‘Ubiquitous’ would be a good word for the paper lantern. Possibly one of the cheapest ways to shroud a bare light bulb you might find hanging from your ceiling. So popular that there are websites dedicated to it – Paper Lantern Store, The Hanging Lantern Company, and the Paper Lantern Company. Every size, any colour, and on Amazon they cost about £1.50 each… 

But why am I writing about these? Well on its own, one of these is not that special, but if you carefully arrange a host of them about the ceiling… How about this one, from slowlanenotes.blogspot.com:

Then if you fancy trying this yourself, have a read of ‘DIYable design: clustered paper lanterns’ by Mr Kate, from whence this inspirational picture: 

(and whilst you’re there take a look at the article on turning top hats into lanterns – I kid you not.)

They look best bunched together with no space between them. There’s plenty of photos on Google showing paper lanterns ‘en mass’ used for wedding marquees, but they all seem to spread the lanterns thinly which looses the effect. You also have to watch the tendency for them to look like giant wasp nests, which could be quite alarming:

 

Finally there’s the option to paint or decorate your lanterns to match your decor or provide an artistic focus to the room. Remodelista.com has a great article on this, with 5 DIY ideas and some imaginatively painted lanterns, such as this:

 

as well as links to further websites on the subject.