Outdoor lighting is an essential aspect of the yard and garden design. It can illuminate walkways, outdoor dining rooms, patios, and structures like pergolas and arbors. The right fixtures or features can add ambiance while providing functional lighting for use and safety purposes. Get inspired with these top outdoor lighting ideas.
Forget candles. These creative lighting ideas are a cheap and easy way to get your backyard beautiful for summer entertaining.
01. Colorful Canning Jar Lights
Cover canning jars in translucent glass paint and hang them from chord fixtures to create a cluster of colorful lights, as this blogger did.
02. Paper Bag Lanterns
Cut small slits in paper bags and cover string lights— hanging ribbons add a party vibe. Find the full tutorial here.
03. Wine Bottle Torch
Turn old wine bottles into snazzy torches with basic hardware and a wick. Get the full tutorial here.
04.
A simple chain and light turn a Dollar Store basket into beautiful lighting. Check out this post for the how-to.
05. Tin Can Lanterns
Fill a tin can with water, freeze it, and punch a design using a hammer and nail. Once the ice has melted, you can paint the exterior of the cans. Find all the details here.
06. Hanging Railing Jars
Just create little wire hangers for your jars and hang them on the railing or balcony. A full tutorial is here.
07. Cupcake Lights
Who knew cupcake liners made for lovely decor? This blogger created it. Cut a small X on the top of a liner and secure it around the bulbs on a string of lights.
08. Glass Candle Lanterns
Use an old tuna can and glasses of various shapes and sizes to create outdoor lanterns. This post has all the details.
09. Hanging Tea Lights
Hang tea lights from a tree with colorful ribbons and pretty bows. I pinned it here.
10. Mason Jar Solar Lights
Here’s a tutorial. You could use newspaper or tissue paper.
11. Tube Lights
Turn textured plastic into subtle lighting with this tutorial.
12. Hanging Succulent Chandelier
This succulent chandelier used to be a pot rack—Nestle tea lights in jars amongst greenery for a subtle glow, like this blogger.
13. Ice Lantern
It won’t last long in the heat, but you can turn a balloon into water. And a freezer into a crazy excellent outdoor lighting motif. Check out this tutorial.
14. Hula Hoop Chandelier
Wrap lace or another decorative ribbon around a hula hoop, then wrap in icicle lights, and you have a unique set of hanging lights. This blogger created it.
15. Solar Light Chandelier
Just replace the bulbs in an outdoor chandelier with solar lights. No electricity is needed!
16. Wine Glass Chandeliers
Turn vellum sheets into little lampshades for wine glasses with this simple tutorial.
17. Grapevine Lights
Make balls from grapevines (or wires if you don’t live on a farm) and wrap icicle lights around them to create glimmering orbs. This tutorial has all the details.
18. Beer Bottle Table Runner
Stuff colorful string lights into beer bottles to make a nightlight table runner. Super easy and blogged about here.
19. Glow-In-The-Dark Painted Planters
20. Fabric Lamps
Cover plastic cups in colorful patterned fabrics and string them onto lights. Follow these directions.
21. Upcycled Outdoor Chandelier
This blog post shows you how to transform an indoor chandelier into backyard decor.
22. Starry Lights
Restoration Hardware sells these battery-powered starry lights that you can wrap around an outdoor plant or trellis.
23. Birthday Hat Lights
Cut the base off of cone birthday hats, Polk some holes using thumb tacks, and wrap the caps around string lights. This post has all the info.
24. Seashell Lighting
String seashells in tea lights or use them as a base for candles. All of these are by Martha, of course.
25. Origami String Lights
Practice basic origami skills to create little paper lanterns for each string light. Posted here and here.
26. Glowing Light Orbs
Follow this tutorial and make these glowing orbs for only $3.
27. Watercolor Orbs
Spray white paper lanterns with watercolor paint to add color to your outdoor decor. This post shows you how.
28. Emergency Outdoor Light
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