Adding the warmth and character of landscape lighting to your home’s exterior isn’t as hard to advertise as you think! I promise it’s not a difficult DIY project.
It is very easy to install your own landscape lights. There is no work with electricity other than connecting it. You just need to do it
One of my favorite hobbies (especially in the summer) is driving through beautiful neighborhoods at dusk and looking at the houses. I think the houses look nicer at this time of day.
There’s always one nice detail in the expensive homes I notice – they all have natural lighting that makes the exteriors glow at night. It makes everything look more beautiful and expensive.
So years ago I figured out how to do it myself and it was super easy!
You must have an outdoor electrical outlet near where you want to install the lights. Keep in mind that you will have a wire, so it cannot run across the sidewalk or driveway. You can hide the wire along the house and in this tutorial I use it for mulch.
There are only three things you’ll need to install the lights – the lights themselves, the power pack, and the wiring.
This tutorial includes photos of our old and current home. I love adding this lighting accent to our exterior!
1. Choose your landscape lighting.
We’ll start at the hardware store, in the outdoor lighting aisle. There are solar lights that have come a long way, and if you choose those, you can stop here. 😉
For this tutorial, you’ll need to head towards low voltage lights:
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There are many landscape lighting options:
Path lights that direct light downward for safety along the walkway. Deck lights can be attached to stairs or deck railings. Overhead/spot lights for large trees and shrubs, or even a flag on the house or in the yard. Floodlights to wash the home’s exterior with light. Good lights for soft ambient lighting in garden beds. One thing to keep in mind – I think having too many lights diminishes the custom look these lights add, so don’t overdo it. You can start with a little and then add more if you don’t feel it’s enough.
I chose some spotlights for this project:
This is where I will tell you that this is not always a cheap project. 😬 (Keep in mind that the prices in these photos are probably higher now.)
But once you make the investment, maintenance is minimal since these low-wattage fixtures last forever. You can usually find sets of lights (rather than singles) to bring the price down a bit.
Consider what you’ll be lighting! Use spotlights or spotlights to highlight something pretty, like a tree. They’re also great for bathing the front of your home in light.
For the garden beds I chose track lights:
2. Find out what power pack and wires you’ll need.
This is where you determine the next step – the size of the power pack you will need. I had three track lights of 11 watts each. The floodlights were 20 watts each, and because I wasn’t sure how many to use, I just rounded up all six lights to see what power pack I needed.
So…
11W + 11W + 11W + 20W + 20W + 20W + 20W + 20W + 20W =
153 watts
So I went with a 200 watt power pack:
I always like to have a power pack that holds more than I think I’ll need, just in case I add more mounts later.
Well, you’ve got your lights and your power pack. Now you need to know what wire you will need. They come in different wattages that run from lower wattage (fewer lights) up to higher wattage (more lights).
Here’s a useful guide for you:
I grabbed a 14 gauge for this project:
The cost decreases as the wattage of the power pack decreases and as the wire capacity decreases.
The great thing is that you can avoid all that math and buy a landscape lighting kit that has everything you need — the light fixture, power unit, and wiring. Very convenient.
But if you want to mix up the lighting like I did (or you want more lights), you may want to buy everything separately.
All you have to do is connect some parts together to assemble the lights:
3. Discover your natural lighting design.
The first step is to figure out where you want to place the fixtures.
Keep in mind that overhead lights or spotlights work best to highlight trees or the side of a house:
If you have shrubs or large plants like us, I recommend placing your lights close to the house so they can shine through the plants and fill the area with light:
These spotlights were located in the mulch in front of the bushes. But because the plants grew so much, not much light reached the house.
When you’re good at the site, get your wires out. Position it from where it will be connected to the power unit until the last light in your landscape.
I give myself a little break between lights so I can move it around a bit if necessary.
**Do not cut the wire until you are absolutely sure where you want all the fittings.
4. Connect your fixtures to the wire.
This is the fun part. 🙂 Remember that nothing is connected until the last step. You are not dealing with live wires that can hurt you. It is more dangerous to connect a lamp. 😉
Each light has a small connector. You will unscrew the lower part of it:
See those sharp metal prongs? These are the things that go through the wire when you screw everything back together.
Then pass the wire through this bottom and then tie the connector back together:
Make sure the cord is laid flat in the plastic base and also make sure it is tied together tightly, otherwise your lamp will not connect:
This maintains moisture as well. (Mine is about halfway here.)
Continue down to your wire and connect each light. When you get to the end where the lights will be connected, you will reach the final step. This is the only part that involves working with wire.
5. Connect the wire to the power pack.
When you are sure of your lighting design, you can use a wire cutter or scissors to cut off the end of the wire that will be connected to the power pack:
Then use the cutter to split the wire in half (it has a groove in the middle). You will need to separate the two wires about two inches apart.
Close the cutter on the wire and twist it back and forth until it cuts the rubber insulation of the protective wire:
Use your wire cutters to strip about 1/2 to 3/4 inch off the end of both wires. Most wire cutters have the wire gauge marked on them, so if you have 16 gauge wire, you will place it where it says 16 on the cutter.
Pull the end of the insulation, then twist those wires together:
Do not twist the two wires together, but twist the leads of each.
Grab your power pack and deliver. Remove the screws and place the wires in each section where the screws go in as follows:
As you can see here, this power pack has points to connect two sets of wires to. So, as long as it’s 200 watts or less, you can have one set of landscape lights going in one direction from your outlet, and another set going the other way.
This is very useful if you only have one outlet because you can run a line of lights on one side and then the other side of the outlet box.
Keep this in mind when choosing your power unit! If you plan to use two sets of landscape lights, you’ll need to make sure your power pack has enough wattage.
Reinstall the screws, making sure to attach them to the exposed wires:
You’re almost there!
Find the end of the wire (near the first landscape light) and cover the end with electrical tape.
I’ve forgotten to do this a few times and they hold up well, even in the rain. But now I always cover the cut end of the wire so there is no worry of the lights cutting out.
You’re done now! Simply plug in your power pack and turn it on:
The power pack has an option to keep it on all the time, for anywhere from one to nine hours, or turn it on automatically when the sun goes down. I use the automatic setting.
After connecting it, you can adjust the position of the lights slightly. The connectors give you a little room to play with.
I love how these things add to the home’s exterior:
Looks so good!:
I used a more modern path light on the sidewalk in our current home. The underlight adds some security to your front walkway, and looks great!:
I forgot to add that after you’re completely done, you’ll need to cover your wire with mulch. It is ideal to do this before adding a new layer of mulch, but not necessary.
I recommend turning on the lights at dusk so you can see what they look like. You can move them as needed.
I hope this tutorial helps those of you who are interested in tackling this yourself. This is truly one of the easiest projects you can do yourself. Please don’t be afraid of wires!
Landscape lights make the house look very beautiful at night, and they provide more security as well.
Let me know if you have any questions or if I haven’t covered anything you’re wondering.
Here’s a handy image if you want to pin this project later. (Hover over the image and click the button in the upper left corner):
