How to Install and Design Your Outdoor Lighting

Designing Outdoor Lighting

• 1

  Walk around your yard and take notes of feature items you want to light up, such as walkways, raised beds, bird baths and water features. Write down measurements of these things so you purchase the proper number of outdoor lights.

• 2

  Take close-up pictures of your porch lights and take pictures of the front and rear yards so you choose outdoor lighting that works with your existing design.

• 3

  Select the lights to outline your walkways and decking. Choose lights that are similar to your porch lights. Make all of these lights match in style and size.

• 4

  Pick out the lights for your flower beds and accent pieces like water features. These lights should be smaller than your walkway lights. Choose lights in the same finish but a different style than your walkway lights.

Install the Cable

• 5

  Set your lights down in the location you will install them, with the first light at least ten feet from where the transformer plugs into the outlet. The transformer is provided in outdoor lighting kids. Position the remaining lights off the first one, spacing them six to ten feet apart, depending on how many lights you've purchased.

• 6

  Unwind 14 gauge cable along your lights. Run the cable around or behind things like mailbox posts or bushes.

• 7

  Use a spade to cut and turn back the sod where the cable will be buried, similar to opening a can and pulling back the lid. Dig a ditch about three inches deep for the cable.

• 8

  Put the cable in the ditch and begin filling the ditch back in. Make sure you leave a small loop of wire unburied at the spot where each light will be located so you can wire the lights. Leave the last foot of wire that leads to the transformer box unburied as well.

• 9

  Replace the sod, cutting a slot for the wire to slide through so it remains above ground.

Hook up the Transformer

• 10

  Pull the end of the cable to the transformer. Use wire strippers to remove 1/2-inch of rubber insulation from the end of the cable, exposing two wires.

• 11

  Slide the wires underneath the two screws on the transformer.

• 12

  Tighten the screws so the wires are trapped between the transformer box and the screws.

• 13

  Screw the transformer box to a wooden stake and pound the stake into the ground. Plug the transformer into an exterior outlet.

Installing the Lights

• 14

  Go around your yard and make the holes in the yard into which the lights will be installed. Use a screwdriver, piece of metal or an awl for this purpose.

• 15

  Take the connectors that attach the lights to the cable in hand, one piece in each hand. Catch the cable in between the connectors and pinch the connectors together. This breaks the rubber insulation and makes the connection for your landscaping lights. Make sure light for that connector comes on. If not, remove the connector and repeat until you have a good connection and the light is one. Do this for all of your lights.

• 16

  Stand your lights upright in the holes you made for the light stakes. Tuck any excess cable into the slots you cut in the sod. Do this for all of your lights.

• 17

  Press the sod firmly into place.