Most Diwali decorating advice quietly assumes a house: a front step for diyas, a verandah for lanterns, walls you are allowed to hang things on. A 1BHK rental in Bengaluru, Pune or Hyderabad has none of that. It has a door onto a shared corridor, a landlord with strong views about nails, and a neighbour behind a thin wall who would rather not smell your agarbatti at 11 pm.
This guide is for that flat. It covers the door, the window, one shelf, and the balcony if you are lucky enough to have one, using nothing that needs a drill, stains the floor or eats storage space you do not have.
The rules for a small rented space
- Nothing that leaves a mark. No nails, no double-sided tape on painted walls, no oil on the floor.
- Everything reusable fits in one box. Buy it once, pack it flat afterwards.
- One arrangement per surface. In a small room, two arrangements look like clutter.
- Light first, objects second. Lights take up no floor space and do most of the work.
- Respect the corridor. The space outside your door belongs to everyone. Keep decor to the door and the mat, and never block the way.
The door and the corridor
In a flat, your door is the entire entrance. Make it count, and keep it neat.
A toran without nails. Most torans have a loop at each end. Hang it from two removable adhesive hooks rated for the weight, the kind that peel off cleanly. Or, better, tie the loops to a length of string that runs over the top of the door and is held in place when the door shuts on it. A beaded door toran is light enough for either method.
Rangoli on a mat, not the floor. Corridor floors are shared and often mopped by building staff in the morning. Lay a ready-made reusable rangoli mat set on your doormat or on a square of cloth just inside the door. You can pick it up in ten seconds when you need to.
Two diyas, in holders. One on each side of the door, in glass tealight holders so wax and oil never touch the floor. Light them in the evening and bring them in before bed. Do not line the corridor with diyas: it is the fire escape route.
Shubh-Labh on the door itself. A pair of hangings hooked over the top of the door or tied to the handle.
The window
In a flat, the window is the balcony you do not have. People see it from the street, and it frames the whole room.
One string of warm-white lights. Along the top of the frame or down one side, held with removable adhesive clips or looped over the curtain rod. A 10 m string is plenty, with some left over for a shelf. Warm white, not cool white or multicolour; the lighting guide explains why.
Diyas on the sill. Two or three clay diyas on the inside sill in the evening, with a steel plate underneath to catch any oil. If the window catches a breeze, use tealights in glass holders instead.
A marigold string on the day. Bought from the flower seller that morning for about ₹30 and hung from the curtain rod. It pulls the whole window together.
One shelf: the puja corner
Rented flats rarely come with a puja room. A shelf, the top of a bookcase or one end of the kitchen counter does the job.
- Clear it completely. That is your cleaning ritual.
- Lay a cloth, folded to fit.
- Add one brass lamp. For a small home, a brass akhand diya is the most worthwhile single purchase; on its own, it makes the shelf a puja corner.
- Then the picture or idol, a small bowl for flowers, and incense in a holder standing on a plate.
- On the evening itself, the thali.
A puja kit in a box keeps everything together and goes back into the cupboard afterwards. A complete puja samagri kit suits exactly this: one box, all the dry items together.
The living area
In a 1BHK the living room is also the dining room, and sometimes the guest room too. Keep the decor to one surface.
- The centre table, or a tray on the floor: three tealights or small diyas with a few flowers between them. That is the whole arrangement.
- Leftover string lights: along the edge of a bookshelf or round a mirror.
- Sweets in a bowl, not in boxes. A pile of boxes on the table is clutter; a steel bowl of dry fruits looks like decor.
Skip the floor lantern unless you have space to spare. In a small room it just becomes something to trip over.
The balcony, if you have one
A small balcony is the one place you can go all out.
- Lights along the railing. One string, held with cable ties, plugged in indoors.
- Tealights in glass holders on the ledge. Bare flames blow out up here; holders solve that.
- A lantern on the floor in the corner, if there is a corner.
Nothing hanging over the railing, and nothing electrical left out in the rain.
The kitchen
A swastika in kumkum near the stove if that is your family’s custom, and one diya on the counter on the evening, well away from the gas. Sweets and namkeen in jars on the counter. That is enough.
Smoke, smell and neighbours
In an apartment block, you share the air.
- Incense: light it with a window open, once in the morning and once at the puja. Charcoal-free agarbatti and dhoop cones give off less smoke.
- Diyas: unscented oil, and never in a closed room for hours on end.
- Firecrackers: most housing societies restrict them, and so do many cities. A sparkler on a balcony is a fire risk for the flat below. Do not.
- Noise: aarti bells at 10 pm are fine, once. Music until midnight is not.
Storage after the festival
Everything reusable in this plan fits in one box about the size of a shoebox and a half:
- Toran, folded flat
- Rangoli mats or pieces, stacked
- Shubh-Labh pair
- String lights, wound round a piece of cardboard
- Glass tealight holders, wrapped
- Brass diya, wiped and wrapped
- Puja kit box
Clay diyas can be kept if they are washed and dried. If you have no room, give them to the building staff, or break them up and return the clay to a plant pot.
A full plan and its cost
Rough market prices; your city and shop will vary.
| Item | Cost | Stores flat? |
|---|---|---|
| Fabric toran | ₹450 | Yes |
| Wooden rangoli set | ₹700 | Yes |
| Shubh-Labh pair | ₹300 | Yes |
| Warm-white string lights, 10 m | ₹400 | Yes |
| Tealights (50) with 6 glass holders | ₹350 | Yes |
| Painted clay diyas (12) | ₹250 | If washed |
| Ghee wicks (100) | ₹200 | Consumable |
| Brass diya on stand | ₹600 | Yes |
| Marigold strings on the day | ₹100 | Consumable |
| Total, first year | ₹3,350 | |
| Every year after | about ₹550 |
Much of this is in Home Decor and Diyas & Lights. If you have more room to play with, the room-by-room version is in Diwali home decor for every room.
[…] category. If the balcony is part of a rented flat and you cannot drill for hooks, our guide to decorating a small apartment or rented flat for Diwali covers the rest of the rooms and how to fix lights without leaving […]