Mardi Gras Light Designs

Mardi Gras is the holiday Lake Charles waits all year for. From Twelfth Night on January 6 through Fat Tuesday, the city turns into a multi-week parade, with krewes, balls, king cake, and the unmistakable trio of purple, gold, and green showing up on porches, balconies, and rooflines all over Calcasieu Parish. If you have permanent outdoor lights, this is the easiest holiday in the calendar to nail — three colours, one tap, instant carnival.

This guide covers the best Mardi Gras light designs for permanent lighting systems, including our signature 1 Green, 1 Yellow, 1 Purple pattern (available as a free download), app setup tips, and design ideas for every home style in Lake Charles, Lafayette, New Orleans, and across the Gulf Coast.

For a quick look at how app-controlled patterns work, explore our Designs page and the live GOULY app preview. The three colours carry meaning that goes all the way back to the 1872 Rex parade in New Orleans — purple for justice, gold for power, green for faith — and they are the same three colours that turn Ryan Street into a river of beads every February.

---

Why Mardi Gras is made for permanent lights

Christmas gets the headlines, but in Lake Charles, Mardi Gras might be the holiday permanent lights were built for. Here is why:

• Carnival season is long. Mardi Gras is not one night. It runs from Twelfth Night on January 6 all the way through Fat Tuesday — six to eight weeks of parades, balls, and king cake parties. With permanent lights you set purple, gold, and green once and let it ride from Kings Day through Ash Wednesday without ever touching a ladder.
• Parade energy belongs on the roofline. When a krewe rolls through your neighbourhood and the floats are throwing beads, your home should look like part of the parade. Mardi Gras outdoor lights in purple, gold, and green turn your entire facade into a stationary float.
• No decoration burden in February rain. Southwest Louisiana in late January and February is not exactly clip-up-the-bunting weather. Cold fronts, rain, the occasional freeze. Permanent lights mean you celebrate from the warm side of the window — one tap and the whole house is in costume.
• Late-winter colour need. January and February are the dark, flat months when Christmas lights have come down and St. Patrick's Day is still weeks away. Purple gold green Mardi Gras lights fill that gap with the most joyful palette of the year.

---

Top Mardi Gras light colour patterns

These are the most popular Mardi Gras designs Lake Charles and Gulf Coast homeowners run on permanent lighting systems:

1. 1 Green, 1 Yellow, 1 Purple (our signature Mardi Gras pattern)

The signature carnival pattern. One green node, one gold node, one purple node, repeating across the entire eave line. It reads as unmistakably Mardi Gras from a block away and works on every roofline length because the three-node pattern repeats so cleanly.

• Pattern: Green, Yellow, Purple, Green, Yellow, Purple (repeating)
• Mode: Static
• Best for: Every home style. This is the all-rounder.
• App setup: 3-node repeating pattern at 95 to 100 percent brightness across the board

This is the pattern we recommend to most homeowners and the one we set as the default carnival scene in every Lake Charles install. It honours all three Rex colours — faith, power, justice — with equal weight, and on a long shotgun eave or a wraparound Acadian porch it looks like the whole house is wearing a krewe sash. Download the QR pattern below and scan it directly into the GOULY app.

2. Purple, gold, and green chase

The same three-colour pattern, but with a chase animation so the colours appear to march along the roofline like a parade in motion.

• Pattern: Purple, Gold, Green (repeating with chase)
• Mode: Chase at 1.5 to 2.5 second speed
• Best for: Homes on parade routes or anywhere you are hosting a krewe party. The motion mirrors the floats rolling past.
• App setup: Three-colour pattern with chase animation enabled, medium speed

3. King cake gradient

A sweeping gradient that transitions from deep purple on one end of the roofline through warm gold in the middle and into rich green on the other end. Mirrors the iconic king cake icing pattern.

• Pattern: Purple fading through gold into green across the full eave line
• Mode: Static gradient
• Best for: Shotgun homes, ranch homes, and any home with 120+ feet of continuous eave where the gradient has room to breathe
• App setup: Use the gradient tool with purple as the start colour, gold as the mid colour, and green as the end colour

4. Mardi Gras flag stripes

Three wide blocks of solid colour across the roofline — one third purple, one third gold, one third green. Reads like a giant carnival banner stretched along the front of your home.

• Pattern: Solid purple block, solid gold block, solid green block
• Mode: Static
• Best for: Two-storey homes and estates where the wide colour blocks have presence
• App setup: Divide your roofline into three equal segments and assign one colour per segment at 100 percent brightness

5. Krewe colours mix-up

A multi-colour celebration scene that layers in extra carnival hues — adding splashes of magenta, deep violet, and warm amber alongside the core purple, gold, and green. Looks like the whole krewe showed up.

• Pattern: Purple, magenta, gold, amber, green, violet (randomised repeat)
• Mode: Static or slow crossfade
• Best for: Homeowners hosting Lundi Gras balls or Fat Tuesday parties who want a scene that feels layered and festive rather than uniform
• App setup: Build a 6-node custom pattern, vary brightness between 85 and 100 percent for depth

---

Mardi Gras designs by home style

---

How to set up Mardi Gras scenes in the GOULY app

Setting up a Mardi Gras outdoor lights scene takes about 2 minutes. Here is the flow:

1. Open the GOULY app and navigate to your home profile
2. Find the folder you want to edit or create a new one (e.g. "Mardi Gras" or "Carnival Season")
3. Choose your scene from the folder or create a new scene
4. Set your pattern to the 1 Green, 1 Yellow, 1 Purple repeating pattern (or scan the QR code above to load it instantly)
5. Set the animation mode (static for a clean krewe-ball look, chase for parade-day energy)
6. Set a schedule so lights turn on at sunset and off after the last bead has been thrown

Pro tips for Mardi Gras lighting

• Lean into saturation. Mardi Gras colours are bold by tradition — keep purple, gold, and green at 95 to 100 percent brightness. This is not the holiday for muted pastels.
• Use a true gold, not yellow. The GOULY app colour wheel lets you dial in a deeper, warmer gold tone (think king cake icing, not school-bus yellow). It reads richer at night and pairs better with the purple.
• Pick a regal purple. A deep violet with a hint of red looks more "Rex parade" than a pure cool purple. Test from the curb after dark — colours always look different from across the street.
• Start at Twelfth Night. Flip your scene on January 6 — Kings Day — to mark the official start of carnival season. By the time the first Lake Charles parades roll, your house is already in costume.
• Save it as a folder. Save your Mardi Gras scene in a dedicated folder so it is one tap away every January. Add separate scenes inside for "Krewe Ball", "Parade Night", and "Lundi Gras".

---

Mardi Gras in Lake Charles: a local guide

Lake Charles hosts one of the largest Mardi Gras celebrations in Louisiana — second only to New Orleans itself — and the city wears the title proudly. Here is the local carnival snapshot every Lake Charles homeowner should know before setting up their Lake Charles Mardi Gras lights:

If you live on or near a parade route — Ryan Street, Lakeshore Drive, or Kirby — your carnival outdoor lights become part of the show. Krewes have been known to throw extra beads at the houses that lit up best.

---

Combining Mardi Gras lights with carnival hosting

Mardi Gras falls in peak hosting season for Lake Charles families. Your permanent lights set the backdrop for the entire run:

• Krewe ball pre-parties. Set your eave line to the static 1-1-1 pattern at full brightness while guests arrive in their gowns and tuxedos. The static mode keeps the look elegant rather than busy.
• Parade watching parties. Switch to the purple, gold, and green chase as the parade approaches. The motion on the roofline mirrors the floats rolling past — guests notice immediately.
• King cake gatherings. Soften to the king cake gradient for indoor-focused gatherings where the lights frame the porch and front yard but do not compete with the cake table.
• Family Fat Tuesday. For daytime family events leading up to Tuesday evening, schedule a sunset-on so the lights kick in just as kids are coming home with beads, masks, and king cake babies.
• Lundi Gras to Fat Tuesday transition. Build a scene called "Lundi Gras" with the static pattern and a second called "Fat Tuesday" with the chase. Switch between them with one tap as the days roll on.

---

What colour lights for every Lake Charles / Louisiana holiday

One of the biggest advantages of a permanent lighting system is that you are never locked into one holiday. Here is a quick reference for the major Louisiana holidays and the colour patterns that work best:

Mardi Gras and Halloween both use purple and green, so if you already have a Halloween scene saved, you are halfway to a carnival scene — just swap orange for gold and you are ready for Fat Tuesday.

---

How long should you run Mardi Gras lights?

Most Lake Charles homeowners flip their Mardi Gras permanent lights on at Twelfth Night (January 6) and run them all the way through Fat Tuesday evening, transitioning to a more subdued palette for Ash Wednesday and Lent. That is roughly six weeks of continuous carnival on the roofline — and because permanent lights cost only pennies per night to run, there is no reason to hold back.

A suggested carnival timeline:

The beauty of permanent lights is that every one of these transitions takes seconds in the app — no ladders, no clips, no storage bins.

---

Cost of Mardi Gras lighting with permanent lights

If you already have a permanent lighting system installed, running Mardi Gras scenes costs nothing extra. There is no new hardware, no carnival flag bunting to buy, no seasonal install fee. You use the same system you use for Christmas, everyday curb appeal, and every other occasion.

If you do not have permanent lights yet, a Mardi Gras-ready system is the same as any other permanent lighting install:

Every system we install uses our RGBW LED puck lighting on a residential track lighting channel, which means Mardi Gras purples, Christmas reds, Halloween oranges, and everyday warm white are all included from day one.

---

Mardi Gras light ideas you can steal

Here are specific, ready-to-use Mardi Gras decorations outdoor setups Lake Charles homeowners love:

The Bourbon Street 1 Green, 1 Yellow, 1 Purple chase at medium speed across the full eave line at 100 percent brightness. Loud, animated, unapologetic. This is the one you want if your house should look like it just rolled off St. Charles Avenue and parked on your block.

The Lake Charles Krewe The signature 1-1-1 static pattern at 95 percent brightness, with a single bright gold accent at the centre peak of the home. Clean, regal, and unmistakably carnival — the look that says you respect the krewe tradition and you have been running it since before Twelfth Night.

The Throw Me Something Purple, gold, and green chase paired with a faster sparkle layer on the porch posts. Built for parade-route homes and party hosts — the sparkle reads as catching beads in flight and pulls every passing float's attention.

The King Cake King cake gradient sweeping purple to gold to green across the full eave line, static, at 100 percent brightness. Best for ranch homes and shotgun houses where the long roofline gives the gradient room to breathe. Pairs perfectly with an actual king cake on the porch table.

The Quiet Carnival A more restrained scene — deep purple base across the entire roofline with every fifth node set to soft gold and every tenth node set to faith green. Reads as Mardi Gras from a block away but stays elegant up close. Great for homeowners who want the nod to carnival without the full chase-and-sparkle treatment.

---

Beyond Mardi Gras: late winter transitions

Once Fat Tuesday wraps and Ash Wednesday rolls in, the city shifts mood quickly. Here are natural transitions from Mardi Gras into the rest of late winter and early spring:

• Mardi Gras to Lent — drop to a single colour (a deep, contemplative purple at lower brightness) for the 40 days of Lent. Quiet, reverent, still beautiful.
• Mardi Gras to St. Patrick's Day — you already have the green dialed in. Swap purple and gold for white and warm gold, keep the green at full strength, and you are ready for March 17.
• Mardi Gras to Easter — once Lent ends, transition into pastel lavender, pink, mint, and yellow for the Easter weekend. The lavender carries forward from the Mardi Gras palette so the change feels intentional rather than abrupt.
• Mardi Gras to spring warm white — for homeowners who like a clean break, jump straight to a warm white everyday scene to mark the end of carnival and the start of patio season.

Your Mardi Gras folder sits in the app library right alongside Christmas, Halloween, and everyday. One tap to switch, no ladder, no clips, no storage boxes.

---

Questions to ask before setting up your Mardi Gras scene

If you are new to permanent lighting or just installed your system, here are common questions Lake Charles homeowners ask before setting up Mardi Gras scenes:

• What purple should I use for Mardi Gras? Use a deep, regal violet with a slight red bias — not a cool blue-purple. The GOULY app colour wheel lets you dial in the exact shade. From the curb after dark, a slightly red-shifted purple reads as "Rex" instead of "Halloween".
• Should I use yellow or gold? Gold every time. A pure yellow reads as too bright and too modern for the carnival palette. Pull the saturation slightly toward orange to get a warm, king-cake-icing gold that pairs properly with the purple and green.
• Can I save my Mardi Gras scene for next year? Yes. Save it in a folder labelled "Mardi Gras" and it is ready to flip on every January 6 — Twelfth Night — for the rest of your system's life.
• Will the 1-1-1 pattern work on my home? Yes. It works on every home size and style. On shorter Lake Charles shotgun runs it still reads clearly because the pattern repeats frequently, and on longer estate eaves it forms a clean rhythm end to end.
• Can I schedule Mardi Gras lights to turn on automatically? Yes. Set a schedule in the app for automatic on at sunset and off at your preferred time. Lake Charles sunsets in February land around 6:00 to 6:15 PM, so a sunset trigger gets your carnival scene glowing right as krewe events and parade afterparties get rolling.

Ready to light up your home for Mardi Gras and every occasion?

Get a Free QuoteBrowse 1000+ DesignsSee the AppRead the FAQ