The best pillar candles to create an ambience in your home

Here at YourHomeStyle, we believe that no home is complete without candles.

Whether you use them for purely decorative purposes, to fill your home with gorgeous fragrance or to create a cosy ambience at dusk, there’s no denying that candles can add the perfect finishing touch to any room, and pillar candles are particularly effective due to their versatility.

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When it comes to choosing the right pillar candles for your home, it’s worth first considering what you want to use them for. Plain, unscented candles are great if you’re looking to create an ambience at a dinner table or in your kitchen, but you may want something more ornate, or scented, to style in your living room, bathroom, hallway or bedroom.

Whatever you’re after, there’s guaranteed to be pillar candle to suit your home, and we’ve scoured the high street to find everything from on-trend wavy pastel candles to timeless scented church candles.

Read on to discover our pick of the best pillar candles on the UK market right now, and check out our gallery to see our favourite pillar candle styling ideas.

Best pillar candles UK

Slogan Pillar Block Candle

If you’re looking to inject a bit of life into your space, these slogan pillar candles are perfect for the job. They’re available in a range of on-trend colours so you’re bound to find one that suits your home, but we particularly like the sunny yellow and coral tones.

Each one has a burn time of 80 hours (yes, 80!) and they’re all unscented, so they’re perfect for making a décor statement without interfering with the fragrance from your electronic or traditional diffusers. Because these candles are so large you only need one to refresh the look of you’re space, but if you want to go all-out, try dotting a number of them throughout your home for maximum impact – they look particularly good on a mantelpiece, coffee table, open shelving or at your bedside!

TruGlow LED Pillar Candle Trio

Lights4Fun is our go to destination for all things lighting, and that includes LED candles. Unlike some battery operated candles you find on the market, these ones look super realistic because they’re made from high-quality, hand poured wax, and have been specially designed to mimic the appearance of a real flame.

The thing we love most about these candles, however, is the fact that they come in a number of varying heights, so they’re ideal for creating a laid-back boho display on your mantelpiece or dining table. To illuminate them, all you have to do is insert 2 x AA batteries into the base and they’ll be lit for 200 hours.

Marbled Phoebe Pillar Candle

Whenever we’re on the search for unique homeware we head to Etsy, and it certainly doesn’t disappoint with its pillar candle offering. Although you’ll find hundreds of unique and wonderful candles from independent makers on the site, this ‘Phoebe’ candle from Blackpool-based seller sugardancegang really caught our eye with its bold combination of white, magenta, pale pink, orange and yellow.

Due to the nature of the marbling process, each one of these paraffin wax candles is completely unique in design, and will give any room in your home a quirky edge. If you do decide to purchase one of these candles, be aware that they are purely ornamental and have artificial cable shrink wicks. Try styling them on a coffee table with a brushed gold tray and pastel vase for maximum impact.

Seychelles Pillar Candle

• Buy now from The White Company, £20

It’s no secret that we’re huge fans of The White Company here at YourHomeStyle, and there’s certainly no exception when it comes to their pillar candles. Although the brand does sell a plain, unscented option specially designed for the dinner table, our ultimate favourite has to be the Seychelles Pillar Candle.

Crafted from high-quality mineral wax, it gives off an incredible summery scent with notes of coconut, bergamot, amber and vanilla. We recommend styling this one in a hallway on the coordinating ceramic plate – it’ll fill your home with gorgeous fragrance and make an amazing impression when you have guests to visit.

Two-tone Ribbed Pillar Candles

The neon aesthetic is tipped to be one of the biggest décor trends of 2021 and, put simply, the look is all about using fluorescent colours and lighting to create maximum impact in a room.

Typically, this will include the use of neon strip lighting in order to give a space a sci-fi inspired glow, but you can also layer neon-pastel accessories and soft furnishings to achieve a soft, dreamlike look. These two-tone pillar candles from HabitHaus are handmade with vegan wax and ideal for injecting a bit of neon colour into your space without overwhelming it. Try styling them on a bedside table teamed with neon pastel linen for a Pinterest-esque look, or use them in a white Scandi scheme to add a splash of vibrancy.

Josette Pillar Candle & Holder Set

If you’re looking to refresh your space on a tight budget, keep an eye out for brands that sell affordable candles that look good enough to be a décor accessory in their own right. This beautiful Josette pillar candle from Anthropologie, for example, comes in its own ‘architecturally inspired’ holder, and its subtle peach hue will breathe a new lease of life into a bedroom or create a hotel-style bathroom on a budget.

We particularly love the fact that this paraffin wax candle has a striking wooden wick, which allows it to burn down evenly over 70 hours into the ceramic base. If you want to create a really striking display, try styling this with the coordinating lilac sphere and violet block candles. This particular style of candle looks especially good amongst a contemporary earth-toned décor scheme, but it’ll also create a striking contrast if you style it in a period property.

emone Yin & Yang Column Candle

You don’t have to be an interiors obsessive to notice that curvy décor is taking the world by storm at the moment, and stylists and Instagram designers alike are filling homes with everything from wavy mirrors to curvy vases.

If you want to embrace the trend in a subtle way, this yin&yang column candle from Urban Outfitters couldn’t be more perfect. Each one is handmade in the UK using natural, vegan and biodegradable wax and wicks. We think it's too pretty to burn!

Hay Pillar Candle

While traditional white pillar candles can look very effective in a home, sometimes you might want something a bit more striking, and this is where the Hay candles come in!

Created by the influential Dutch designer Lex Pott, all of the pillar candles from the Hay range combine vibrant block colours in statement silhouettes. Although, at £45 for 30cm these candles are on the pricier side, they'll instantly make a statement in your home and provide you with up to 105 hours of burn time. Try styling them in a group on a windowsill to emphasise the amazing colours!

Pillar candle styling ideas

Now you've got your pillar candles, why not get inspired and display them in a creative way? Here are our favourite pillar candle styling ideas:

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