Let There Be Light: On Getting Lit in the Malibu DreamHouse

I have bought little lights from the dollar store before to set up in the house, but I didn't really love any of them. I now order these $2 LED string lights from China via Ebay, They are powered by one AA battery, lasts awhile of you don't leave in on too long. You can bend the wire into any shape you want, it could illuminate a fake lamp, or dangle from the ceiling in a cluster as I have done here while the battery box rests on the upper rafter.

This red lamp is exceptionally cool, they also sold blue, but I just opened mine and it works until you take your finger off the button. So, the red one stays. I wish I bought more from the dollar store when they had them. 

Below is the light unit, it arrives from Asia with the long LED string bound, and when I opened the envelope, I thought, Oh this would make a cute doll house chandelier, and so it did! It sure beats trying to figure out how to wire this house the traditional way via plug ins and battery units. They come in all different colors and even a christmas version with all the different colors. You can paint or contact paper the battery pack box white to make it blend in better. 

I bought a 70 cent clear christmas ball from Michael's and fed the LED string light into it for this look:

 Here is a $3 LED camping light from 99 cent only store, it illuminates a room pretty well also.

Just like in a real house, proper lighting is so important. I love what the owner did here. Next time I have mine set up, I'll try exterior uplighting and see what that looks like. The translucent light pink is my favorite window version for the pink house. The new DreamHouse has nothing on this classic. 


GREAT idea for custom lights: self sticking light ribbon strips with easily concealed wires. I have seen these at Ikea in the Kitchen department, under cabinet lighting section, but I think you could easily get these on Amazon or at the hardware store. I imagine lots of folks are illuminating shelves and work spaces this way. I replaced the broken light in a curio cabinet this way. The LED bulbs never burn out, they are cool temperature wise and are inexpensive.