Have you sat outside on your deck or patio and tried to figure out how and where the heck your string lights were going to go? Where they going to attach to the house? Then string out like a French Bistro out to a non existent tree. “Honey….we need to plant a tree. Or add on so I have someplace to attach my light.” Believe me……I tried to figure this out for 3 years and was never happy with my light set up. If you are looking to complete your patio or deck its string lights! So dont worry! I have a solution for you! I started taking pictures after the boxes were built. Sorry. But I will explain the best I can!

We luckily had cedar decking laying around. We had bought a used deck off FB Marketplace last Summer to build a small deck on the cheap for around our pool. I believe new cedar decking is roughly $10 a board. I cant tell you how much it took exactly. I would buy 4 boards to be safe. Since ours was old decking it was a gray color so we ran it through our planer to expose the raw cedar again. The boxes are 27” tall x 16” wide. And square. Kenny made 5 small squares/boxes. (This is where I failed getting pics…..I was pressure washing. Fail and sorry!) For this he just use a brad nailer. Then once he had all 5 made he stacked them rotating each box. So finished side, raw end side, and so on. He was VERY proud of this idea. HA! At this point he added a bottom with 2 small pieces of cedar both brad nailed on. Below in the picture you can see how we used leftover 1x3s to attach all of the small boxes on the inside. And you guessed it brad nailed those on too. If you do not have a brad nailer I know that you can rent one from Home Depot or Lowes. Or if you are looking to purchase get one that is battery powered! Best purchase ever!

On to the concrete! Do this in the grass because the concrete will sweep out of the cracks of your planters. Quickrete we purchased at Lowes. It was $2.50-ish a bag and pretty genius. 1 bag per planter. All you do is pour the entire bag into your planter then add the appropriate amount of water. No stiring at all! It sets up pretty quickly but not that quickly but you still need to support the pole somehow. Our poles we had laying around and are 8’. You could even go 10’ depending on where you are attaching the lights on your house. We added nails temporarily on the top to hold string to secure the pole until the concrete set up. Make sure its level! Grab a level and check it every few minutes.

You are almost done! At this point (No pic) I stapled a thick black trash bag on the inside. Mainly to hold in water and dirt so it doesnt leak all over my patio when I water the flowers. Make sure there is still alittle drainage gap at the bottom of the bag. Once it was set up I put them on the patio and then filled 1/2 with fill dirt. Then the other 1/2 with better flower soil.

At the top of each pole we added a hole, screwed in a hook (one that is completely closed so its more of a circle) and attached the lights with a carabiner.

Im sure I am missing something and let me know in the comments if you have more questions!! Hope this helps you figure out patio lighting without adding onto your house! HA!

Thanks for reading!

Erica