There’s a very simple thing you can alter for your party to take it from great to fabulous…lighting! There’s a good reason that restaurants, spas and clubs are lit the way they are, they are setting the mood. You can set the same mood for your party at home by using dimmer switches on your lights and by switching out regular bulbs with colored ones. The switch is unbelievably easy and the impact is tremendous. Here are a few ways I have used colored light bulbs to set the mood in my home:

• At Christmas time, I replace the bulbs in my stairwell fixtures with alternating red and green bulbs. It’s a small touch with a very festive look. When we hosted my daughter’s Candyland party, we used a rainbow of colored lights down the stairs.
• Also at Christmas time, I replace the bulbs in my buffet lamps and the lamps behind my couch with red and green bulbs. The lamps around my nativity get yellow bulbs.
• In my daughter’s play closet, I will replace the bulb with a blue one for night time or a yellow one for a more natural sunny day feel. She loves the different colored lights and likes to nap in the play closet when the blue light is installed.
• Every New Year’s Eve, we host a casino party. I replace almost all of the lights in our basement family room with colored bulbs to really create that casino atmosphere. People tend to relax more if they aren’t under the harsh light of your canister lights!
• Set a romantic mood for a dinner by using red bulbs in your dining room for a special Valentine’s day dinner or celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with green ones!

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