Colourful light display doesn't have to be ust for Christmas

IT'S that time of year when people are getting strings of colourful lights out of loft spaces, spending a while untying knots that have somehow appeared despite the fact they were put away in a neat coil.

But not me. It has nothing to do with any lack of festive spirit, or anything against lighting up the living room in the colours a toddler would pick after consuming too much sugar, but that I can just press a button and my existing lights can turn from their current colour to the greens and reds that typify the season.

That's because I have a bit of an obsession with LED lightstrips and their related products.

I discovered them last year, and have spent far too much time and money installing them into various nooks and crevices since then.

For anyone who hasn't had the pleasure of discovering them, one of the best things is the fact that they are 'smart' as in controlled from your mobile phone.

Many come with a physical switch, too, in case you want to just use them as normal lights, but often, the best features are unlocked via an app on the now ubiquitous smartphones.

You can even turn them on and off by voice control in many instances.