Outdoor Deck String Lights for Fun Summer Nights

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We love outdoor entertaining during the summer. BBQs, picnics, and al fresco meals during the lively summer nights are quintessential summer for me. One thing I have found a real passion for is creating a home for friends and family to visit and create memories with us. I want them to feel relaxed and revitalized, sort of like a mini-vacation! But, like everyone, our house is perfectly imperfect. When the doorbell rings, I am always worrying if the house is guest ready.

Since this is our first real summer with the deck, we are definitely spending a lot of time outdoors. And it will be like that for the next couple of months since we will be bustling around the house with friends and family visiting. Everyone should be able to enjoy the deck and outdoor space as well. You really don’t need much: good food, maybe some music, and some seating definitely helps. This past weekend, we added some patio string lights for a festive, tropical feel.

I love good decorating ideas that set up and break down quickly. I am constantly changing my mind on how I want to decorate the deck. I knew I wanted something fun and vibrant but it wasn’t until I was freshening up the house during our spring cleaning that I got inspired. I was at The Home Depot because well, home improvement stores are pretty much my second home. I am there at least once a week! I was picking up some cleaning supplies and some air freshener for the house. If you are like me, you always have some of these “smell goods” on hand. I love the ease of the room sprays for quick odor elimination and air freshening. I even have several scents depending on my mood. I picked out a few of my favorite scents, Clean Linen® and Hawaiian Breeze® from Glade®, and got inspired to give our deck a tropical feel. Hawaiian Breeze® really is the perfect scent for inspiring an instant vacay inside your own home. I knew right then that I wanted to carry that same tropical and refreshing feeling to the outdoors and decided to add some mood lighting to the deck. The lights would be beautiful for entertaining, enjoying the sunset, or a breezy evening.

Materials:

2″x 2″x 8′ boards
1 1/2″ galvanized pipe straps (in the plumbing section)
screws
screw eyes or cable staples
string lights

We started by attaching the pipe straps to the posts. We attached one at the top and one at the bottom of each desired post. Since we would like to be able to take the lights up and down easily, we did not screw the wood directly to the posts.

To attach the string lights to the poles in a way that makes them easy to take down, we used plastic cable staples. Another really good option to use is open-ended screw eyes.

We set the poles into the pipe straps and hung the lights. Voila! Instant party atmosphere. Since we are using pressure treated lumber, we are going to let it dry out a bit and clamp them together in the garage to prevent warping. After they dry out, we will stain them the wood poles to match the deck.

It takes only a few minutes to setup and breakdown which I love!

Want even more cute DIY projects to add a little more oomph to your outdoor (or indoor) space? The Home Depot Blog and the Glade Social Hub have tons of inspiration and ideas. Get inspired.

Just like the lights, we keep a few quick additions on hand like a quick setup table and some fresh flowers to make the space a bit more fun and tropical feeling. Of course, we used the Hawaiian Breeze® Room Spray from Glade® inside the house to welcome guests with a new, vibrant scent. Summer was made for the nights and I love being able to use this space day or night.

How do you keep your home fresh and inviting in a hurry? Thank you for supporting the companies that support all of us decoristas! Glade® has many wonderful scents to explore and inspire cozy, inviting homes quickly.