A Beginner's Guide to Festoon Lights and Florals
Written by: Millie Breakspeare
Spring is in full bloom, so it’s the ideal time to give your garden a glow-up. Literally. You’re going to be spending more evenings outdoors, so you want to make sure you have the light and décor to enjoy them. One of our favourite ways to welcome spring is to use festoons and floral decorations to add warmth and colour to the garden.
What are Festoon lights? This is a fairly common question with a simple answer – festoons are effectively the big brother of fairy lights.
While fairy lights are made up of many small, delicate bulbs on a thin wire or string, festoon lights have less bulbs but they’re bigger and bolder, on thicker cable or rope. This means festoons are a more functional light source – perfect for outdoor dining and gathering areas that require more brightness as the sun sets.
But what is light without colour? Especially in spring.
Here are our favourite ways to combine the warm glow of festoon lights with the pastel colours of springtime flora to create a fun and welcoming atmosphere, whether for hosting family and friends or bringing yourself some seasonal magic.
Make Your Greenhouse Glow
The lighter days of spring mean spending your mornings in sunny greenhouses and potting sheds. Scatter shelves with garlands and bouquets of pure white daisies and buttery yellow tulips. These will infuse your workspace with the fresh and gentle energy of the new season, as well as add to the golden shine cast by your festoon lights. For an extra spark of joy, hang daisy festoon lights around your greenhouse, which you can enjoy both in the bright sunshine and peaceful evenings as you while away the hours.
Soft Springtime Sparkle
The warmth of the new season signals that it’s time for your first outdoor meal of the year. Mixing spring daisies with wildflowers of pastel pinks, lilacs, greens, and whites brings a cheerful sense of fun to the table. A bouquet of these flowers in a pink ceramic vase provides the perfect centrepiece for your guests to gather around. Hanging warm festoon lights above the table will paint a beautiful rosy glow due to the pinks and lilacs of the flowers, creating a welcoming ambiance of cosy comfort.
Flowers of Starlight
You don’t need to stick to literal flowers when choosing florals to pair with your festoons. Strings of flower fairy lights can be draped across surfaces, ready to bloom as night falls. Gold starburst garlands add a warm sparkle to any dining table, inviting guests to gather closer under the twinkle of festoon lights. Or, if you want to add a hint of colour, blue haze flower lights can be wrapped around furniture to really catch the eye, with a mix of blue and white flowers, while still creating a snug atmosphere.
We hope these ideas have gotten your creative juices flowing. This is just inspiration - it’s your garden, so choose the flowers and lights that bring you joy and make you feel the most at home, and you can’t go wrong.
