I love pretty candle holders for the garden. There's something incredibly seductive about the idea of having a barbecue or party with lovely little flickering lights all around, made even prettier by coloured glass holders.
So, as we're well and truly into outdoor weather now, here's a round-up of some options for colourful tealight holders.
Heal's metallic rainbow tealight holders are a very pretty alternative to glass. They look gorgeous grouped together or individually and are a great price at £5 for a set of six.
Update, Oct 2008: these Heal's candle holders are still really popular but no longer available. See our similar alternatives in 'Coloured & metallic tealight holders'.
Habitat is an absolute treasure trove when it comes to lovely candle holders for outdoor living.
Hanging glass tealight holder Nebo shown here in green on the left is just £1.50. At that price you can
buy loads and hang them in a tree or on a string in the garden en masse.
The Minerva hanging holder (right, shown in orange) is made of cotton with a metal frame and priced at £3.50.
The Balina holder is priced at £8 (left in purple).
All the hanging Habitat tealight holders shown come in blue, purple, green and orange.
You can always count on Ikea for a range of brightly coloured glass tealight holders at bargain prices. The Sommar range includes a hanging holder that's very similar to the Nebo from Habitat above, but priced (surprisingly) a little higher at £2.99 each.
There's also the usual votive and squat style holders, plus these cute vintage votive holders at a tiny price: only 99p each!
If you prefer understated to bright, check out Graham & Green's silver spiral leaf tealight holders for a bit of metallic glamour. They're £15 for a set of four.
Both Graham & Green and Debenhams offer chinese lantern style tealight holders. Debenhams' version is smaller and thus a smaller price: reduced from £10 to £8 in a range of colours. It's shown here in pink satin fabric with a metal frame.
I think my favourite has to be these bubble hanging tealight holders from John Lewis. They come in blue, purple or clear glass at £11.85 for a set of three and have a very tactile, almost retro shape.








How do you sniff out all this gorgeous stuff??? I'm off to grab the tea light holders from Heals right now!
Great blog.
Posted by: Foluke Akinlose | 16/06/2006 at 02:01 PM
i am interested in the Tealight holders from John lewis but I cannot find them anywhere
Posted by: amelia gray | 24/09/2008 at 03:29 PM
Amelia, this article was published back in 2006 so it's likely that those particular candle holders are unfortunately now sold out. The style seemed to be popular though, so we'll keep our eyes peeled for similar.
Posted by: Elizabeth @ Lovely Things | 07/10/2008 at 12:58 PM
For those of you looking for something similar to the rainbow metallic candle holders from Heal's above (as they no longer stock them), we've just published a piece on similar tea light and votive holders here: http://lovelythings.typepad.co.uk/lovely_things/2008/10/coloured-and-me.html
Posted by: Elizabeth @ Lovely Things | 08/10/2008 at 11:46 AM
great info at this post thanks!!!
Posted by: Gardening Seeds | 01/05/2009 at 03:28 AM
nice reading!!! and great pics too...
Posted by: Order Tadalafil | 01/05/2009 at 07:38 PM