How to Install Your Own Outdoor Backyard Lighting

I just did something that made a huge impact in our yard. I discovered amazing outdoor backyard lighting that I can install myself.

Oh my gosh. Is this lighting not the most incredible thing you have seen? I partnered with AQ Lighting and not only discovered amazing lighting but I found outdoor backyard lighting you can install yourself.

Wait. Did I say “install it yourself?”

I did.

With a little help from a friend, we installed this amazing lighting from AQ Lighting. We replaced every old/broken/damaged piece of lighting in our backyard with gorgeous copper outdoor lighting.

The copper lighting looks so awesome in the daytime. And at night? It is spectacular.

New Outdoor Backyard Lighting

One of my favorite places to entertain is in our backyard. I have been very creative in using this space but one of my challenges has been landscape and backyard lighting, or lack thereof.

Our previous backyard lighting was old and terrible. We only had one working 20-year-old spotlight in the yard and some string lights that I got from Costco. If you can believe it, I had to go out onto the roof to plugin our string lights. Seriously?

Replacement Lighting — You can see how nice the copper lighting is compared to our twenty year old lights. I took this photo just before we took out the old black light.

Unfortunately, the old outdoor lights worked on average 50% of the time. During a recent storm, we had no lights. During a recent sprinkling of rain, we had no lights. For no reason at all, we had no lights. In the middle of the night, the lights are on! You get the point.

I needed help. And a better lighting system.

I set out to fix the lighting situation in our backyard. And, because my focus for April is Just Do It Yourself, I really wanted to do this myself! Since I was basically starting from scratch, I created a plan to light each area in our backyard.

The areas included:

Behind and around the pool
The garden along the yard.
The garden next to the Carriage House.
The fire pit area with the huge tree
Replacement of the Costco string lights

I thought about showing you some before photos but the photos were of our entirely dark backyard. Occasionally one of our many old landscape lights might work … but that was it!

AQ Lighting

AQ Lighting has an online business with a large collection of residential and commercial lighting for both indoor and outdoor. Their products are American Made and they also have DIY kits. The kits have everything you need to install the lighting on your own, or have your handyman, gardener, or spouse, install it.

I worked with the wonderful owners of AQ Lighting. We discussed what I wanted, how to achieve it, and what lighting components I needed.

When the order arrived, everything was included.

Our Landscape Lighting Order

Below is a list of everything that we used to light the backyard:

AQ Lighting Materials for Landscaping Lights

The installation wasn’t hard. We hooked in to some of our existing wiring. You can see the installation on my Instagram stories and reels.

For my plan for the landscape lighting in our backyard, I started with the area behind the pool. It is a large chain link fence with vines growing on it. Behind the fence is a space that has been many things in its lifetime, a paddle tennis court, a basketball court and is currently a beach volleyball court. My husband has a regular league that plays once a week in the evenings, so the lighting will be helpful so that they don’t fall into the pool on their way to the court!

The Final Reveal

Look at our new outdoor backyard lighting!

I honestly cannot believe our backyard lighting looks like this. The pool reflections are just stunning!

There is something about reflections in water that is just incredible. Can you believe how the trees are reflecting in our pool water?

Is that not the coolest thing ever?

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The Carriage House garden area is shown below on the right-hand side. It is a beautiful English garden. There is a walkway along the edge of the garden that leads to the pool. This area is highly trafficked to get to the pool and court and we also have a fire pit and a table and chairs on the patio next to the pool. For this area, we used a combination of lighting options to create an incredible effect. We used copper area lights and spotlights and it turned out beautifully.

Giveaway!!

I am really excited to be able to offer, together with AQ Lighting, an amazing giveaway. AQ Lighting has put together a My100YearOldHome DIY kit (valued at $500) that includes the items shown above, and more. The giveaway kit includes everything you need to light an area similar to the Carriage House garden (or a $500 credit).

The kit includes a transformer, 15ft cable (transformer to 1st fixture), T cables needed for install, jumper cables for install, 8 install stakes, 5 copper area lights with warm white LEDs and 3 raw copper spotlights with warm white LEDs. The winner may also select a $500 credit on an order from AQ Lighting instead.

The giveaway is limited to US customers only. To sign up for the giveaway, head to my Instagram and enter the giveaway on the post with the backyard lighting photo. To enter, follow @my100yearoldhome and @aqlighting. Also, leave a comment on my Instagram telling me what area you would like to light in your yard!

Entry begins today and a winner will be announced on Tuesday morning at 9am PST.