Sunday, August 17, 2014

Let There be Light...

This spring and summer I have done a lot of searching for backyard ideas.  I really wanted a pergola over our patio.  Wouldn't something like this be beautiful?

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/549579960750162667/
 
 
I had a few companies provide quotes, however to the tune of $7,000 I couldn't quite take the plunge. $7,000 for a few pieces of cedar lumbar...I don't think so.  I  knew my family would be willing to help me build this for a fraction of the price.  So that is on hold until next summer.
 
During my searching for backyard ideas, I found this...
 
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/549579960750770962/
 

I figured I could easily do something like this on our fence.    I found packs of solar lights at Lowes for a decent price.  I went with 2 packs of 8 for a total of 16 lights.  The lights I found didn't have a base so I thought there had to be a better way.  I needed a semi-circle type of clamp that I could fasten to the front of the board.  I found some 3/4 inch copper pipe clamps in the plumbing section that worked perfectly.
 
To assemble my lights, I started by cutting a 2x4 into 16 chucks about 2 inches wide.  I also found some stain spray paint.  I was excited about that since I am always worried I am going to burn my house down with a spontaneous combusting stain rag.   
 


The stain said it would dry in 15 minutes.  LIES!  Look at how wet the blocks were after 4 hours.   So I let them dry overnight.  There were still a bit tacky, but not bad.  I don't have a lot of patience to wait so I used them tacky.

 
The blocks were easy to assemble. I used L brackets to attach them to the fence post and loosely fastened the pipe clamps to the blocks.  I was fine with the silver brackets and copper clamps.  You can't really see the silver once they are installed and I realty like the pop of color the copper gives the lights.
 

I screwed the L bracket to the fence first and then slide the light down into the clamp and tightened the screws.  I didn't want the light to stick over the top of the fence like the sample I found, so I moved them down.


 
We have lots of big Maple trees in our backyard, so I had to be strategic of where I placed them so they would get the most sunlight.  I tried to capture some pictures of what they looked like at night, but that was a bit of a challenge.



Here are some pics during the day.  I know, I  know they are hard to see.



I love how they turned out.  The lights give our backyard such a sophisticated feel and they really do give a good amount of light.  AND even better, I think I spent a total of $95 on this project.
 
 

 


No comments:

Post a Comment