You don’t have to pay hundreds of dollars to get an attractive outdoor light.  You just need a little creativity and know-how.

This globe light (pictured on the left) that I found on Amazon for $190 each became my inspiration to create an outdoor light on a budget that was also not hardwired in.

In fact, the one I made runs on batteries or you could buy one with a plug in. Pottery Barn makes their own version of a globe light that is indoor/outdoor, but it has a $299 price tag.

I have included the links above for the inspiration piece in case you would rather just buy that, but if not, keep reading and I will tell you how I made mine for much less money.

Because I was re-purposing hanging planters I have had for years, I only needed to buy the lights and some black zip ties ($1 at the hardware store).

I bought my lights on Amazon for $6-$7 per 2 pack. I used one strand of Cool White LED Lights and one strand of Warm White LED Lights per globe, although I am thinking of adding another strand of cool white to each. I liked the depth that the 2 different whites added. Now, I bought my hanging planters at Menards quite a while ago, but they sell similar ones for $5 each and I am sure you may also be able to find them at Wal-Mart, Fleet Farm, Lowes and Home Depot for comparable prices, but if you need to buy it online from Amazon you could get these hanging planters for about $13 each.

My cost was UNDER $15 for 2 Globe Lights. Fabulous, isn’t it?!?!? Even if you have to buy the planters at Amazon, it brings your cost for 2 Globe Lights up to $67, which is about 1/3 the cost of just one of them on Amazon and less than 1/4 of the cost of one on Pottery Barn. AND YOU GET TWO!

So, here’s the planter I started with. You will need 2 of them to complete one globe light and in my case since I was making two globe lights I needed 4 planters. They used to have coconut liners in them, so those went in the compost bin.

This is a fairly straight forward project that doesn’t need a lot of supplies or time to complete. Here you can see I have laid everything out I am using: planters, black zip ties, and lights. You may also need hooks to screw in to the ceiling of your porch.

I reused the hanging chain and hook from 2 of the planters to attach to the end of the globe and used that to hang them. Since there were originally 4 planters and I only needed 2 chain/hook combos, I still have 2 leftover that I will just put in my junk drawer until I find a need for them.

Put two planters together and zip tie them together. I used three zip ties evenly spaced and that holds nicely. I also used black so it would blend in. Re-attach your chain/hook (if you have one) to the top of the globe.

Twist your lights around in your globe. If you buy the ones I did and linked to above, they are on a wire that makes them easy to twist around and stay in place, so no other supplies are needed to make them stay in place. I secured the battery boxes in places with a waterproof tape that is black since the battery box is not waterproof (although the switches are still barely accessible, so hopefully no water gets in that area), but the wire light part can actually be fully submerged in water.  If you’re buying wired lights, just make sure they are okay for outdoor use.

Here is the final product hanging from our back deck at night with just a bug light on in addition to the LED Globe Lights.

This is what the two globe lights look like without any other lights on.

I think these globe lights make a fun addition to our seating area and it didn’t cost much money and was easy to do.

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