Ever since I saw this post on Apartment Therapy I wanted to add some string lights above my patio. It took some time because I really had to get everything else figured out and finished before deciding on a product. I searched for a while, not really sure what I wanted. Some sites seemed to sell sets for what seemed like waaay to much money, while stores like Target, Walmart, Home Depot, etc. offered products that at 10′ long per string, just weren’t long enough…nor did they seem sturdy enough. I looked at some “commercial grade” options in the 50′ and 100′ lenghts that just seemed to be over doing it for my little 12′ x 12′ patio.
Ah trusty amazon. You always seem to have what I want. I ended up going with two 25′ strings of these. They got here fast and even had the bulbs packaged sepearately so that I could install the strings and then the bulbs to avoid breaking any. It took me about 3 hrs last night to get them up and mostly everything tidied up with the wiring. It was in the low 90′s and humid and the mosquitos were quite active. My garage is a little over 10′ high so I needed my big ladder. I will try and get some better pictures soon, but this is all I managed before the thunderstorms hit us.
From the kitchen window:
From the upstairs office (excuse the mess):
For reference I took this pic from the kitchen steps. From the concrete patio the lights are about 10 ft. over head.
It remains to be seen as to whether or not I need guide wires. It seemed to me that based on the thickness of the wiring and the short span, I may be able to get away with not having any guide wires. The patio is pretty sheltered from high winds by the house at the one end and the garage at the back end.
One of the great things about these lights is that you don’t have to have a bulb in every socket for them to light up. This was helpful on the garage roof and anywhere it seemed illogical to have a bulb. In these spots I was able to tightly wrap the socket in electrical tape to keep the elements out. All in all I am very happy with how my vision turned out. As I get a final spring cleaning done on the patio now that the plants are in for the year, I will get some more pictures, especially some at night.
Awesome. We want to do the same thing one of these days when I finish fencing in the backyard and turning it into an actual yard rather than a weedy nightmare of eyeball-gouging painful sights. http://www.flickr.com/photos/whiteknuckled/6827653115/
Thanks! Yeah I hear you. Mine was a disaster before. The fencing made a huge difference. I do wish I had some grass though. Garage takes up a lot of the back of my lot though.