Showing posts with label rope light. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rope light. Show all posts

Friday, March 29, 2013

Uses for Rope Light



The flexibility you have when using rope light in home lighting projects are endless. Rope light is one of the easiest lights to incorporate to your decor because there are not many wires to tuck away. Just be sure to measure your light properly. Here are some uses and tips for installing your flex light.

Under Kitchen Cabinets - This is great for a soft or indirect glow under your cabinets. It will also be helpful to have a little extra light shining on your counter tops. To attach these to the cabinets, you can find hooks that will screw right into the cabinets, quick and easy to install and remove.

Transform Trees - Wrap the trunk of your trees in the backyard. It would be easiest to wrap and work with the smaller trees. This will add a little ambient lighting for your outdoor events and parties.

Decorate Your Deck - Wrap rope lighting around the hand rail and deck posts of your deck. Great  for summer
entertaining and just to relax outside on your own deck.

Light Your Path - Line your walkway with flex lighting. This will be simple and great for you or your guests that will be coming and going in the evening.


Now that you have a few ideas on how to use your flex light, let me give you a few tips on how to measure correctly.

Use Twine - Using twine is the easiest way to accurately measure your area for lighting. It is very inexpensive and easy to get around tight and unusual places. Start by securing the twine close to where you want to begin your outline.

Make an Outline - Run it around the perimeter of where you want to use your flex light. Make sure to attach it to key angles, likes corners.

Measure - When you've completed the outline, cut off the piece of twine. Measure with a tape measure, the length of lighting you will need for the project.

Leave Some Slack - Remember to leave about 15% in excess. You want to be absolutely sure that you have to correct amount and only have to cut once.

This can be a really fun project to add a little jazz to different spaces. Try using it in your home or for your next party. Everyone will love the new and unique ideas you can come up with.

--
Hannah
All American Christmas Co.



Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Decorating with Rope Light

     Rope light is a super easy product to decorate with and can add great lighting just about anywhere. Rope light from stores like lowes or home depot come in  short lengths, but we here at All American Christmas Company sell rope light in spools of 150 feet that come with multiple power cords and other misc connectors that you'll need for a clean decorating job. Now most people will think, "Why on Earth would I need that much!!" but once you start wrapping the rope light around something those small strings from the hardware store will get used up quickly. We have always had the attitude, "If you're going to do something do it right and do it right the first time." and if you custom cut your ropelight to fit your application using a commercial rope light spool you're going to get exactly the right look with little fuss and hassle.

Rope light is pretty simple to decorate with, many people use this plastic neon lighting for mood lighting or accent lighting. You can install them around ceilings and floors for indirect lighting, You can use colors that coordinate with your room for a great effect! I've seen it even used to decorate behind desks and entertainment centers to add a cool mood lighting for offices and home theaters or even just a normal family room.


You can also use rope light to wrap things you want to light, you can use it around handrails on a deck or going up columns on the facade of a building. It's perfect for these type of applications and will a nice ambient lighting to a deck for entertaining guests or just relaxing outdoors. Rope light is also great for outlining tents for outdoor parties.



Installing Ropelight onto most surfaces is very, we offer a selection of clips but for most application you can use zip ties! Zip ties are easy to use, inexpensive, are not permanent, and shouldn't damage the surface. We also carry clips and rope light track. Our rope light clips can be nailed, or screwed, onto a surface and the ropelight track can use adhesive pads, glue, or silicone caulk.


Rope light comes in 3 typical sizes, 3/8", 1/2", and 5/8". These 3 sizes have a varying number of wire count, what that means is how many circuits the bulbs are wired in. Normally rope light has 2 wire, but if you want a chasing effect you will need to purchase a controller and 3 wire rope light, and if you want many different chasing options you will need to purchase 5 wire ropelight with the corresponding controller.

Please visit our Rope Light page to see all the rope light we have to offer!

--
Zach
All American Christmas Co.
www.aachristmas.com
www.allamericanchristmas.com

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Wedding light ideas

     There are a ton of great products to use for a Wedding ceremony and/or reception! I've gone on and on in previous blogs about how popular Curtain lights are and how great they look for weddings. I'll get to them but first I'm going to give some details on some other great lights for weddings.


White Wire Mini Lights
Click here to see our Mini Lights
     White wire mini lights come in a variety of bulb spacings and bulb colors! Bulb spacing can vary from 2.5 inches apart all the way up to 8 in some cases, and Mini light bulbs come in all the standard colors; Clear, Frosted White (show), Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Pink, Purple, Amber, Teal, and Multi. Mini lights are a great way to accent the colors of wedding party and a great for table decorations. Mini lights are also great for hanging from the ceiling creating a swag effect!  Mini light strings vary in bulb counts from 20 all the way up to 150 lights per string so unless you're lighting a football stadium chances are mini lights will meet your lighting needs!


Globe Lights
Click Here for Globe Bulbs
They are on the bottom of the C7 & C9 Page
     Globe lights are pretty common for decorators, they are the quintessential outdoor decorative light! They come in a variety of colors and sizes but it's hard to beat a clear or pearl white color Globe lights especially for a wedding! These lights go in either C7 or C9 light line which you can custom cut from a spool to fit almost any need. Globe lights are perfect for hanging outside outdoor tents and are killer for lighting walkways if you're doing a dusk/nighttime wedding. The standard size is called G50 and can fit into either C7 or C9 base,  G50s are approx. 2" in diameter. Some people complain about price (around 16 bucks for 25 bulbs) but these bulbs will last a long time if maintained.


Rope Light
Click here to view our Rope Light
     Rope light is a great form of accent lighting. It's compact, attractive and easy to decorate with! Rope lighting is great for going down walk ways or aisles, for wrapping columns or hand rails. Rope light comes in spools of 150' with all the accessories you would need to make multiple runs of rope light for your special day. Just like mini lights rope lights are great to make swag lights.





Curtain Lights
Click here to view our Curtain Lights
     Curtain lights for weddings are super popular! Many decorators and the like rent out curtains lights but if you're a do it yourself-er like many of us are and want to save and buying your own to use and reuse on other holiday projects. We offer a smaller light curtain thats around 5 feet tall and a larger one that's around 9.5 feet tall! Like the picture on the right shows these curtains are great for going behind tables at a reception, they are great behind the bridge and groom during the service. A great effect is had by putting the light curtain behind some sheer fabric, this hides the wires slightly and looks great!


If you have any questions please visit the site or give us a call Mon-Fri 8-5 CST

--
Zach
All American Christmas Co.
www.aachristmas.com
www.allamericanchristmas.com

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

May 30th, 2011 is Memorial Day! 10% off coupon code!


    May 30th this year is Memorial day, and many of us like to get together with family and friends on this holiday when we take time to think about the soldiers who have sacrificed for this country. If you like to decorate for this holiday we here at All American Christmas Co. have some great lighting products that would look great for any indoor or outdoor celebration. We have Patriotic Spheres which look great indoors and out, as well as solid Red, White, and Blue Spheres. Starlight spheres are a great way to easily decorate holidays and if you mix and match them you could use solid colors for more than just patriotic holidays.

    We also carry Red, White (or clear), and Blue incandescent and LED lights. Almost all of the Mini lights we carry come in those color options on White Wire, which look great for hanging around the house or outdoors. C7 and C9 bulbs are great for hanging up around decks and patios for a little extra light, our painted/opaque C7 and C9 bulbs are great for mood lighting. We have many LED light options as well but, they typically do not come on white wire but green wire looks great too!

Be sure to use the coupon code SAVE10 to save 10% on all online orders over $25! 

--
Zach
All American Christmas Co.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Rope Light, "The" Alternative to Neon

Rope Light, Flex Lite, Plastic Neon, It goes by many names but they are almost always the same product. This flexible plastic lighted tubing is a very popular style of lighting and have a very large number of uses. The most common use for ropelight is outlining, you can use it to outline you building or roof, you can outline signs, they are common place on light displays. People like using this style of lighting for some sort of mood/back lighting. You can hide it and use it this way, underneath a shelf or counter to light up a floor for example.

There are a handful of different styles of ropelight available, sizes vary from 3/8", 1/2", 5/8". They come in a few different Wire counts, 2 wire, 3 wire, and 5 wire. 2 Wire rope light can only flash/fade with a controller, 3 wire can chase, twinkle, flash with a controller, and 5 wire has the same capabilities that the 3 wire has. To help picture how they are animated think of 3 Wire as broken down in to sets of 3 bulbs, so when they chase it's ever first bulb in a set of 3. 5 Wire works the same except there is more bulbs to a broken down set.

Each variant of rope light has it's own specialized power adapters, connectors, splice kits, and so on. You cannot use a 2 wire power connector with a 3 wire ropelight and vice versa.

For more information on Rope Light visit our Rope light page.