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It's the holiday season and it's time to decorate with Christmas lights. I've always been nervous about climbing up a ladder to hang roof Christmas lights from the gutters, so I stick to decorating my homes interior. Others choose to decorate their home interiors because they're renting and don't want to damage the walls. This year, instead of spiraling Christmas lights around the banister, I decided to try hanging Christmas lights along the top edge of the wall along the ceiling. But the most important part of hanging up the lights inside is to avoid punching holes in the drywall.
I decided to use 3M Command Mini Hooks to hang indoor Christmas lights. Instead of hammering a nail into the wall to hold up Christmas lights, these Command Mini Hooks tape onto the surface and can be removed leaving the drywall and paint damage-free. The mini hook is made of clear plastic, making less visible and fairly difficult to see when the Christmas lights are strung up. The hooks are fairly thick, so the double sided tape is more likely to fail before the plastic hook breaks. You'll need one hook every two feet, so measure the length of your Christmas lights and purchase the hooks accordingly.
Previously, we used to use blue painters tape as a simple workaround that we knew wouldn't damage the paint. What we found was taping wasn't strong enough and we'd have to re-tape certain sections that have fallen down. Having strips of blue tape visible on the wall was also less enjoyable to view and visitors would always comment. So I found the best way to hang Christmas lights is with 3M sticky hooks that don't damage the wall.
You'll need to set aside some time to prepare the hooks because the 3M packaging comes with the clips separate from the double sided tape. Depending on the number of clips, you'll find yourself carefully peeling back the tape. The double sided tape easily breaks apart into small sections perfectly sized for the plastic clip, but peeling back the tape sometimes be frustrating. The double sided tape is clearly color coded and marked to indicate which side to stick to the clip and which side to stick to the wall. A helpful tip to attaching the clip to the wall is to avoid positioning the clip opening too close to the wall, as it gets tricky to slide the Christmas lights through the small gap. Eventually, I found it easier to loop the Christmas lights into the clip before removing the wall side sticker backing and sticking to the wall. Make sure to gently apply pressure for around 30 seconds.
These Command Mini Hooks are damage free because there's a small tab that can be "slowly" pulled that releases the hook from the wall without damage to the surface. Though the Christmas light setup looks nice enough that I plan on just taking down the lights, but leaving the clips up until next Christmas. I may even hang other photos by the clips (each clips can hold 0.5 lb). Once you take the clip off, the double sided tape can be removed from the plastic clip and re-used with a new piece of the double sided tape. Additional double sided tape, called Command Mini Strips, is available for purchase making the plastic clips completely reusable. So given that they're easy to use, I find the best way to hang Christmas lights inside is with the help of 3M's hooks. Give it a try this year.