Rope Lighting:Not Just for the Holidays Anymore!

My husband recently stumbled upon the mother of all clearance sales - half price on rope lighting at the local Walmart! I can't help but wonder how many little old ladies he took out with the shopping cart... I've had him in "Clearance Therapy" but to tell you the truth I haven't seen much improvement.

He hit the front door with a plan for his 100 feet of rope light and by the end of the day I must say I was impressed.

I found that 18 feet of rope light screwed up under the bottom edge of my platform bed made a nice nightlight and gave a certain ambiance to the room...after my husband finally got all the tiny screws in place and the cursing stopped because of the awkward position he had to be in while installing the lights...This would probably be better accomplished with an angle drill and possibly a trained monkey or a smaller member of the household doing the work due to it being hard for a big guy to get under the edge of the bed. By the way, you cannot see the rope itself, only the glow of the light.

Then on to our daughter's bedroom where he installed rope lighting underneath her loft bed around the edges (you cannot see the rope itself) - and being trained to do electrical work he wired it into a wall switch so when she is sitting on the couch under the loft bed she can turn the rope lights on and off if she wants light. At night the rope lighting gives just the right amount of light for a nightlight. So far so good, but what to do with all the rest?

I had a friend whose son had a SpiderMan theme in his bedroom. They used red and blue rope lighting installed around the baseboards at the edge of the carpeting to add pizzazz to his room and it doubled as a nightlight. The boy absolutely loved it and thought he had the coolest room ever. You would always want to make sure it was secured well in a child's room and make sure there were no choking, strangulation, tripping or fire hazards. I personally would not put the lighting within a young child's reach.

How about the kitchen? More rope lighting run across the top of the cabinets keeps it concealed but gives a nice soft accent light at night and shows up the nice collectibles displayed there.

Rope lighting run back and forth across the underside of the steps of your outdoor deck or patio not only provides safety for your family and guests, but adds beautiful soft lighting. You can also run it down the sides of the steps or railings. Just experiment with the placement so that you can either see the rope lighting or place it far enough out of sight that you don't actually see the rope itself, depending on your personal taste. It can also be stretched across the inside of the roof of the porch or covered deck so that the lighting is up above.

All in all, I guess I have to admit that his bargain on the rope lighting ended up being a better deal than the time I bought 10 badminton rackets for a dollar at a garage sale...but that's another story for another day!

By:Gail Enochs