Landscaping Lighting Ideas for Front Yard

Outdoor living before the sun goes down is lovely. But add a little landscape lighting and moonlight to the mix and you’ve got an enchanting backdrop for all your outside celebrations!

If you’d like to add some DIY landscape lighting to your outdoor living area, I’d love to show you how we did ours!

Adding DIY Landscaping Lights

First, decide on a plan- Consider what you’d like to accent.

Some questions to get you started…

1. What part of your yard, flower beds, water features or trees would you like illuminated?
2. Do you want a light mounted in a tree shining down onto a particular area? (These give a moonlight effect and are so pretty when shining onto a garden area.)
3. Do you have a space (eating area, fire pit) that would benefit from string lights?

We decided to uplight a few trees and add lighting to the garden area surrounding our water feature. We also added a giant criss-cross of string lights over the fire pit.

Let’s start with the up-lights…

Step 1

Assemble the lights according to the directions.

Step 2

Place the lights in the locations that you’ve chosen in your plan.

Step 3

Find an outdoor electrical outlet close to the space you’re working on, and mount the power pack close to the outlet. We used cement anchors for brick, but you can use wood screws for mounting to the side of your house.

DO NOT PLUG POWER PACK INTO POWER SOURCE YET.

Step 4

Take one end of your wire and lay it at the farthest light from the power pack. Now, lay the wire from light to light until you make your way to the power pack-don’t pull the wire tight. (Keep in mind you’ll want to bury or cover the wire later, so keep the wire in pine/mulch islands or around the perimeter of your lawn.)

Step 5

Connect wire to the power pack by taking the power pack off the wall …

Using wire strippers, strip the wires as shown.

Attach the stripped wires to the terminals on the back of the power pack.

Now put your power pack back on the wall.

Step 6

Connect the wires at each light location according to your instructions.

Step 7

Stick your lights back into the ground!

Step 8

Plug the power pack into power source and set automatic timer according to instructions.

Step 9

Go back through your yard and cover the electrical wire with pine straw or mulch if it’s located in a bed, or you can dig a shallow trench to bury the wire.

Once your lights are working, wait till dusk and make sure your lights are pointing in the right direction. Adjust as necessary!