Inexpensive Landscape Lighting

Ever have an idea of how you want something to look, feel or work and no matter how many searches you do, you just can’t find it? Of course you have. It wasn’t that long ago I found myself in that very spot. My idea was to light my fence, at least highlight certain parts. The first issue I faced was that whatever I would installed, it had to be dog proof. That pretty much eliminated anything installed in/on the ground, like low voltage landscape lighting. The second issue, and probably the most important, was safety. By that I mean, if I used 120 volt AC, the lights would need to be installed in such a manner that would guarantee no live parts ever be exposed. With dogs and kids about, it wasn’t difficult to foresee a fixture or two getting busted up.

(neighbors garage light vs. basketball)

I would also have to get a permit and follow the National Electrical Code. Not that I would shortcut, but those two items and cost. Which brings me to another issue. The fence itself was going to cost a small fortune, so I had a choice, eliminate the lighting or spend lots of money for it. I was pretty happy with the design of the fence and it included lighting. So not much of a choice really. But being a broke, problem solving maker, spending hundreds of dollars wasn’t a choice I was willing to make. I also didn’t want to yuck up the look with some cut rate homemade lighting.

Here’s my solution.

Clearly I didn’t make these from scratch. In fact I bought these at Home Depot.

I’m not sure how to properly credit the creators of that image, or if I’ve crossed some line, but here is a link, https://www.homedepot.com/p/Hampton-Bay-Low-Voltage-20-Watt-Bi-Pin-Black-Outdoor-Landscape-Flood-Light-HD28688BK/206266090. If you look closely at the image, you can see a ring about where the taper of the stake ends. Just above that ring is where I cut the stake off. That left a little nub, that with minimal filing, slid right into a 3/4” electrical conduit set screw connector. Next step was to make a 3/4” hole into a blank aluminum outdoor electrical box cover. Assemble those two parts and paint, and viola you have a low voltage wall mounted accent light for cheap. The hard part was deciding how many and exactly where to install them. Since I was uncertain from the beginning, I left a little slack in the cable so I could make connections at any point. Because the fence, by default, is very linear, I finally decided to place the accent lights in a not so structured manner. Randomly but symmetrical, if that makes sense.

This picture shows the low voltage wire running inside the fence before the “inside” boards were attached.

I also tweaked a couple of low voltage step lights and mounted them directly over the front and rear gates.

Unfortunately the filaments frequently broke from the vibrations of the gate. I installed LEDs and problem solved.

One last picture showing off the accent lighting, the look makes winter a bit more tolerable.

As an aside, I often go to “big box” stores just to look around and get inspiration. I never know what I’ll see, that I can incorporate in my next build to solve a particular problem. I guess what I’m trying to say is, always be open minded, you may be surprised at what you find.