How to Decorate with Lanterns: Beautiful Ideas for Every Room and Season

Lanterns are one of the most versatile accessories you can own. This guide shows you how to decorate with lanterns in any room, what to fill them with, and how to style them for every season.

If you’re wondering how to decorate with lanterns, you’re in the right place. Lanterns work in every room of your home, inside and out, and they can be filled with almost anything. Whether your style is cottage, classic, coastal, or somewhere in between, a lantern is one accessory that earns its place year-round.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to choose the right lantern, what to put inside it, where to place it, and how to restyle it as the seasons change. I’m using four lanterns from my own home as examples, so you can see exactly how one lantern can take on many different looks.

This post contains affiliate links to products used to create this project. If you should order any item from this site, I may receive compensation, but you do not pay a penny more. Your purchase is greatly appreciated as it helps support the continued publication of this site.

What Is a Decorative Lantern?

Traditionally, a lantern was a portable light source, a candle or oil wick protected by glass or metal so it could be carried or hung outdoors.

Today’s decorative lanterns borrow that classic shape, but we’re decorating, not lighting the way to the barn. Modern lanterns come in metal, wood, wire, and glass, and the enclosure that once protected a flame is now a little display case for whatever you want to showcase.

How to Choose the Right Lantern

Before you buy (or shop your own home), keep these three things in mind:

• Style. Match the lantern’s material and lines to your decor. Brass and glass lean classic and elegant. Wood feels farmhouse or coastal. Wire and metal can go industrial or vintage.
• Size and scale. Think about where the lantern will live. A tall lantern anchors a console table or a hearth. A small lantern works on a bookshelf, side table, or as part of a tabletop vignette.
• Color. Don’t pass up a lantern with a great shape just because of its color.

TIP: Paint a lantern if you like the shape, style, and size, but don’t like the color. One of my favorite lanterns started out a funky shade of green. A coat of grey paint with a whitewash top coat made it perfect for our living room.

What to Put in a Lantern

The answer is almost anything that fits. Here are filler ideas that work beautifully, most of which you probably already own:

• Battery-operated candles (my go-to; set a timer with the remote and enjoy the glow every evening); especially good for outdoors where heat could melt a candle or high places that could be dangerous to reach.
• Real candles (only in lanterns with open tops so smoke can escape) that are safe and easy to reach.
• Moss tucked around a candle base
• Faux flowers or greenery in a small vase
• Fabric-wrapped decorative balls or decoupage balls
• Small ceramic vases in coordinating colors
• Vintage finds like wooden spools
• Seasonal items: faux gourds in fall, ornaments and string lights at Christmas, bunnies at Easter, patriotic accents in summer

TIP: When decorating with lanterns, take scale into consideration. Items should fill the lantern at least 2/3 full or the arrangement will look out of proportion. If your fillers look too short, swap in taller pieces or add height with a riser. I once used a cupcake holder to lift a candle, and no one was the wiser.

O.K., now that we are clear on that, let’s get started with these lantern design ideas.

There are so many ideas for using lanterns. Use your imagination. Think of the different items you have around your home for what to put in a decorative lantern. One home decor lantern can have so many different looks.

Lantern Styling Ideas from My Own Home

Now let’s put those principles to work. Here are four lanterns from my home, each styled multiple ways, to show you how much mileage you can get from a single piece.

1 – Use a Brass Lantern

Entries are wonderful spots for lantern vignettes. In ours, I placed the brass lantern inside a grey-painted tray with a stack of books tied in twine. Then I added three ceramic vases for a pop of color. Inside the lantern, a bit of moss around a battery-operated candle gives it a beautiful glow at night.

A brass and glass lantern is a classic that works nearly anywhere. Mine started as Christmas decor filled with battery-operated lights, then moved to our dining room table as part of a lantern centerpiece for our dining room makeover.

The same lantern later moved to our breakfast room for fall, filled with twig-style balls and paired with a blue candle, blue books, and blue beads. One lantern, at least five different looks.

Obviously, this brass lantern has seen several more uses – filled with Christmas lights and faux flowers.

2 – Fill a Tall Wood Lantern for Seasonal Displays

Lanterns come in all shapes and sizes, and a tall wood lantern is ideal for a console table or a spot in front of a window or hearth. It’s not a lantern you’d carry around, but we’re interested in home decor, not practicality here.

We have had this tall wood lantern for several years now and it’s one of my most versatile lanterns to decorate. The contents of this lantern change with the seasons. In summer, I have filled it with fabric-wrapped styrofoam balls made from fabric scraps, plus a couple of vintage spools.

Another summer look: a bright blue vase with white faux peonies, right in keeping with a blue and white theme.

In the fall, faux gourds take over.

Faux pumpkins are another accessory to fill a tall lantern. Perfect for a front door fall vignette.

At Christmas, it’s ornaments and lights. At Easter, bunnies move in. A tall lantern is essentially a seasonal display case that never needs to leave its spot.

At other times, this tall lantern has been filled with Christmas balls and lights, Easter bunnies and American patriotic items.

3 – Use a Pair of White Wood Lanterns

A pair of white wood lanterns gives you plenty of options – use them together or individually. I have had this set for years, and they are great for every season and anywhere I need to use them.

By the front door, filled with greenery.

In the entry filled with seasonal spring/Easter decor.

At Christmas, filled with trees and greenery.

4 – Use a Metal and Glass Lantern Indoors and Out

A white metal and glass lantern proves how well lanterns travel. When we updated our patio, this lantern lived outside on one of the tabletops I made, styled with moss and a real blue candle. Because this lantern is open around the top, smoke from a real candle can escape safely.

The next summer, the same lantern moved indoors to our living room bookcase. My first try, three short vases in shades of blue and green, looked sweet but broke the 2/3 rule. Two tall white vintage vases and a bit of faux greenery were the right size and shape.

That’s the beauty of the scale tip: when an arrangement looks off, height is usually the fix.

TIP: When decorating with lanterns, take scale into consideration. Items should fill the lantern at least 2/3 full or the arrangement will look out of proportion.

The lantern needed something taller inside. Two tall white vintage vases were the right size and shape. A bit of faux greenery completed the lantern decor.

5 – Paint and Restyle a Wire Lantern

Don’t overlook wire lanterns. They have wonderful shape and airiness, and they’re perfect candidates for a paint makeover. Mine was originally green; grey paint with a whitewash top coat gave it new life.

While organizing my decor closet, I found this lantern. I thought that my blue decoupage balls would be a perfect fit in size and color for our living room side table.

I filled it with blue decoupage balls that matched our living room side table perfectly. Over the years, this same lantern has held a candle, Christmas lights, Easter bunnies, and decorative balls for every season.

TIP: Paint a lantern if you like the shape, style, and size, but don’t like the color.

This lantern has also been filled with a candle, Christmas lights, Easter bunnies, and decorative balls for the seasons.

Where to Place Lanterns in Your Home

If you’re not sure where a lantern belongs, start with these spots:

• Entryway: a lantern in a tray with books and small accessories makes an instant welcome vignette
• Console table: a tall lantern anchors the scene, especially in front of a window
• Dining table: a lantern (or a pair) makes an easy centerpiece
• Bookcase or shelf: a small lantern adds height and shine among books
• Side table: a compact lantern fills the spot a lamp doesn’t
• Hearth or mantel: a classic placement with moss and a candle inside
• Patio or porch: lanterns are made for outdoor tables; use battery-operated candles to avoid summer heat

How to Decorate with Lanterns by Season

One of the best reasons to invest in a lantern or two is how easily they transition from season to season:

Spring: faux tulips or peonies, Easter eggs, decoupage balls, a nest with eggs, for a spring/Easter centerpiece.

Summer: blue and white accents, fabric balls, shells, greenery, citrus-colored candles
Fall: faux gourds, mini pumpkins, twig balls, warm-toned candles, wheat stems

Winter and Christmas: lanterns with string lights, ornaments, faux snow, pinecones, bottle brush trees

If you keep a small bin of lantern fillers with your seasonal decor and restyling takes five minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions About Decorating with Lanterns

I’ve shown you almost a dozen different ways to style five different home decor lanterns. I hope you enjoyed these ways to decorate with lanterns, the different places you could place a lantern, and how to fill a lantern.

Please be sure to PIN these ideas to save for reference for your own home. Check out these Pinterest Boards: Accessories for the Home and Home Decor.