Victorian Terrace, Wandsworth

The brief

A double-fronted Victorian terrace in Wandsworth with a steep slate roof, a bay window on each side of the door, and a small front garden with a young magnolia. The owners had tried supermarket sets for two seasons running: half the run failed by mid-December, and the cable was pinned into the mortar with staples.

They wanted something calmer and more architectural — lights that flattered the building rather than covered it.

What we installed

• Commercial-grade warm white LED along the full front roofline, running out to the eaves on both sides
• Vertical drops framing the two bay windows so the facade reads symmetrically from the pavement
• The magnolia wrapped trunk-to-branch, close-wound, so the tree glows rather than sparkles
• A single porch garland, dressed rather than draped

The constraint

Slate. There is no fixing into a slate roof — not one that we would ever sign off. The whole run is carried on non-penetrating clips into the guttering and the fascia, which means no drilling, no staples, and nothing left behind in January.

The second constraint was the pavement. Wandsworth front gardens are shallow, so the ladder footprint had to sit inside the boundary. We worked off a stabilised ladder with a second person footing throughout.

The result

One warm temperature across roofline, windows and tree, which is the single biggest difference between a professional install and a DIY one. Everything ran on one switched supply with a timer, so the house came on at dusk without anyone touching it.

Taken down in the first week of January, stored by us, and the same design offered back to them for the following season.

Related reading

• How much Christmas light installation costs in London
• Commercial-grade versus supermarket Christmas lights
• Where to put Christmas lights: roof, tree or facade