3 Creative Ways to Style Tall Candles for your Reception

The artful use of tall, tapered candles is a study in powerful simplicity. How the most delicate details can alchemize a space. Think: ethereal lighting . A collision of contour and color. Hypnotic heights that add form and optical allure. Their slender profiles create striking vertical lines, adding both delicacy and dimension to tablescapes or arrangements, while also enhancing the visual flow of a venue. Tip: we also love them casually gathered on the floor, much like artworks and large photographs that, in contemporary interiors, are intentionally placed at ground level – clustered together for an effortlessly artistic, atmospheric feel. In our experience, tapered candles are timeless ornaments – their warmth softens polished metals and fine textures, creating a captivating harmony. Paired with cascading blooms or arranged amidst sculptural candelabras, they stand as symbols of romance and refinement. Whether you’re wanting to evoke a sense of opulence or poetic minimalism, these are Kunstindustrien’s tips on styling these candles for a night of revelry. 

“Scattering candles of varying heights in mass creates layers of visual interest and evokes a sense of exaggerated elegance .”

Height Play: The Art of Layering Light and Material

For more simplistic settings, we recommend displaying longer candles as focal points. The more height, the more margin it creates within a design, elongating the space and drawing the eye from foundation to flame. On the other hand, when scattering candles en masse, varying proportions provide layers of visual interest and a feeling of exaggerated elegance. Of course, you can simply opt for tapered candles in different heights, or you can play around with sculptural candleholders.

The secret lies not just in the candles but in the holders themselves. Wrought iron brings a timeworn, old-world aesthetic, brass radiates warmth, and porcelain modernizes with sculptural ease. Mixing different materials and playing with their placement at varying levels allows for a dynamic interplay of shadow and glow, shifting as the flame flickers – resulting in an effortlessly elegant setting that feels rich, immersive, and deeply atmospheric.

Style like a Renaissance Painting

As the night deepens during dinner with loved ones, we sink a little further into our seats, while wax slowly spills over the edges of tall, flickering candles. There’s a quiet beauty in the slow melt, a reminder of time slipping away.

To create decadence and intrigue across a long tablescape, wrap each candle with an arrangement of unexpected fruits, trays of varying heights, and rambling florals that cascade across layered fabrics. For a more wall-down elegance, candelabras placed along serpentine tables evoke a sense of movement without excess.

Inspired by Renaissance paintings and steeped in their romance, this look captures the era’s glow with draped velvets and gauzy linens, pooling like the folds of an old master’s canvas. Nestle slender, tapered candles among painterly still-life arrangements – overripe figs, pomegranates split to reveal their ruby ​​cores, clusters of grapes spilling from tarnished silver bowls. The key is abundance without rigidity, a composition that allows elements to tumble and intertwine, mirroring the chiaroscuro of candlelight against deep, inky shadows. For added dimension, intersperse loose petals, dried citrus slices, or even strands of pearls – an unexpected, sensual contrast to flickering flames.

The effect is a table not just styled but lived-in, where decadence meets disarray in the most beguiling way.

“Nestle slender, tapered candles among painterly still-life arrangements – overripe figs, pomegranates split to reveal their ruby ​​cores, clusters of grapes spilling from tarnished silver bowls.”

To see the full collection, visit Kunstindustrien’s website.