The Best Rope Lights

The Best Rope Lights

Move over fairy lights — LED strip lights are here to take a little bit of your shine. These bright babies are not only totally customizable, but they can also help you save on your monthly electricity bill. Whether you're looking to deck out your gaming setup, add some soft lighting under your kitchen cabinets, or have a few custom designs on your walls that will sync up with your favorite tunes, rope lights can make even the most ordinary nights a little brighter. We've done the research to come up with our favorite LED strips out there today to help light up your life — or at least your bedroom.

Pangton Villa LED Strip Lights for TV

Watch Like a Pro

This LED strip light is specifically designed to add backlighting to your TV or home monitor, improving contrast while reducing eye fatigue.
Best for Backlighting

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While there’s a lot we probably don’t understand about our kid’s gaming setups, we can take some useful tips from them to improve our own lives. For example, did you know that the colorful LED lighting behind their monitors actually enhances the viewing experience? Adding a backlight behind the screen increases the ambient light in your room, reducing the strain on your eyes and increasing image clarity. The Pangton Villa LED Strip Lights for TV kit is specially designed to fit every side of 40″ – 60″ televisions and gives you 16 different colors to choose from. Installation takes less than a half-hour, and the super-strong adhesive ensures your new rig will stay put.

Pros:

  • Strong double-sided 3M adhesive tape
  • 16 color options with four control modes
  • Good remote responsiveness

Cons:

  • Doesn’t have “true” white light setting

NiteBird Smart LED Strip Lights

The Full Spectrum

The options are endless with these ultra-personalized, voice-controlled smart LED rope lights.
Most Customizable

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LEDs are quickly becoming the ultimate lighting choice in many people’s homes, and for good reason. Not only are they super energy-efficient, but they are also fully personalized — from their positioning on your walls to their wide range of colors. If you’re looking for the ultimate experience in customizable lighting, then check out NiteBird’s strip light option. With an RGB spectrum that includes 16 million colors and eight pre-set scene modes to match your mood, you’ll have a whole lot of room to play. And you can make all these adjustments using only your voice, thanks to NiteBird’s integration capabilities with Alexa and Google Home.

Pros:

  • Easily connected to iOS and Android systems
  • Full adjustment of the color range, including saturation and brightness
  • Schedule when your lights come on using the synced app

Cons:

  • Included adhesive isn’t the best, so you may want to use your own
  • No white light

Minger White LED Strip Lights

Light Where You Want It

Set these dimmable white rope lights up anywhere you need a little more classic illumination.
Most Versatile

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While our kids may love the seemingly infinite range of colors that most decorative LED lights offer, the constantly-changing spectrum can sometimes make our heads spin. Thankfully, you don’t have to let a laser light show into your home just to get the bright, energy-efficient benefits of strip lights. This set of white LED rope lights by Minger gives you the same level of customizable control and efficient lighting while remaining versatile enough to be used in any space. Whether you’re looking to add a bit of extra illumination over your food prep area or you want to turn an ordinary mirror into a vanity setup, these bright, dimmable lights will do the trick.

Pros:

  • No flicker in the LEDs
  • Low heat emission brightness up to 6500K
  • Comes with a power adapter and control box

Cons:

  • Need to order corner connectors separately

Govee LED Strip Lights

Pizzazz for Your Patio

Weather-resistant and controllable from a long-range, these LED strips will help your outdoor space shine.
Best for Outdoor Use

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Creating ambiance in our outdoor spaces is just as important as designing our perfect indoor environment. If you’ve got a big green area or deck but haven’t gotten around to installing proper lights out there yet, then consider adding brightness and personality to your backyard with a set of outdoor rope lights like this great option by Govee. Specifically designed to be used in weather-exposed spaces, these LED strips have a clear silicone coating that protects them from the elements. With two rolls of 16 feet each, you can deck out your balcony, create ambiance around your hot tub, or simply add a bit more illumination to your front porch. And best of all, because the remote works up to a range of 10 meters, you can have your preferred lighting ready to go before you even step outside.

Pros:

  • Outdoor-proof coating helps create a smoother lighting effect
  • Comes with clips to help secure the lights
  • Strip can be cut to fit your spacing needs

Cons:

  • Higher cost
  • Jump and fade mode work only on the eight preset colors

Ehomful LED Strip Lights

More Light for Less

The sky's the limit when it comes to decking out your home with this music-synced set of affordable LED strips.
Best Bulk Buy

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Here’s the thing about LED strip lights — once you’ve realized how easy they are to use, it’s hard to relegate them to one room of your house. And why would you, when you can line the floors of your hallways for easy bathroom access in the dark, add some dimmable night-lights to each of your kid’s bedrooms, or turn your living room into a customizable dance space? The possibilities are endless. If you’ve been bitten by the LED bug, then we recommend stocking up in advance with this affordable bulk set of rope lights by Ehomful. With three rolls of lights adding up to a total of 100 feet, you can cut and customize these babies however you want. Remote-controllable with a built-in microphone, these LED strips will even change colors with any music you’re playing.

Pros:

  • Memory function keeps the last-used mode
  • Strips are easily bent for easy setup
  • Great cost value

Cons:

  • AC adapter wire is short at only 4′
  • Doesn’t come with an instruction manual

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I leave my rope lights on all night?

LEDs are great precisely for this reason. Because they use less power than other lighting options and thus emit less heat, you can have them on for as long as you want without worrying about fire risk. That’s why they’re used so often as night lights or accent lights in commercial and private spaces.

Will my LED strip lights burn out?

Because LED lights don’t contain a filament as incandescent lights do, they typically last much longer than their more energy-consuming counterparts. Instead, if you’re overusing your rope lights, you’ll simply notice them getting slightly dimmer with age. But believe us, it’ll take a while before this happens.