Do you love the look of lanterns mixed in with outdoor Christmas decor on a front porch? These large festive red scrap wood lanterns are a budget-friendly alternative for outdoor lanterns. Built with salvaged scrap wood, they cost a fraction of the price of readymade lanterns this size.

Large Red DIY Outdoor Christmas Lanterns

Painted red and standing 24-inches and 28-inches tall, they make a big impact displayed on front steps, a front porch, or flanking a front door. I love the farmhouse style of the wooden lanterns and the festive pop of red is such a pretty contrast with the dark gray door and Christmas planters.

Here are the red lanterns lit up at night.

But the outdoor lanterns didn't always look this way.

Designed to fit inside the large outdoor planters flanking our front door as an alternative to fresh holiday greens. We displayed them this way for a few years but I was never 100% satisfied with the look. Both with the acrylic panels, having them on top of the planters, and both lanterns being the same height.

They look so much better now, wouldn't you agree?

What We Did Differently

We completely modified the lanterns to display on the ground instead and filled the planters with faux holiday greens. We also shortened one of the lanterns so they would stand at varying heights which is more pleasing to the eye. But the biggest impact was removing the acrylic panels and installing wooden crossbars instead.

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Why Didn't You Use Candles Inside The Lanterns?

You may be wondering why we didn't put candles inside the lanterns. Believe me, I would have loved tall outdoor flameless candles on timers but battery-operated candles cannot withstand our brutally cold winter climate.

Instead, we echoed the look of candles with 14 and 18-inch glass cylinder vases filled with warm lights. But if you live in a warmer climate, flameless candles would be beautiful inside the Christmas lanterns.

These are most of the scrap wood items used to make the lanterns.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of how to make the large outdoor lanterns, almost all of the DIY projects shared here at Interior Frugalista have step-by-step tutorials so why not get your budget DIY on and subscribe. You can also follow us on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

How To Make Scrap Wood Lanterns

You can find the supply list and detailed step-by-step instructions for building the lanterns in our DIY Holiday Lantern Tutorial. While the instructions are for the original lantern design they still apply for building these modified lanterns.

You'll also need 1" x 1" nailing strips and 3/4-inch rounded mullion trim. I've outlined the modifications from the original tutorial below.

Step 1 - Lantern Upright Modifications

• Eliminate the Dado cuts in the uprights as we will not be using acrylic panels for the new lanterns.
• Cut four 2" x 2" uprights 20-inches long and another four 24-inches long.

Step 2 - Lantern Base

Follow step two in the original tutorial as this step has not changed.

Step 3 - Hinged Lantern Lid

To make the hinged lids for the lanterns follow step three in the original tutorial but eliminate the last two points. We'll discuss those later in step 5.

Eliminate steps 4 - 10 from the original tutorial and follow the steps outlined below instead.

Step 4 - Crossbar Installation

Now that the acrylic panels have been removed the lanterns need spacers installed between each upright both for stability but also for the crossbars to be attached to.

• Cut 1" x 1" wood nailing strips into 16 (eight per lantern) 5-inch long blocks.
• Install them both on the top and bottom of each lantern between the uprights. 
• Because there was nothing to nail them to at the top, they were attached with wood glue, clamped with tape, and left to cure overnight.

The crossbars are made with 3/4-inch rounded mullion trim. We used this trim profile because we liked the rounded edges, however, trim with a straight profile is just fine too.

• Cut eight pieces 20-inches long and another eight 24-inches long.
• The top and bottom of the trim pieces are cut at 15° angles (pictured below).
• Predrill small pilot holes at the top and bottom of each crossbar to help prevent the trim from splitting during installation.
• Attach the crossbars to the back of the spacers with #4 3/4-inch wood screws.

Step 5 - Attach The Lid

Now we're ready to attach the hinged lid to the lanterns.

• Drill holes into the piano hinge to line up with uprights and spacers.
• Attach the piano hinge to the bottom of the lid first and then to the uprights (pictured in Step 3 of the original tutorial).

Step 6 - Painting The Lanterns

The original lanterns were spray-painted black hammered metal but unfortunately, the paint didn't hold up very well. After sanding the wood, this time they were painted with Rustoleum Chalked in Farmhouse Red.

Once the last coat was completely dry the paint was protected with two coats of Varathane Premium Diamond Outdoor Satin Clear Coat.

Step 7 - Lighting Installation

As mentioned earlier, instead of candles we echoed the look of candles with two 4-inch diameter glass cylinder vases filled with lights. We found them at Michaels and with a 30% coupon for each the total came to just over $40.

They are the biggest splurge of this project but still kept the budget much lower than readymade options. One vase stands 14-inches tall and the other 18-inches tall.

Light Strand Faux Candle Holder

We could have stuffed multiple strands of white lights into each glass cylinder but we decided to save on lights by making a light holder, to echo a candle.

• Draw a circle on a piece of scrap wood slightly smaller than the diameter of the glass cylinder.
• Cut it with a scroll saw or jigsaw.
• Cut a 1-inch wooden dowel about four inches shorter than each cylinder and attach with a wood screw to the bottom of each round.
• Attach screws randomly around the dowel but make sure they don't protrude further than the diameter of the glass vase. These will hold the light strand in an upright position. 
• Paint the bases red to match the bottom of the lanterns.
• Paint the stems white to blend in with the white light strand cord.

• Once dry, wrap the lights around the light holder with the plug on the bottom with slack so the plug sits outside of the cylinder.
• Set the light holder inside each lantern and face the plug toward the back of the lantern.
• Attach the light holder from the bottom of the lantern with a wood screw.
• Set the glass cylinders over the light holder. You may be wondering why we placed them upside down. This prevents the cylinders from filling with snow.

Step 8 - Adding Festive Touches

To add a festive touch to the lanterns I joined two faux evergreen picks together with florist wire and tied them to the handle of each lantern. Next, I tied a big loopy bow onto the handles with a festive wired ribbon.

Sometimes after living with a DIY that doesn't make your heart go pitter-patter, instead of claiming defeat, change it until it does. I'm so pleased with our Christmas lanterns now and it was so worth the effort to modify the design.

Thanks for stopping by the Interior Frugalista today! I hope you were inspired by the DIY Red Lanterns. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comment section below or the Contact Me tab at the top to drop me an email. I love hearing from you!

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