During a day off or a well-deserved break from studying, what better procrastination is there than to beautify your bedroom! Your walls will most likely already be lathered in photographs and draped with bunting, but sometimes it’s the little personalised touches that make you feel truly at home. So, if you’re feeling the urge to get all arty and crafty, here are HCX’s simple steps for embellishing a favourite feature of bedroom décor: fairy lights.
Here’s how to revamp them as lace lanterns (inspired by Dos Family DIY Doily Lamps, for £3 or less!
This is what you will need (We got everything from Poundland…)
- Paper doilies
- Balloons
- PVA glue
- Paintbrush (optional, we started off using our fingers, then upgraded to a pastry brush)
- Blunt needle or pointy object (a pen also works).
Stage 1
Firstly blow up a balloon to your desired size. We made ours as small as possible, the smaller the balloon the daintier the lantern! Tie the neck and set it aside.
Stage 2
You will need to use a double doily. They usually stick together by accident, but if they come apart glue them back together taking care to make sure the pattern matches up.
Cut the centre of the double doily out and measure how much of it you will need to wrap around the top part of the balloon (the section around the neck), then cut out the correct length of doily.
Stage 3
Paint the doily with lots of PVA glue then wrap it around the top half of the balloon, smoothing it down with your fingers as you go. Make sure the ends meet.
Stage 4
Again, measure how much doily you will need for the bottom half of the balloon, snip it at the correct length and lather the section in PVA glue. Attach this strip of doily the other way up to the first strip, so that the two outer edges of the doily meet in the middle of the balloon.
You should be left with a small patch at the bottom of your balloon. Paste on the last little section of doily to fill up the gap and then paint over the entire thing with one last layer of glue. Repeat the process to make as many lanterns as you like!
Peg or hang your balloons up to dry, it will probably take a whole night.
Stage 5
When they are completely dry, use the eye end of the needle to poke through the gaps in the doilies so that the paper comes away from the surface of the balloon.
Stage 6
Once the balloon has been thoroughly poked, snip the neck and tug it out. Don’t worry if the lanterns become a little bit misshapen during this final stage, they’re easy to reshape.
Stage 7
Attach a small bit of string to the top of your lantern and then fix it onto a fairy light bulb. Turn your bedroom lights off to enjoy the full effects!
Photo credits – Joanna Cassidy Osborne and Lottie Grant