Diwali decoration ideas, and what to order when

The three dates, and what each one is for

Dhanteras falls on Friday 6 November. It is the day for buying something new for the house, which is why it matters more for decor than people expect.

Diwali is Sunday 8 November. Lamps, the entrance, the pooja corner.

Bhai Dooj is Wednesday 11 November, and it is a gifting day rather than a decorating one. Smaller pieces, and you have three more days than you think.

Work backwards from whichever of those you are buying for. They are not the same deadline.

Ideas for the entrance

The entrance is the one part of the house every visitor sees and the one people decorate last. It is also where the light is usually worst, which matters if you are hanging anything with mirrors.

A name plate the house keeps

A toran comes down in a week. A name plate stays up for years, and Diwali is when most people finally get round to ordering one. Ganesha designs with bells are the most requested, and the bells are the part that has to be decided at the start rather than added later.

A mandala on the wall beside the door

Not on the door, which moves and gets touched. The strip of wall next to it is usually blank and is what a waiting visitor looks at.

Leave room for the seasonal layer

Whatever you hang permanently has to still work with marigolds and a toran over it. Something busy competes. Something plain sits underneath and looks deliberate.

Ideas that work with light

This is where Diwali and this particular craft line up, because mirror work was invented to do something with lamplight in a room that had no other source after dark.

Tea light holders, in pairs or fours

A single one looks lost. Sets of two, four or six get distributed across a home, which is how they are actually used on the night. These sit at the lower end of the range, close to the ₹700 floor.

A candle plate as the centrepiece

Larger than a tea light holder and meant to sit in the middle of a table rather than along an edge. The dot work and the pearls read properly at close range, which is where it will be seen.

Mirror work near a diya, not above it

A lit diya in front of a mirror-work panel moves as the flame moves. Directly above it, the soot will reach the piece and you will see the difference within a year.

Ideas for the pooja corner

Smaller than you think, and quieter than the rest of the house. This is the one wall where restraint reads better than display.

Scale to the unit, not the wall

If the mandir has carved or mirrored doors already, keep the wall piece plain. Two decorated surfaces at the same distance from the eye compete with each other.

Pichwai, if the association matters

Pichwai panels were made to hang behind the idol at Nathdwara. It is the one craft here that was designed for this exact job.

There is more on this on the pooja room page, including what to keep away from a flame.

Ideas for a wall that is not seasonal

The pieces worth buying at Diwali are the ones that do not look like Diwali in January.

Buy for the room, not the festival

A mandala or a Lippan panel chosen for the wall will still be right in March. A piece in festival colours bought in a hurry usually is not.

Colour that survives the decorations coming down

Deep greens, terracottas and golds carry the festive feeling without depending on it. Bright reds and oranges look wonderful for a fortnight and loud afterwards.

How far ahead to order something made by hand

Here is the part the gifting sites cannot tell you, because they ship from stock and this does not.

Nothing here exists until somebody asks for it. The piece is drawn, raised line by line in clay, mirrored, painted and finished, and each layer has to dry fully before the next goes on. The drying sets the timeline and it cannot be hurried. A piece rushed through it cracks about a year later, usually at the thickest point.

So the honest answer to how long it takes is that it depends on the size and the detailing, and I will tell you the real number for your piece when you ask. What I can say without seeing it is that the week before Diwali is too late for anything made from scratch, and that Dhanteras on 6 November is two days earlier than the date most people are working to.

Tell me the date you need it for in your first message rather than at the end. It is the single most useful thing you can say, and if the date is not achievable I will tell you then, while you still have time to do something else.

If you have left it late

This happens every year and it is worth saying plainly rather than pretending otherwise.

Smaller and simpler can be done in less time than larger and detailed. A tea light pair is not the same job as a metre-wide panel.

A framed piece needs the framing time on top. Unframed is quicker.

If the date genuinely cannot be met, I would rather tell you than take the order. A gift that arrives after the festival it was bought for is worse than a gift chosen differently.

Message me with the date and I will give you a straight answer the same day.

Dhanteras, and buying something for the house

Dhanteras is the day for bringing something new in, and it is two days before Diwali, which catches people out when they have been planning around the 8th.

Decor for the house fits the tradition better than a gift for someone else does. A name plate, a piece for the entrance, something for the pooja corner.

If you are buying for Dhanteras specifically, your deadline is 6 November, not the 8th.

Corporate and client gifting

The quantity decides whether the date is possible, and that conversation has to happen before anyone discusses design.

Everything is made by one person, so a hundred pieces is not ten pieces ten times over. Tell me the number and the date in the first message. There is a fuller page on corporate gifting, covering branding limits, tiering and invoicing.

Bulk pricing applies on larger Diwali orders. The per-piece rate comes down with the quantity, and it arrives with your quote rather than off a price list, because it depends on how many and how detailed.

Expect near-identical rather than identical. They are hand laid and the variation is the point. If your brand team needs true uniformity, say so early and I will be honest about whether I can meet it.

Simpler designs scale better. If the quantity is large, a clean repeating form made well beats a complicated one made in a hurry.

Bhai Dooj, three days later

Bhai Dooj on 11 November is a gifting day, and the pieces that suit it are smaller than the ones people buy for the house.

A tea light pair, a small plate, a name plate if the sibling has recently moved.

The extra three days past Diwali are genuinely useful if you are running late, and almost nobody remembers they exist.

Sending a Diwali gift abroad

Transit is on top of making time, so the deadline moves considerably earlier for anything going outside India.

Smaller and framed travels better. For an overseas Diwali gift I would push you towards a tea light set or a framed panel under about 45cm rather than anything large.

Customs is set by the destination country, and both the USA and the EU changed their treatment of low-value parcels during 2025 and 2026. Tell me the country and I will tell you what currently applies, so a customs bill does not arrive with the present.

For orders outside India prices start at ₹3,500, with delivery charged separately and quoted for the address.

After Diwali, looking after what sat near the lamps

The pooja corner and the entrance collect more in one week of Diwali than in the rest of the year. Soot, ghee vapour, incense ash and flower debris.

Dust with a dry soft brush, and a clean paintbrush is better than a cloth because it gets between the raised lines without catching on the mirror edges.

No damp cloth on the clay, ever. For a mirror itself, a barely damp cotton bud on the glass only.

If a mirror has lifted, keep it and send me a photo. It can usually be reset, and that is a repair rather than a replacement.

Questions before ordering