How To Hang Patio Lights - A Guide For A Lit Patio!

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How To Hang Patio Lights - A Guide For A Lit Patio!

INTRODUCTION

Your backyard or your patio can easily be transformed into a mesmerizing setup to host dinners and the best parties. Using light strings in your patio to add light, warmth and some personality is surely a great idea to start decorating it. Wondering how to hang patio lights? Here are some design ideas for the pattern and the style you will be draping and fixing the light strings in, what will you need and how will you do it?

If you are going towards simpler hanging options then you should definitely go for the following designs:

The Light Ceiling:  Although you will need several string lights of equal lengths for this particular pattern, you will end up having a bright and delightful patio. You can hang the desired number of light strings all parallel to each other. One end can be your house and on the other side, you can install tall poles in a line to fix the string of the light bulbs on them.

The ‘X’ Style:  For this design, you will only need a long pair of string lights. Install two poles at a greater distance and attach the strings in a crisscross manner and you are good to go!

The ‘V’ design: Install a single long string light or two in a V-shape. You can fix a pole to hang one end of the string lights.

A square: You can use four poles to drape the strings of lights onto. If you have a square-shaped or rectangular-shaped patio then this idea will work wonders.

Now that we have discussed some easy ways to hang your string lights, here are some ideas for hanging patio lights in a complicated pattern:

One-to-many: You will get away by installing only one pole and hanging all the strings of lights from that pole only. For the other end which can be your house make sure that you attach all the strings at an equal distance from each other.

A Tent of lights: Install a pole in the center of your patio and start hanging as many strings of lights as you want from that pole and attach them on poles all around your patio.

The ‘W’: You can also set up a W-shaped lighting option. For this, you will only need to install two poles, two long strings, or 4 short ones to cover the entire patio.

What do you need and how will you implement your plan?

Now, that we have gone through some of the ways of lighting up a patio. The next step is to figure out how to start installing them and what will you be needing. The tools you will be needing are some sort of hooks, these could be J hooks, screw-in hooks, or any other hooks you would prefer, a rough sketch of your patio with the exact measurements, and some zip ties and extension cords if required.

Hanging patio lights should not be much of a problem if you closely follow the below-given instructions:

Start with carefully examining the rough sketch you have made and choose how to hang your lights accordingly. You pick any pattern from the ones we have mentioned above or you can get inspiration from the weddings or the birthday parties you visit.

The next step is installing poles if need be. Read this article till the end to learn how to DIY a pole in your backyard.

Start by placing the male plug end near the extension or the main outlet itself.

Then hang the guy wire from one point to the other point and attach the string lights to the guy wire for extra support.

If you are working with a single, long light string then make sure you connect the male end of one string light to the female end of the other string light. If doing the other way around make sure you have extension cords.

Light up the arrangement and you are good to go!

Now things will get a bit tough when you have the entire plan to execute but you don’t know how to fix the ends of the string lights. This problem can be solved by installing tall, wooden poles anywhere you would like to fix the string light.

The best solution is to DIY the pole!

(Keep in mind that this will only work with small areas.)

Buy some quick-drying cement and mix it with water in a bucket.

Then dip the pole in the mixture and try making it stand still with some kind of support.

After it dries place the bucket in a relatively big planter.

Now, put a plant and some soil in the planter to cover the cement bucket.

Attach the string lights to the pole using hooks and you have a perfectly lit patio!

Points to be mindful of when picking string lights for your patio

The bulbs should be LED ones. LED bulbs last much longer, are energy-efficient and are brighter than incandescent bulbs.

The bulbs should be replaceable. This will allow you to only replace the bulb which got fused.

Pick weather-proof lights. Heavy rain and snowfall can either shatter the bulbs or disturb the copper wiring inside. This leads us to our next point.

Make sure that the diameter of the copper wire is smaller because the smaller the diameter the more heavy-duty the wire is.

You can also use string lights that switch colors for a more quirky and bright patio.

Conclusion

You can utilize these tips and tricks to transform your patio into your lighted-up haven. We have covered all that you will require to light up your patio as smoothly as possible.