The title of this original post is brought to you by a former blogger trying to make a comeback. Lol? My apologies. I took a hiatus from blogging, but now I’m back with what I believe is a pretty solid tutorial for you! Who wouldn’t appreciate some outdoor lights, right?
After many years of procrastination, we’ve finally installed outdoor lighting on our deck, and it. is. fabulous. Moreover, it’s super simple and fairly affordable to accomplish! So here I am, ready to share my outdoor lighting expertise with you.
Materials Required:
- A deck. This might also be a patio. Or even a porch? A floor with one wall works too?
- String lights. I suggest going for something more industrial that will endure better.
- Fence posts (ours are 12 feet, trimmed down to 9 feet) I couldn’t locate the exact model online, but I attached a link to a shorter version of the one we got.
- Small carabiners for every point you connect to your house
- Eye hooks for drilling into the wall
- S hooks for every pole
- Cordless Drill
- Hacksaw (if you need to trim your fence posts)
- Zip ties (of a similar style) to match with your poles
First things first. You’ll want to design the layout of your lights. Zig-zag, square around your area? The choice is yours! I’m sharing some not-so-great photos of the actual supplies I used.
There are definitely various methods for attaching the lights to the pole, but we decided to drill a small hole and insert the S Hook. It appears to be holding well (remember, there is significant tension once they are hung), so I think it’s effective!
After drilling the holes in the poles and installing the S Hooks, we secured them to our deck railing. Since we have metal railings, we couldn’t drill into them. So, with a bit of hope and creativity, we opted to zip tie them to the railings using 18-inch industrial ties.
Once we trimmed the ends, they are hardly noticeable on the railing. Totally worth it, even if you do spot them! 🙂
Next, use the eye hooks to drill into your house (it sounds scarier than it actually is!).
Attach the carabiner to the eye hook and thread the light cord into the carabiner.
I recommend positioning the hook fairly high up. I’d suggest around 9 1/2 feet. You want to give some room for the string lights to “swoop”, and you definitely don’t want anyone bumping their heads.
Honestly, the trickiest aspect of this whole endeavor is determining the configuration of the lights. I had to reposition one hook after drilling it into the wall, but I wasn’t too bothered by it. Let’s be real—people shouldn’t be scrutinizing your home’s walls anyway!
Here you observe the transformation from late afternoon to evening, to nighttime.
Va-Va-VOOM!
It’s been approximately 712 days since I last created a tutorial, so my apologies if I missed anything! Feel free to check out the video version over on Instagram. I saved it in my stories. Good luck!
