minimal halloween
We typically don’t do anything special to our house for Halloween –it’s just not a big deal where we’re from. This year was to be no exception, though we did pop a pumpkin out front –we love how it contrasts our color scheme. Then we had another idea…
We’d just bought some LED lights, in time to set up our holiday decorations. We hadn’t tested them out yet, so figured this might be a good opportunity. They come in self-adhesive rolls –you can see one on the work platform, to the right.
We stuck this to the top of the window ledge…
Then we drilled a hole through our garage wall, and fed the power cord through. Actually, we drilled two holes –we first tried right by the ledge, to minimize visibility, but quickly realized we’d hit a stud. Oops.
These LEDs come with a remote control, and almost limitless color options. We settled on orange (for now) for obvious reasons. Dig this shot, where the street reflection mixes with a view through our all-purpose room, out to our patio and master bedroom.
At night, the LEDs light the ceiling nicely –good job we just repainted it. Surprised you can see the individual lights above the ledge, from this angle, but at least the line is perfectly straight. For the holiday decor, we’ll add more lights on either side of our pitch.
The light effect is pretty cool inside too, with a warm glow in our all-purpose room…
When we add more LEDs, we’ll stick them to the fascia reverse, visible from here. It should flood this room with light –hopefully that won’t be overkill. Either way, I foresee some debate on color.
We added candy out-front, plus a solar light, to save people making the long trek down our pathway.
It was such a rainy night, we didn’t get many takers. Probably a good thing –this candy is left-over from the home tour, so certainly past its best. With the lights a success, we look forward to starting our holiday decor –complete with a few more surprises. Hope you had a wonderful Halloween!
Ivy Chesser
Super cool! Love how technology is making mid-century holiday decorating more fun (and easier)!
Andy
Thank you, Ivy! Glad you like. Much quicker and easier to install than the bulbs we’ve hung the last couple years. And the best bit –they’re straight. Hoping the roof pitch will go as smoothly…
Amy Moore
Loving all the helpful details for the rest of us Eichler-dwellers..
Andy
Thanks, Amy! Glad you found it helpful.
tony
Hi Andy. Love what you have done with the lighting – and it gives a great warm glow to the inside too. Can’t wait to see what you add on for the Christmas holiday display. We had just one trick or treat caller over here in the UK – so we have lots of left over candy to eat.
Andy
Thanks Tony! We are very happy with our first effort. Thinking that “warm glow” will be a lot warmer come Christmas –watch this space. We just left candy up-front, so not sure how many we had. Probably no more than one or two. Spare candy is always a good thing though!
Greg
That’s a great idea! I have a long, rectangular window on the front of my house, too. Usually every Christmas I wrestle with some LED rope lights that go in plastic channels. But to put them up, I have to screw the channels to the siding and run the lights. Putting up LED strips like this would be a much better option that I could leave up year-round.
What solar light is that?
Andy
Thanks Greg! Yes, it’s been a challenge for us each year too. We are definitely planning to make this a long-term installation. The solar light is one of a few we usually have up-front, by our agaves. We bought them from Amazon way back. Honestly though, they are very unreliable, with most having failed during the last couple years. Probably worth looking at Amazon though, and checking reviews. We may buy some more, but (ideally) are thinking of hard-wiring low-voltage landscape lighting. Eventually.
Diane
Where did you buy the self-adhesive LED lights? They look great!!
Andy
Thanks, Diane! We found them on Amazon
Karolina
The agaves look very Hallowe’en-appropriate with that orange glow. And they’re getting so big! Can’t wait to see what you do for Christmas, and Thanksgiving. 😉
Andy
Yes they do! They were pretty menacing during the process too, spiking us several times. And yes, they are getting big -we can’t believe how much they’ve grown. Looking forward to seeing your holiday decor too!
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