DIY Rope Light Joy Sign

Hi readers, it’s Karen from A house full of sunshine here to spread a bit of DIY holiday cheer! Today I’ll be sharing a super-simple tutorial with show-stopping results.

Everyone who’s walked into our house since I decorated for Christmas has stopped and gazed at this sign. It’s big, it’s bright and it’s beautiful, especially when lit up at night. For such a statement piece that really brings the “WOW” factor to your Christmas decorating, you may be surprised how easy it was to make, using one simple (and cheap!) little trick.

To start with, you will need a 24 ft. length of LED rope light. (For any Aussie readers, that’s 6-8 metres – I sourced mine here.)

Next, you’ll need your secret weapon for fixing the rope light to the wall. The standard clips that come with rope lights require nailing, and I didn’t want to make a whole heap of holes all over an internal wall. After exploring a variety of options, it hit me – Command cord clips! They’re available in clear, they’re the perfect size, and they remove cleanly with no damage once the seasonal festivities are over and it’s time to take down your sign.

Here’s the U.S. source with where-to-buy information, and here’s the Australian source (I found mine at Bunnings.)

Once clipped onto the rope light, they’re virtually invisible.

Even the adhesive backing is clear, so they really disappear against the wall, especially with the lights switched on.

You will need two sets of hands to assemble your Joy sign on the wall. I mocked mine out on the floor first so I knew roughly how big to make the letters in order to use up the entire length of rope light, but not run out at the end. Then I started attaching the rope light pretty much as you’d write the word on paper. I wanted to make it slope upward a little and have a flowing cursive feel.

After attaching the first clip to the wall, I curved the rope to shape the first letter than had my helper hold it in place while I stepped right back to get perspective. After a few minor adjustments and repeating the process of stepping back to take a look, we added the next clips. I found it easiest to add the clips as we went along, as they needed to be placed strategically to hold the curves in place. After removing the adhesive backing, don’t forget to press and hold the clips firmly in place for the recommended time to ensure a strong bond.

The next step was to wrap the ugly black power cord in silver glittery ribbon. It’s easiest to do this if you unscrew the power cord first.

Then simply screw the cord back into the connector socket. I used a clear Command hook to hang the remainder of the cord, as I wanted it to be a feature – I like the casual, artsy feel this gives. If you want your cord to be less visible, you could wrap it in white ribbon and simply let it drop straight down from the last letter.

Here it is all lit up and shining bright. So festive!

It really makes the room.

If you like this sneak peek of my holiday decorating, I invite you to come and in and have a good look around – I have a full Christmas home tour up on my blog, A house full of sunshine, with more simple DIY ideas for seasonal decorating and lots of pretty eye candy. I hope you’ll stop past! (I think my favourite part of all is what’s just to the left of this picture, out of sight!)

If you like what you see, you can follow along with me here:

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Thank you so much for having me this year, Jessi and Practically Functional readers. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas filled with joy.