Beyond Diyas: Diwali Table and Home Styling with Urlis and Layered Candles
Most Diwali decorating stops at the diyas on the balcony, which leaves the rooms people actually sit in doing very little. Table height, urli styling, where layered candles earn their place, and the lighting decision that changes everything.
Diyas are the easy part of Diwali decoration. You buy them, you fill them, you line them along the balcony, and by the second night half of them have burned out and the oil has pooled on the tiles.
They are not the problem. The problem is that most Diwali styling stops there, which leaves the inside of the house doing very little while the outside does all the work. The rooms where people actually sit, eat and talk end up decorated with whatever was left over. This guide to Diwali home décor is about the inside, using Wickory's beeswax urlis and layered jar candles.
Start with the table, not the entrance
The dining table is where Diwali evenings actually happen, and it is the surface most often ignored until an hour before guests arrive.
The rule that makes a table look considered rather than crowded is height variation. Three levels: something low and wide, something at mid-height, something with a little lift. A Glittering Urli or a Lotus Still bowl gives you the low element. A layered jar candle or two gives you the mid. A small sculpted piece from In Bloom on a raised stand or a stack of books gives you the third, or a beeswax bouquet if the table is large (more on those in Candle Bouquets: Flowers That Don't Die).
Keep the palette to three colours. Marigold, brass and ivory is the safest combination that still looks intentional. If you want to go richer, swap ivory for a deep festival red, but do not run all four.
Urlis without the water
The urli is one of the few pieces of traditional Indian decor that does not need reinventing. It is a shallow, wide vessel meant to hold light at eye level. The usual version is water, petals and tealights that tip, drown or burn out by the second night.
Wickory's urlis skip the water. Beeswax is poured straight into a metal urli and finished with gold metallic flakes, so the urli is the candle, and the vessel is yours to keep once the wax is done. Glittering Urlis come in four sizes, from ₹299 for 3.5 inches to ₹599 for 6.5 inches, or ₹1,599 for the set of four. The Glittering Urli with Lotus (₹699) adds a sculpted lotus rising above the rim.
Three things make urlis look good rather than improvised:
Use graduated sizes. Three or four urlis in stepped sizes along a doorway or down the centre of a table look deliberate. Four of the same size look like a shop display.
Give them a surround, not a crowd. A scatter of marigold petals on the tray around an urli is plenty. Keep petals out of the wax itself.
Put them where light will reflect. Near a mirror, under a pendant light, or on a low table where people look down into them. An urli on a high console is wasted.
For a calmer version of the same idea, Lotus Still and Lotus Deep (₹699 each) set a sculpted beeswax lotus in a lunite bowl, so it reads like a flower on still water without any actual water. The full festive range is in The Diwali Edit. The same urlis also work for a griha pravesh, which is covered in our housewarming gift guide.
Layered candles as the quiet workhorse
Layered jar candles are the pieces that do the most work for the least effort during Diwali, because they look complete on their own. No styling required, no props, no arrangement.
Where they earn their place:
Console and entryway. Two jars of different heights, nothing else. This is the single highest-impact five-second styling decision in the house.
Bathroom counters. Almost nobody does this and everybody notices it.
Alongside the rangoli. Not on it. A jar candle at each corner of a rangoli frames it after dark, when the colours stop reading and only the light does.
Bookshelves. A lit jar on a shelf changes how an entire wall feels at night.
Wickory's jars run from small 2.5 inch pieces to 4 inch jars at three and four inches tall. The small ones suit table groupings and bathroom counters: Rosé Reverie is ₹499. The larger ones hold their own on a console or a shelf: The Café Aura comes in three sizes from ₹699, and La Vie en Rose is ₹1,299. More jars are in Lunite Jars.
Lighting the room, not the objects
The most common Diwali decorating mistake indoors is leaving the overhead lights on. Every candle in the room is then doing nothing except sitting there.
Switch off the ceiling lights in whichever room people will gather in. Leave one lamp on in the corner for practical reasons. Let everything else come from candlelight and diyas. The room will look twice as considered as it did ten seconds earlier, and you will have spent nothing.
If the room is large, cluster candles in two or three groupings rather than spreading them evenly. Even distribution flattens a space. Clusters give it depth.
Safety, briefly
Set urlis on a stable, heat-safe surface, since the metal warms as the wax burns. Keep sculpted and floral pieces away from curtains and dupattas, which move more than people expect. Trim wicks to about 5 mm before lighting, which also keeps the burn clean; why that matters with beeswax is explained separately, and the full routine is in our candle care guide. And do not leave a lit urli unattended in a room where children are running, which on Diwali night is most rooms.
The short version
Style the inside as deliberately as the outside. Vary height on the table. Fill the urli properly and put it where light reflects. Cluster the jar candles instead of spreading them. Turn the overhead lights off.
None of it takes long. All of it is the difference between a house with decorations in it and a house that feels like Deepavali. If you are buying for other people's homes as well as your own, start with Diwali Candle Gifts for Every Budget, and for office and client lists, Corporate Diwali Gifting.
FAQ
How do you decorate a Diwali table at home?
Work in three heights: a low urli or lotus bowl, mid-height jar candles, and one raised sculptural piece. Keep the palette to three colours, marigold, brass and ivory being the safest combination. Leave breathing space rather than filling every gap.
What is an urli used for in Diwali decoration?
An urli is a shallow, wide vessel that holds light at eye level. Traditionally it is filled with water and petals. Wickory's urlis are poured with beeswax instead, so the urli itself is the candle. Place it where light reflects, near a mirror or under a pendant light.
How many candles should you use in one room?
Cluster rather than spread. Two or three groupings of three to five candles each gives a room depth. Spreading candles evenly around the space flattens it.
Do Wickory urlis need water?
No. The wax is poured directly into the metal urli, so there is nothing to fill, spill or tip. Once the candle has burned down, the urli can be cleaned and reused.
What colours work for Diwali home decor?
Marigold, brass and ivory is the reliable base. Deep festival red can replace ivory for a richer look. Pick three and stop there, since a fourth colour is usually what makes a festive setting look busy rather than warm.
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Last updated: October 2026
