Outdoor Lighting Ideas and Tips for Walkways

Have you ever left your house mid-afternoon and said to yourself, “I will be home well before dark, so I don’t need to waste money and turn on the porch lights”? I know I have done this, and more times then not, I have stayed out way past dark because something came up, or I lost track of time. I would end up driving home realizing that I told myself earlier not to turn on the porch light and now regretting that decision because I hate walking up to my front door in the dark. I decided to install a walkway lighting system that would always be on if this ever happened to me again. So not to sound like a big cliche, I made it possible never to be left in the dark again.

When I first decided that I wanted a lighted walkway I looked at all my options and realized that solar lights were the best, cheapest, and easiest way for me to achieve what I needed.

Next I measured out exactly what I wanted to light up on my walkway. I new that I didn’t need to place to many lights on the path because I didn’t want the “too” busy look, but I did need enough lights to make sure I still could see. I started with the beginning of my walkway path and measured out twelve inches. For every twelve inches I counted I new that was how many lights I was going to need.

Now I got the quantity down, but I needed to figure out what kind of decorative solar light I was going to get. I buy all my lights from www.collectionsetc.com and they have so many different designs and structures for solar lights. I ended up going with the traditional yard stake solar light in black.

Once I received my solar lights in the mail I got to work immediately in placing these lights where I wanted them to go. First, since my walkway is right next to my front yard I wanted to put the solar lights in the ground. I decided to place them about six inches away from the actual concrete for safety purposes. Many times I have accidentally lost my balanced or tripped over my own feet and took a small step off my walkway. I didn’t want the solar lights to be to close to the walkway in case that happened and I would fall over them, or even worse on top of them.

Starting at the beginning of the walkway and six inches out, I measured again every twelve inches. I placed the solar light on the ground (not in first) as I went along. I didn’t go ahead and push them down in the ground because I wanted to achieve a visual look first, make sure that where I set the lights down was exactly where I wanted the lights to be. Note, it may take you a couple times to find the right look, it took me three times.

Now I got where I want the lights to be placed at. I went back and started to hammer (softly) the stakes into the ground. Solar lights will come in a box not attached to the stakes. Make sure you place the solar light stakes in the ground first before placing the light on top to prevent breaking the light or bending, cracking or breaking the stake too.

Next I placed the batteries inside the solar lights, and remember some lights do have an on/off switches, and then placed the lights onto the stakes. Remember to screw in the solar lights securely but do not over tighten them because this will cause the solar light to pull away from the screw thread.

Finally I waited till nightfall and realized my plan was achieved perfectly! I now was able to have a lighted walkway and not worry about the dangers a darken walkway would offer!