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Awesome DIY Lighting Ideas for the Outside of your Home!
Lighting sets the mood! If your deck, patio, garden or front-porch needs a boost of mood-enhancement, then adding lighting to strategic spaces can be done easily and inexpensively. You don’t have to be an electrician to add lighting, in fact, with all these ideas, no electricity is required, at all! Here are a few DIY lighting ideas for the outside of your home—some, of which, you’ve probably never seen anywhere! Each project is incredibly easy, functional and fun; and a few will certainly become conversation starters!
Patio/Garden/Porch Lamp-Posts
This interesting idea is so neat; and is one you’ve probably never seen! To turn a darker corner into a cozy, softly-lit nook, all you’ll need is 3 fence posts, 6 solar outdoor lights, a drill and extra-long screws.
What You Will Do
The three fence posts will be cut into two pieces, at varying lengths—they will be placed together as a grouping with irregular heights. The shorter-cut posts will be positioned in the front while the taller posts will be positioned in the back. The home-supply store where you can purchase fence posts can saw the posts for you. The posts will surround a block of wood in the middle of the arrangement so they can be screwed into that block which will allow all the posts to attach to the centralized ‘stand’. The top of each post will have a drilled opening to accommodate the stem of each solar light; and each solar light stem should be allowed to be positioned at least half-way down into the drilled opening to ensure that each light is securely situated. The fence posts can be stained, painted or remain completely untouched, depending on the look you desire. Voile`--once you have all the necessary materials, this project can be completed within a few hours and once done, will add a charming, unique and rustic, addition to any outside area of your home!
Cookie-Tin Tea Lights
This is truly a darling idea, especially if you are into a more country feel. This project would be one that you would want in your patio area during times when supervision is continual since lit tea-lights are involved. This is a wonderful way to add soft lighting to a specific area whenever you might have guests invited over. All you’ll need are at least six, 12”-diameter cookie tins or larger, 3” screws, a drill and a tea-light for each can.
What You Will Do
With a single screw, the cookie tins can be mounted onto a wall about a foot apart from one another with the concave sides facing outward. Each screw will be positioned about 3” up from the interior center of each can. Place a tea-light inside the bottom ledge of each tin and light. The soft flickering lighting will provide an inviting, dancing glow to a wall and the surrounding area! Make sure, however, that the tins are positioned high enough to avoid little hands touching them while they are lit. An alternative to cookie-tins would be small, lightweight tin buckets that are often found in 2nd-hand stores in various shapes and sizes for about a dollar a piece!
Glowing Orbs
This project will garner attention from everyone; and people will ask in astonishment: “How in the world did you do that??!” All you will need are at least a dozen single white stockings--as in women’s nylon stockings. If single stockings are hard to find, simply cut the leggings from panty hose. You will, also, need the same number of white water balloons and glow-sticks as stockings.
What You Will Do
This is so incredibly easy! First off, fill the water balloons with water and drop a glow-stick in each balloon and tie snugly—you have just created the glowing orbs. Place one glowing orb in the bottom of each stocking. Tie the tops of the stockings from tree branches or from an overhead trellis, etc. making sure you hang the stockings at various lengths to provide a dramatic, uneven appearance. Additionally, hang the stocking/lights close enough to each other (about 2 or 3 feet apart) to create what will appear to be a cluster of glowing embers. These hanging orbs will provide a delightful amount of light for hours; and your family and friends (and neighbors!) will remain astonished as to how you crafted these truly unique balls of light! And one more thing: You can forgo the stockings and place glow-sticks in balloons and float them in your pool water to add a dreamy, romantic ambiance!
Darling Doilies
Let’s assume you will have outside tables on your deck or patio you will want lit for your company once the sun goes down. Dinner will be over and you and your friends will just want to kick back and relax. Ladies, your gal-pals will be envious of your creativity when they see how you were able to craft doilies with lights! You will need enough cloth doilies as you deem necessary to light any given patio table and/or end tables. The doilies should be a minimum of 12” in diameter. You will need liquid starch and a single rounded-bottom bowl for each doily light you intend to make; and you will also need the same number of tea-lights as doilies.
What You Will Do
Soak doilies in starch and gently press out excess starch without twisting doily material and place doily over an inverted glass bowl covered in wax paper. Each doily formation will take at least 24 hours to dry (or more) so plan accordingly. Remove the wax paper and each stiffened doily bowl will receive a battery-operated tea-light that can provide many hours of a continuous, flickering glimmer!
LED Solar-Powered Spot Lights
If lighting up the stairway of your deck is something you’ve been meaning to do, you’ll be happy to know solar spot-lights are available that are designed to simply screw into the side areas of each stair to provide a cozy appeal not to mention a safer area to climb and walk, especially for children! This is an ideal lighting solution for locations that do not have access to a traditional electrical source. LEDs can last up to 100,000 hours; and if fully charged during the daylight hours, you can receive a generous 10 hours of night-light time!
