Furnish and decorating the house with letters is an activity that has become now very popular, especially for those who do not love the classic frames or prints on the walls;
but in addition to the classic lettering, now common in the DIY centers, there are vintage solutions, and often also luminous, to make a corner of the house different and perhaps more illuminated.
It is a good compromise also for Christmas gifts for fans of home decor and design without spending too much.
Among the interesting solutions that use the luminous letters for the home furnishing, there are also some night-lamps in shape of graphic fonts.
A fitting example are the Riluci by Studioata, a team of architects from Turin, which turn neon signs in disuse, into table lamps for evening reading on the bedside table or just as simple decoration lights for the house. But everything in a sustainable way: the letters of the neon signs in fact, are transformed with the insertion of LEDs. The lamps are also accompanied by an interesting certificate/ passport, which allows you to keep the traceability and reconstruct the history of the letter, including the production process. About 30 cm high, the letters can be purchased by sending a request on the website and have prices that are about 150 Euros.
Among the most common bright letters on the market, there are the boxed models, which reproduce the effect of letters of real signs. The brand Seletti, again, has in the catalogue a collection called Lightype, created by Selab, which includes a full luminous alphabet realized in white ceramic, of about 25 cm high, to be used both as a table lamp or as an hanging solution, with an energy-saving bulb.
The Lightype Fly variant is a curious one: luminous letters in porcelain to compose at one's pleasure and to hang from the ceiling. They can be purchased online, for example on Abitatt , they both cost about 60 euro a piece.
Interesting and very decorative, also for a public place, are the boxed letters with Luna Park effect.
Just take a general look to recall the circus, large amusement parks, or simply Broadway. Shape and font are the same; lighting methods too. As with the alphabet luminous letters, for sale at Urban outfitters, in the red version with yellow lights at 179 dollars.
In this case, given the size, even just one could be enough to placed, for example, at the entrance as a secondary light. Definitely original.
There are those who custom make them and personalize them. It is an online store, in the channel of Etsy: the WestVintageTradingCo. Here, specifying one's needs, version of color and the aesthetic performance, you can also order individual letters or whole sentences. The prices are around 100 euros, but it varies on the requirements.
If you like this style, but you are also a Vintage lover, I suggest you to take a look at the site of Vintage Marquee Lights of Everyday Art. Here you will find a wide selection of luminous letters with Luna Park style. Find the collection here, available in the basic version, and in another ten colors, all with prices around 230 dollars.
If you are good at DIY, you can try to do luminous letters yourself, maybe medium size for the living room or colored ones for the children's room or for a party.
The whole thing, leaving aside manual skills, lies in the choice of the right lights and the most suitable glue. Because the best material to use, in this case, is paper.
As suggested by Oh Happy Days, we need some sheets of colored thin cardboard, the actual size print of the font you want to reproduce, a cutter, papere glue or double sided tape, spray paint and small lights, such as those for Christmas tree.
Once you cut out the shape of the letter, you need to calculate how many holes you need inside according to theavailable lights; then pierce the cardboard which it doesn't necessarily need to be regular as it will be hidden by the mini bulb itself.
The next step is the cutting of two strips of cardboard, so as to shape in 3D the surface of the letter also in the back part, which will serve as a container for the bulbs. The strips are glued with quick-setting glue or double sided adhesive tape and, once fixed, you can proceed to spray paint with the color you desire and with the subsequent drying step. Once ready, the letters must be provided with the light bulbs.