Installing landscape lighting is an amazing way to make your house stand out from your neighbor’s and look like the ultimate show home. By adding just a few lights you can boost your nighttime curb appeal, maintain a well-lit house for easy entry/exit and provide additional security from burglars and other unwanted pests.

The best part is…installing landscape lighting is fairly easy. You don’t need to be an electrician as it utilizes low voltage wiring and this job can be tackled in only a weekend.

In this post, I’ll walk you through several types of landscape lighting, how to plan your lighting layout and most importantly, how to successfully install a transformer and lights.

Some of our posts contain affiliate links. We often share links to the tools & products used in our home improvement projects and if you purchase one of these items using our link, we may earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

Solar Powered vs. Hardwired Landscaping Lights

When we first began researching landscape lighting, solar-powered lighting was a very interesting option. As we read online reviews and observed neighbor’s lighting, we found that solar-powered lights didn’t quite have the power to adequately light up a house.

In the end, we decided to go with hardwired landscaping lights as they offered greater consistency and a higher light output. Go with a hard-wired option to make your landscape lighting project look like it was done by a pro!

With that being said, solar-powered lights are great if you’re looking for a quick plant-and-go solution or if you’re looking to illuminate a tree or other feature that may be too far away to run wire to.

Uplighting

The most common type of landscape lighting is uplighting. You may have heard these lights called “Cans” and essentially they are an upward-facing spotlight.

There are a lot of options out there. I like Doluck’s 4W LEDs. These LED cans come in black as well as bronze.

Initially, I purchased Doluck’s 8 pack and when I added a new feature tree in the front year I needed a 9th can light. Unfortunately, Doluck’s LED cans were sold out, but I was able to find pretty comparable 5W LEDs.

I absolutely love these two specific uplighting options because they are powered by an actual LED bulb instead of being hard-wired. When the bulb burns out you can simply unscrew the unit, pop out the bulb and put a new one in. Also, the bodies of both of these landscape lights are made from cast aluminum, so they feel well made and durable. I’d expect they’ll last for years and see several LED replacement bulbs.

Pathway Lights

Uplighting is the most common type of landscape lighting. However, if you want to add some additional dimension, simply add some pathway lights.

Pathway lights are great for illuminating walkways and ensure visitors can safely enter/exit your house at night.

Being big fans of Ring products, we checked out the Ring pathway light. However, their style did not match our house. Instead, we found these cool pathway lights below that have a farmhouse barn light look and match the exterior lights on both sides of our garage.

Unfortunately, Home Depot discontinued this light which we had hoped to also utilize in our backyard. However, when the time comes we found a fairly similar replacement that has that barn light look.

Ring Step Lights

While Ring’s pathway light didn’t quite match our style as soon as we saw the Ring Steplights we knew we had to have them. While all our uplighting and pathway lights are hardwired, these little guys/gals are solar-powered. They’re not on all the time like the rest of the lights, but turn on when they sense motion or a linked motion sensor is tripped.

These are perfect when guests come to the house as they light up the steps (at night only) and can also send a motion notification to our phone 24/7.

Transformer

A transformer is a hub that plugs in and converts your standard 120-volt electricity to a low-voltage current. Low-voltage electricity (around 12V) is safer to work with.

There are a lot of transformer options out there, but being a big Ring user I chose to go with the Ring Smart Lighting Transformer.

The Ring Transformer can power up to 200 watts. That easily covers my nine 4 watt uplights (9 x 4 = 36 watts) and my five 1.6 watt pathway lights (5 x 1.6 watts = 8 watts).

With the Ring Transformer, you can turn your landscape lights on/off from your phone as well as set them on a daily schedule.

However, my favorite feature is being able to link my landscape lights to a variety of motion sensors. For example, I have my landscape lights linked to a Ring motion sensor by my driveway, the Ring step lights I mentioned above and my Ring doorbell. If any of these motion sensors are tripped between 12:00 AM – 7:00 AM, all 16 of the landscape lights in the front of my house will kick on illuminating the entire front yard.

Talk about sending a burglar or pesky plant-eating animal running for the hills!

Below is a shot of the small sensor that detects motion when someone uses our sidewalk or goes anywhere near our garage entrance.

This is just one of the many awesome things Ring can do. Check out our new blog post that touches on Ring’s many other cool smart home integrations as well as an overview of the different Ring Protect Plans.

How to Install Landscape Lights

Tools You’ll Need

• Shovel
• Fishing Tape (if you need to go under a sidewalk)
• Electrical Tape
• Landscaping Light Connectors
• Low-Voltage Landscaping Wire
• Uplights / Cans
• Pathway Lights
• A Transformer & Bridge

Planning Out Your Landscape Lights

Start by observing your house from the street. What features of the house and landscaping do you want to accentuate and draw attention to?

Look for pillars, architectural highlights, trees and any other interesting features. Also, try to be symmetrical in your approach.

For example, starting on the left in the photo below the lighting goes – tree, house (3 lights), tree, house (3 lights on the pillars), tree. The tree in the center splits up lights focused on the house. The trees on the outside nicely bookend and compliment the other lights.

This structure and symmetry creates an awesome aesthetic at night. Also, what makes the biggest impact is incorporating the trees. Many DIYers focus solely on the house and forget why to accentuate their landscaping.

Planning Where to Place Your Transformer

Next, think through where you might want to mount your transformer box. Most transformers are weatherproof, measure around 12″ x 12″ x 4″ and are typically mounted/hidden on the side of your house. Your transformer should be plugged into a GFI-rated outlet and mounted at least 2-3′ high off the ground to help keep it dry.

In my situation, I did not have a GFI on the side of my house where I wanted to keep my transformer. However, I had a GFI on the other side of the wall in the basement. I ended up running the low voltage wire through the wall and actually keep my transformer inside of my house!

Once you’ve located a home for your transformer and planned out where you’ll place your lights it’s best to draw up a basic map. This will help you plan out how best to run your low voltage wiring. Plus, it’s nice to have something you can hold on to for future reference in case you forget exactly where you buried the low voltage wiring.

As you can see in my drawing above, the orange line represents my low voltage wiring. Off of it, you can see the circular can/uplights as well as the pathway lights.

I chose to run my low landscape wiring right in the middle of my flower beds. This allows me to have my larger plants in the back of the bed and plant tulips and annuals in front of the bed by the pathway lights.

Installing Low Voltage Landscape Wire

Once you have your low-voltage landscape wire laid out you’re now ready to connect your individual lights. To do so, you’ll need a 3-piece low-voltage landscaping connector.

Step 1: Using a razor blade, carefully separate the landscaping wire into two pieces make sure not to damage the rubber wire casing and expose the wire.

Step 2: Place the bottom of the wire connector with threading on each of the two split wires and plunge the metal point/tip into the wire and secure by screwing on the bottom cap.

Step 3: Split the end of the landscape light wire and strip roughly 1/4″ of the rubber coating off the wire.

Step 4: Insert the bare wire of the landscape lights into the top of the connector and screw-down on the bottom of the connector that we attached to the low voltage wire in Step 3.

NOTE: There are no red or black wires. So either of the light wires can be connected to either of the low voltage wires.

Step 5: After you’ve connected all your lights to the low-voltage wire, you can now connect the low-voltage wire to your transformer. Simply split 2-3 inches of the low voltage wire, remove the rubber sheath and insert into the two slots on your transformer.

Step 6: Plug in your transformer and test to make sure all your lights are working.

Burrying Your Low-Voltage Wiring

After you test and make sure that all your lights are working properly, you are now ready to bury your low-voltage wiring.

Using a spade dig a 6-7″ deep trench that you’ll be able to lay the wire in.

Again, I dug my trench right in the middle of my flower bed. This allows both my uplighting in the back of the beds as well as the pathway lights in the front of my bed to reach my low-voltage line. Also, this allows me to have my larger perennials/hydrangeas in the back of my flower bed and plant tulips or annuals in the front of my flower bed.

Going Under a Sidewalk

There’s a very high chance that at some point you’ll need to run your wiring under your sidewalk. While this sounds like a pretty difficult task, it’s fairly easy and there are two ways you can do it.

Buy a Auger

This auger is the easier of the two ways. Simply dig a hole on both sides of your sidewalk. Then attached your auger to a power drill and drill through the soil and rock under the sidewalk towards the side where your line is stuck or rests. Next, lace the line through the small opening on the tip of the auger and pull underneath the sidewalk!

Sledge Hammer & PVC Pipe

If you already own a sledgehammer, this second option may be the way to go. Simply buy a small (roughly 1″ diameter) piece of inexpensive PVC piping. Cut one end of the PVC at an angle to help it penetrate through the dirt and rock.

Next, Dig a 5-6″ hole on both sides of the sidewalk. Then, begin to hammer the PVC so it runs underneath the sidewalk. Once you see the PVC appear on the other side of the sidewalk you’re done. Finally, feed your electrical wire through the PVC pipe with a fish tape tool and repair your flower bed.

Conclusion

We absolutely love our landscape lighting and the difference it makes at night time is game-changing. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!

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Some of our posts contain affiliate links. We often share links to the tools & products used in our home improvement projects and if you purchase one of these items using our link, we may earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

1) Make Your House Glow – Pristine Clean Siding & Gutters

One of the most insanely impactful and transformational hacks I stumbled across, helped me restore my 20 year old siding and gutters to their original sparkle.

Now, I’ve power washed my gutters and siding for years with some decent success, but this next trick takes it 100 levels above that.

One day as I pulled in my drive I was disgusted by the intense gray runoff stains on my gutters. I had never thought about trying to clean them, but as I was preparing to put my house on the market, I wondered if those stains were permanent.

I tried soap and water, a variety of household cleaners and while I could tell cleaning the runoff was possible, it was going to take an exhausting amount of elbow grease and time. Then I tried a product called Miracle Mist and the results were face-melting (more like grime melting).

I was blown away with how a small spray took the gross streaks right off in seconds. It was truly magic!

This stuff can get pretty addicting and I actually used it to clean both my gutters well as my siding.

I’m not 100% certain what their secret formula is, but it seems like it might have some sort of citrus enzyme with bleach that breaks down mold and mildew growth. With this product/any chemical, it’s best to test on a small inconspicuous area.

This is easily my favorite home selling hack! By the end my gutters and house were sparkling and you could see the glow from the road. Talk about curb appeal!

Miracle Mist is truly miraculous and also loved quite a bit by boaters and RV enthusiasts. Check out the glow in the photo below and if you have a chance, Miracle Mist’s rave reviews on Amazon.

2) Crystal Clear Windows = More Light

Buyers love homes that are bright, cheery and have tons of sunlight. In our house I cleaned every window (inside and out), opened every blind/curtain and even strategically took the screens out of rooms that I wanted to appear brighter.

One product that I absolutely love, consider a game-changer and find nearly as addictive as Miracle Mist is Hope’s Perfect Glass.

For years, I used the blue stuff and after using Hope’s once, I’ll never using another product again. This stuff will make looking out your windows go from 720P to 8K!

I now use Hope’s on my house windows, TVs as well as car windows.

Funny story – last time I used Hope’s on my car windows, I stopped at the grocery store and when I came out there was a solitary finger print on my driver side window. I knew immediately that the person who had parked next to me wondered if a window was even there and had to touch it to believe their eyes.

Again, Hope’s is a complete game-changer and worth trying!

3) Make Your Tile Floors Look Brand New

As we were getting ready to sell our house I walked through and gave each room an ocular pat down. As I walked through our laundry room it felt a little dingy. At first I couldn’t put my finger on it, but then I realized it was our grout. Over the past few years it had taken in a lot of dirt and didn’t look quite as glorious as it did when it was first installed.

Many years back I found a product in my local hardware store called Mapei Grout Refresh. This stuff is amazing. Just paint it on your grout lines with a toothbrush, wipe away the excess and let it dry. There’s a tiny bit more to it than that (check out my full blog post on the process), but that’s essentially it.

Check out those grout lines on the right. They look amazing in comparison to the others.

Here’s another great close-up with a before and after. Check out the gross grout in the top of the photo and the refreshed grout at the bottom!

If you have tile floors, backsplashes, showers or grout anywhere in your house take a close look at the grout.

Is it dirty? discolored? gross? If so, give this Mapei’s grout refresh hack a go. I promise the impact it will make as you’re preparing to sell your house will blow you and prospective buyers away.

4) Boost Your Curb Appeal

If the front of your house seems dull or lacking you may just need to add some new plants, flowers to create a little visual excitement and boost your curb appeal.

Check out the photo below of the our house when we first bought it. Pretty dull in this monochromatic state. Right?

With that being the case we decided to take out a few of the overgrown bushes and give our landscaping a facelift. While it was a lot of work ripping out the 30 year old bushes, once they were gone you could finally see the house again!

We ended up replacing the front right area of the house with alternating pink and peach knock-out roses. In the front bed we left the larger rounded bush that had been there for years and complimented it with alternating white cone hydrangeas bushes, long-stem red roses and some Hostas my mom brought over and I grew to size.

As a final touch we added two small Peegee Hydrangea trees as accents to the right sides of the front and back flower beds and you probably noticed – painted the front door to add a little extra color!

5) Paint Crazy Colored Rooms

Over the years we painted our rooms some pretty crazy colors. One time I even painted my office a flat black (as an act of defiance to our mostly pink house). However, as were putting our house up for sale in late 2019 we had a pink spare room, a pink family room, a purple up-stairs hallway and a mint green laundry room.

Originally, we figured buyers would look past some of the bold paint colors, appreciate the good bones and when they purchased, paint these rooms any color they wanted.

We were amazed when the first two showings shared that they LOVED the home, but that the paint colors were a bit much for them.

We were blown away. Did people really pass on our house because of the paint colors? Did they not realize that was the easiest thing to change and they could paint the walls any shade in the rainbow?

Long story short, I picked up a few gallons of paint and began painting all the pastel rooms white after those first two showings.

So while paint colors may seem like something you don’t need to address, it’s best to just paint those crazy colored rooms a nice neutral color. Just keep things simple and go with a basic white, which is bright and sunny while also being easy to paint over.

6) Take Down Family Pictures

Before your first showing it’s best to take down any family photos, canvases and picture frames. While it might not seem like a big deal, potential buyers don’t want to see photos of you and your family. Also, you probably shouldn’t want them to either as it’a good to have boundaries – after all – this is a business transaction.

As you’re preparing to sell your house your goal is to provide a blank canvas void of distractions. You want your buyers to imagine living in the space as if it was already their own.

7) Fix Up Patio / Primary Outdoor Living Spaces

Having a great outdoor space where you can entertain, grill-out and enjoy the great outdoors can be a huge selling point. Unfortunately, over the years our back-yard patio had fallen into rough shape and more of a negative, than a positive asset. Whoever had built the retaining wall had done so incorrectly and with water and time, the soil shifted.

Nearly every part of our retaining wall was leaning and about to collapse.

As we began to think about putting our house on the market this was one of the first projects we took on. While it was fairly inexpensive to fix (we used the same bricks) it was an extremely labor intensive and time consuming project.

In the end, the effort was worth it as it took our gross backyard patio from shambles to shining feature.

8) Power Wash Driveway & Patios

Power washing is truly one of the greatest ways to make the exterior of your house look fresh and new. Every Spring I bust out my power washer to blast the grime off my patio furniture and it turns into extravaganza. I end up accidentally working my way to the patio, driveway, siding, car tires and by the end I’m power washing rocks (Yes, Rocks!).

If you don’t own a power washer, you are missing out. It’s truly an awesome tool to have on hand each Spring.

By the way – here’s just a few of the rocks at the old house I used to power wash in case you didn’t believe me!

9) Hire a Cleaning Service

One of the best things we did was hire a professional cleaning service. Our maid only cost about $100. In 4-5 hours she cleaned our roughly 1,400 square foot house from top to bottom and did an amazing job!

In my book, that’s money pretty well spent. Also, having regularly showings and keeping the house clean is beyond stressful. Take a load off and hire some help!

10) Declutter

If your house is anything like ours, you might have collected a few items over the years. As we began to think about selling our house we began to evaluate what items we could sell, what items we could trash, what items we could donate as well as what items we could move into storage.

About 8-9 weeks before we were ready to put our house on the market I rented a storage space at the top of the street. This is really an awesome idea as you can just quickly unload all the clutter that’s in your bedrooms, common spaces, attics, garage, yard and anywhere else you might have items.

I took this approach as I wanted every bedroom, common space, attic space, and even the garage to seem as large as possible.

In the two photos below you can see how even just taking out the white rocking chair made the room seem significantly bigger. Also, we swaped out the curtains, painted this pink room white and removed the family photos as I mentioned above. What a difference!

In Conclusion

Hopefully you found a few gems in here and with a little bit of elbow grease you can sell your house quickly and ensure you get top dollar!

Please comment below as we’d love to hear what you think as well as any tips that helped you sell your house.

Also, if you loved this post, – check out the newly built ShabbyChicHouse as well as our latest post with top tips before building a new construction home!

– Mike from the Shabby Chic House

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