How to Decorate Your Home for Diwali with Handmade Décor

Every October the same plan is made: this year the house will look like the pictures. Then Diwali week arrives with office deadlines, the cleaning half done and a tangle of lights from last year. These Diwali home decoration ideas are for that week. They are a plan, not a mood board.

We make home décor by hand: flowers that do not wilt, frames, clocks, pieces for the showcase. Working with colour and arrangement every day has taught us one thing above all: a few things done well in the right places beat a house covered in decorations. This guide goes room by room, with a budget for each, the order to do things in, and what is worth keeping for next year.

When should you start decorating for Diwali 2026?

Diwali is on Sunday 8 November 2026 and Dhanteras on Friday 6 November. Clean and declutter on the weekend of 31 October. Put up lights, torans and anything that hangs on Dhanteras. Leave fresh flowers and the rangoli for Diwali morning, so they are at their best when the lamps are lit.

Anything made to order, such as a nameplate, a personalised clock or a frame, needs 10 to 12 days from order to doorstep, and longer in festival weeks. Order those by Sunday 18 October.

What are the rules for decorating a home for Diwali?

Three rules do most of the work. Pick three colours and stay with them. Decorate four places properly and leave the other rooms alone. And use warm white light everywhere, because coloured lights fight with flowers, rangoli and each other.

1. Three colours. Marigold orange, deep red and gold is the classic set. Pink, white and gold is softer. Green, white and brass suits a modern flat. Whatever you choose, cushions, flowers, candles and rangoli all come from the same three.
2. Four places. The entrance, the living room, the pooja room and the balcony or window. Bedrooms and the kitchen need to be clean, not decorated.
3. One kind of light. Warm white string lights, diyas and candles. Keep the multicolour chaser lights for the children's room if you must.

There is a fourth, quieter rule: clear before you add. A shelf with five festive things on it looks better once the other ten things are put away for the week.

How do you decorate the entrance for Diwali?

Decorate the entrance with a toran over the door, a rangoli on the floor, a pair of diyas or lanterns on either side, and marigold strings on the frame. It is the one place every guest sees, and by tradition it is where Lakshmi is welcomed, so spend your first effort and money here.

• A toran. Fabric, beads, shells or mirror-work, hung across the top of the door frame. A handmade one lasts for years. Most are made for a standard three-foot door.
• Marigold strings. Two or three down each side of the frame. Fresh genda is traditional and lasts two days. Artificial strings last the whole five days and come out again next year. Many homes use both: artificial on the frame, fresh at the threshold.
• A rangoli. If you have time, draw one. If you do not, a reusable rangoli on a wooden or acrylic base is laid in a minute. Keep it to one side of the door so nobody steps on it.
• Light at floor level. Two large diyas, or two lanterns with candles, on either side. In a flat, check your building's rules about lamps in the corridor.
• A nameplate. If yours is faded, this is the week to replace it. A handmade nameplate with the family name is the first thing a guest reads.
• Footprints. Small Lakshmi footprints, in rangoli colour or stickers, leading in from the door.

Diwali decoration ideas for the living room

In the living room, decorate three spots: the centre table, one wall or shelf, and one corner. Change the cushion covers to your three colours, put a tray of diyas and flowers on the table, and give one corner a floor lamp or an urli. That is enough.

The centre table

This is where the sweets and the card game will be, so keep the decoration low and to one side. A brass or wooden tray with three diyas, a small bowl of flowers and one candle is the whole arrangement. Things in threes look settled; things in pairs look like a shop display.

The wall or the showcase

Pick one. If you have a showcase or open shelves, clear a shelf at eye level and put one good handmade piece there with a string of warm lights behind it. If you have a bare wall, this is where a wall clock with the family name or a set of framed family photographs earns its place. Run a single line of lights along the top of the shelf or the curtain rod, not round every edge in the room.

One corner

An urli, which is a wide shallow bowl, filled with water, floating candles and flower petals is the easiest centrepiece in Indian décor. Put it on the floor in a corner, away from where people walk, or on a low stool. A tall arrangement of artificial flowers in a floor vase does the same job with no water to spill.

Soft furnishings

Cushion covers and a table runner change a room more than any ornament. Two covers in each of your three colours, in cotton, silk blend or block print, cost less than a box of good mithai and are used every festival.

How do you decorate the pooja room for Diwali?

Keep the pooja room simple and clean. Lay a fresh cloth in red or yellow, frame the mandir with flowers, light one large diya that will burn through the evening, and set out the thali. This is the room where restraint looks best.

• Fresh flowers for the offering. Marigold, lotus and rose are traditional. Artificial flowers are for the frame and the backdrop, where they are not offered.
• A backdrop. A piece of brocade or a plain silk dupatta pinned flat behind the mandir, with marigold strings hung in front. It makes the photographs.
• The thali. A decorated pooja thali with kumkum, rice, a small bell and a diya. If yours is plain steel, a ring of flower petals around the edge is all it needs.
• The akhand diya. One larger lamp, in brass or clay, with enough oil to last. Place it where a sleeve or a curtain cannot reach it.
• No pooja room? A shelf or a low table in the living room, facing east or north if you can, works just as well. Clear it completely first.

Diwali balcony and window decoration

The balcony is what the street sees. One neat line of warm lights along the railing, a row of diyas on the ledge and one or two paper lanterns are enough. Hang lights in straight lines or even curves. A tangle looks untidy from below.

• String lights along the railing, fixed with cable ties every foot so they do not sag.
• A kandil. One paper lantern hung from the ceiling hook. In Maharashtra the akash kandil goes up first; in other regions a star or a round paper lamp does the same.
• Diyas on the ledge, placed on a strip of foil or in a tray of sand if it is windy.
• Plants. Wind a short string of lights through your largest plant. Tie a ribbon or a marigold string around the pots.
• No balcony? A row of tealights on the window sill behind a net curtain glows from outside and is safe from the wind.

How much does it cost to decorate a home for Diwali?

A two-bedroom flat can be decorated well for ₹2,500 to ₹4,000, if you already own string lights. About half of that goes on things you keep: a toran, artificial garlands, cushion covers, lanterns. The rest is diyas, fresh flowers, candles and rangoli colour.

The prices are typical for handmade and local-market pieces and are meant for planning; yours will vary by city. If the budget is tighter, keep the entrance and the pooja room and halve the rest.

Which handmade pieces are worth buying once?

Some décor is bought every year. Some is bought once and becomes part of how your family does Diwali. These are the ones in the second group.

• A good toran. ₹250 to ₹900. The one thing on this list every home should own.
• Artificial marigold garlands. ₹150 to ₹500. They save a morning at the flower market each year, and they suit Navratri, Diwali, weddings and housewarmings. We make these.
• An everlasting flower arrangement. ₹499 to ₹999. For the showcase or the console table, in your three colours. We make these.
• A wall clock or frame with the family name. ₹699 to ₹1,499. Not festive by itself, but Diwali is when the house is seen, and it is the piece guests ask about. We make these.
• A brass urli and a set of brass diyas. ₹600 to ₹2,000. They outlast everything else in the house.
• A reusable rangoli. ₹300 to ₹900. For the years when there is no time.
• A handmade nameplate. ₹699 to ₹1,800. Order early; it is made to your spelling.

You can browse pieces that can carry your family name in the shop. If you are also buying for others, our 40 handmade Diwali gift ideas and Diwali return gift ideas are sorted by who and how many.

How do you keep diyas and lights safe?

• Keep flames away from fabric. Curtains, torans, dupattas and paper lanterns all burn. Leave an arm's length between a diya and anything that hangs.
• Never leave diyas burning in an empty room or overnight. Put them out before you sleep.
• Use trays. A diya on a metal tray or a plate cannot stain the floor with oil or tip onto a rug.
• Mind children and pets. Put floor diyas where small hands and tails do not reach. Enclosed tealight holders are safer at their height.
• Check last year's lights for cracked wires before plugging them in, and do not run five strings from one socket.
• Switch off string lights when you leave the house.

Common Diwali decoration mistakes

• Decorating every room. The effort is spread thin and nothing looks finished.
• Too many colours. Six colours of lights, four of flowers and a multicolour rangoli cancel each other out.
• Decorating before cleaning. Lights draw the eye to dusty shelves and marked walls.
• Buying fresh flowers too early. Marigolds bought on Thursday are brown by Sunday. Buy on Saturday evening or Sunday morning.
• Blocking the way. A rangoli in the middle of the doorway and an urli in the middle of the room are both walked into.
• Leaving it all for Diwali day. By evening you will be too tired to enjoy it. Follow the five-day plan.

What should you do with the decorations after Diwali?

Leave the lights and the toran up until Bhai Dooj, or until Dev Deepawali if that is your family's custom. Then pack by room, not by type, so next year's entrance comes out of one box. Wipe artificial flowers with a dry cloth before storing them, wrap brass in newspaper, and throw away any light string with a damaged wire.

Write on the box what you ran out of and what you never used. In eleven months you will not remember. That one note is what makes next year's Diwali easier than this one. To see how made-to-order pieces are ordered, read how our orders work.