Given how many lights I buy and tear apart it will probably come as a surprise that I don’t actually put up many lights at Christmas. The reason is simple. I’ve spent over 20 years installing municipal lighting at Xmas, so anything smaller seems a bit tame. I also like the vivid contrast of a single vivid frame in the dark. This year I spontaneously decided to make the panel in non-standard Xmas colours and gave it a Barbie theme of pink and purple. The frame is based on an existing permanent wall trellis. I started by using a dodgy string of 200 imported mains voltage purple LED lights as a background fill with the controller removed and a simple rectifier and resistive dropper to tame the intensity down and reduce the dissipation of the LEDs and resistors in the string. Then I added an outline of flat mains voltage LED tape with pink LEDs. The flat tape is very directional which creates a strongly defined border illumination around the frame. To make the LED tape weather resilient I used rubber amalgamating tape on the rectifier end and to secure the end cap when I cut the tape to length on one of the 1-metre cut points. Self amalgamating tape is a non sticky rubber tape that you stretch gently round the connector being waterproofed. It forms well onto irregular shapes (avoid sharp edges and points!) and fuses onto itself creating a totally waterproof connection.
For the inner feature I added a lazy swoosh of standard 12mm orange LED ropelight gently scribbled into the frame. Simple, but actually looks very good.
For the first time I added a 200 LED string of golden-white LEDs along the side of the house by measuring, drilling and inserting cup hooks into the rear of the wooden fascia panel where there is a bit of shelter from rain. I swapped the old junction box for the outdoor gate light for a new one with an internal power supply and a low voltage connector with waterproof cap so that lights can be easily fitted in future. I counted the hooks and divided the lights amongst them as I hung them in swags. It provides a very nice low level path illumination too.
And that’s it. Very much a case of “less is more”. It looks really good as you approach the house from the street, without being too garish.
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