Outdoor

“Christmas lights on house” searches are up about 300% compared with last year. If you’re doing it yourself for the first time, the hardest part is planning, not hanging. Here’s the order to do it in. Plan the outline Walk outside and decide what you’ll light. Most houses look best with just one or two lines: The roofline, along the gutter. The edges of the porch or front door. Windows on the front of the house. Measure each length with a tape measure. Add a bit for going around corners and the run back to the outlet. ...

A balcony is the part of your apartment the whole street can see. It’s also awkward to decorate: there’s usually no outdoor outlet, the lease has rules, the neighbors are close, and the wind gets everywhere. None of that rules it out. It just changes what you buy and how you hang it. Check the lease first Most leases are fine with temporary holiday decorations, but nearly all of them ban screws or nails into the outside of the building. Some limit how heavy balcony planters can be, a few restrict real greenery or blinking lights, and HOAs sometimes have rules about dates and colors. It takes five minutes to read the balcony section. ...

Porch decorations deal with things the living room never sees: wind, freezing rain, snow, and the occasional ice storm. A wreath that would last all season indoors can be stripped bare by New Year’s outside. Most of the solution is buying the outdoor-rated version of things and fastening everything down properly. The door The right size wreath. Roughly two-thirds the width of the door: 24 inches for a standard 36-inch door, 28 to 30 for double doors. A wreath that’s too big also catches more wind. Outdoor or all-weather wreaths have UV-treated foliage and denser wiring, so gusts don’t strip them. ...