Lower Deck Lighting – a Story of my absolute FAILURE

Oct 09 2022
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Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won’t settle for less even when new information presents itself? Well that’s what happened with our lower deck lighting last year. I wanted so badly to have legitimate café string lights and so, even after reading dozens upon dozens of terrible reviews on every set of string lights that I could find… I still purchased them. I failed us lol.

The thing is about all of these lights is that no matter how they’re advertised not a single set of them are going to last very long outside. Do they all say meant for outdoor use? YES THEY DO!

What they fail to mention is that they’re only meant for outdoor use on a perfect day for an hour or two before needing to be immediately taken down…

Unfortunately I still proceeded even though I read ALL of the bad reviews and knew it might be a mistake.

I’m not usually this stupidly stubborn… Weren’t they gorgeous though!?

Adding String Lights to our new pea gravel deck and fire pit. Wow did this break my brain... Here was our situation: The tall posts on

Adding String Lights to our new pea gravel deck and fire pit. Wow did this break my brain... Here was our situation: The tall posts on

One thing I did do was purchase the string lights that included “no break” bulbs made of plastic… so I really thought we might be in the clear.

And, to be fair, we should have at least taken them down last fall before winter. (This is northern MN and our winters are totally brutal.) HOWEVER, the majority of the bulbs on these string lights were out within only a month of hanging them up… WAY before fall.

Seriously.

Plugging them back in this spring neither Lodi or I were surprised to see they didn’t work at all.

So, back to the drawing board I went, both annoyed and crabby, and with no one to blame but myself. At some point we may try to salvage those string lights for inside the garage or something depending on the cost of the bulbs. (They are truly very pretty and I would give them a good review… for only inside applications though lol.)

So, for this go around I purchased what I hope is a sure thing: Outdoor LED Lighting. No, its not what I had envisioned or dreamed of and its going to take me a while to actually LIKE it.

However, it doesn’t look like Christmas lights (like I worried about) and I really think its going to LAST which is the entire point!

Its fun that we can change their color too.

We hung them using the same brackets we used when we installed the previous string lights. I used the white zip ties that were included to keep them in place.

This was a tedious job for me one day and took some serious thinking.

I purchased two, two packs of a total of 100 feet. Unfortunately (unlike Xmas lights and café lights etc.) the LEDs do not attach to each other so each of the four strands had to be plugged in separately.

To make it even worse somehow (lol) each pack only came with one plug-in that both strands had to use.

SO, I had to figure out how to get the lights where I wanted them and also how to have two strands plug in to the same spot in two separate places.

Did that make any sense?

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won't settle

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won't settle

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won't settle

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won't settle

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won't settle

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won't settle

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won't settle

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won't settle

It was a job made even worse by the fact that we only have two outlets on the deck. (Thinking I really need to remediate that at some point as it is annoying…)

The one outlet was my starting point which I used for both strands, unfortunately where the last two strands ended up was on the OTHER side of the deck.

So (yay me) I had to crawl under our deck, the entire length, with an extension cord. It did mean the cord is completely hidden though and all the lights share the same plug-in spot.

The LED lights can be cut to any length you need but I decided to just use all the length we had because well, we paid for it.

And it worked out pretty good I think!

I used the little plastic brackets that came with the LEDs along the majority of our deck railing. I did have to loop it down one post and back, running it along the bottom of our deck in one place and I don’t like that inconsistency but I’m living with it.

One thing that is an absolute improvement as far as deck lighting goes is the LEDs don’t hang down near as far as the previous string lights. Seriously, in some places, they were hanging down to barely 6 feet and we know plenty of people who definitely would have lost their hats.

Lodi paid me a lovely compliment when he saw it he said, “They look professionally hung up honey, you did such a good job!”

They remind me of circus and / or county fair lights and that totally horrifies me but I’m getting over it.

Stay tuned for how they hold up!
*Crosses fingers*

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won't settle

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won't settle

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won't settle

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won't settle

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won't settle

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won't settle

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won't settle

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won't settle

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won't settle

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won't settle

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won't settle

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won't settle

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won't settle

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won't settle

Comments

  1. Tina Watson
    October 9, 2022 at 9:56 am

    They look GREAT!! And it seems that they provide more lighting than the string lights. We have a covered porch/deck and we use Christmas lights on the inside for ambient lighting. They hold up great but are protected from the elements. We installed an above ground pool, so we are going to add a catwalk from our existing deck to the new deck around the pool (about 6 feet) and we’re in the process of looking for lighting for this area. I may look into these. Thanks for all of the info.

    Reply
    • Tarahlynn
      October 10, 2022 at 9:32 am

      Thanks for coming by Tina! So far so good with the LEDs their holding up really well and, as you mentioned, they definitely do provide more light! I like the look of the cafe lights when their hanging up the LEDs are so cool ran along the rails and paths.

      Reply
  2. Nancy F Lambert
    October 9, 2022 at 7:24 pm

    Tarah,
    Awesome job, the LED lights are good and bright.

    Reply

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