strand out.

Make it yours

Light the room together one evening in late November. Turn the overhead off, plug everything in, and adjust until the room looks right from the bed, since that's where you'll see it most.

This season the Room Designer can show you your own bedroom with holiday lighting, from November 20. For the colors and textures around the lights, our Velvet Holiday bedroom guide covers the rest of the room.

What we'd reach for

A few pieces from our catalog that do exactly this job. Warm string lights for the headboard:

Flameless pillars for the dresser, where real flame and bedding don't mix:

And if you want the room to smell like the season too, a balsam candle for the living room, lit only while you're there: