Improve Your Backyard, Deck or Patio by Hanging String Lights

StatePoint

Outdoor lighting can extend the time you can spend enjoying your backyard with your friends and family. While there are a host of involved and expensive outdoor lighting solutions, there’s one easy DIY alternative that offers a lot of charm.

“String lights are a beautiful, inexpensive and fun way to add personality and ambience to your yard and patio,” says expert landscape designer, Doug Scott.

In a recent Exmark Done-In-A-Weekend Projects video, Scott demonstrates how to hang simple, cost-effective backyard lighting. With the best part of the summer still on tap, he is offering his steps for this two-day project for improving your outdoor living space:

1. Determine where you’ll hang your lights. You can hang them from fence posts, on trees, off porch railings, or even purchase light stakes that do the hard work for you.
2. Research the style of backyard lights that you want to use.
3. Sketch an outline or design of how you want the lights to look. You may want to crisscross the lights or string them just around the perimeter of the patio. Knowing your design will help you determine how many strands of lights you need. Just be sure your design represents you and how you want to live outside.
4. Determine what installation equipment you need. You may need extra equipment such as an extension cord or hardware to hang the lights. Make sure that all hardware is weatherproof and outdoor-grade.
5. Measure the area where you’ll hang your lights, being sure to leave room for slack and to reach the outlet.
6. When you begin hanging the lights, try to have the light strand connections be as discrete as possible.
7. Install light hooks.
8. Hang outdoor string lights. To avoid breakage, remove all of the bulbs from the light strings before hanging them. Once the strings are hung, install one bulb in each strand and test it to make sure it works. Then add the remaining bulbs.
9. Reveal your space. Now it’s time to light up your backyard living space and kick back and enjoy!
   To view the tutorial and get inspired, visit Exmark’s Backyard Life, a multimedia destination that provides everything from lawn care tips to gardening and outdoor hosting advice, at exmark.com/backyard.
   String or strand outdoor lighting will add after-dark pizzazz to your outdoor living space. And though this improvement makes a big atmospheric impact, it’s one that won’t break the bank.