Open the door to extra luminescence
Every year, your neighbor seems to add more details to their holiday light design to try and outshine you. This year, you’re going all out—you’ve selected the perfect Christmas tree and are ready to add Christmas lights around your garage door. Adding Christmas lights to your garage is an easy DIY project, so long as you’ve got a few supplies and a couple of hours to spare. Read on for everything you need to know to install garage door Christmas lights.
Garage doors come in a wide variety of sizes. Single and double garage doors, or larger, vary in actual measured size. The trim around garage doors also varies in length and width from one house to the next.
Measure the trim, if you wish to hang lights there, and the height of the door. Add one or two feet to your total measurement to be safe. Take notes for later reference, especially if you still need to purchase lights and decorations.
You should also measure the distance to the nearest outlet, and make sure to have extension cords available that will reach in order to safely power your outdoor holiday lights. Alternatively, you could opt for solar or battery-powered light strands.
There are tons of ways to decorate and light up around your garage door and its trim. Make a plan before starting to ensure the design works for your garage size. Of course, these ideas are only starters—imagination is the only limit.
Create the outline of a Christmas present with a bow on top above the door.
Create lighted outline images of stockings, wreaths, Christmas trees, reindeer, Santa, or other Christmas-related items above or alongside the garage door.
Use light strands to spell out your favorite holiday taglines, such as season's greetings or Merry Christmas.
Incorporate spotlights or projection images into your design.
With your designs mapped out, ensure you have enough working lights to achieve them. You can determine that by referring to your measurement notes.
Detangle all your stored Christmas lights, and test each strand you have by plugging them in one by one. Replace any dead bulbs. Swap out any strands that are completely dead with new ones. If you recently purchased a strand and it's malfunctioning, see if the store will give you a new one. Make sure all of your lights are for outdoor use, too.
Rather than using staples or nails, which can damage the trim and create a fire hazard, use light hooks or clips wherever you plan to hang Christmas lights on the trim of your garage. These types of clips usually have a strong adhesive backing. Space the hooks about one foot apart, and make sure just the cord connects to the hook, not the bulb, so you don’t damage the light itself.
For any lights you wish to hang in a vertical pattern, such as on the sides of the door, attach trim clips with an adhesive backing that will wrap around the Christmas light strand and hold it in place. You should also space these clips one foot apart.
Now that your clips and hooks are in place, it’s time for the fun part—hanging your Christmas lights. Start at the top (be careful on the ladder!), with the trim, and then finish by adding any lights to the sides of the garage. Connect the strands to one another as you go, and then plug the strands in to test them. If you notice more bulbs have blown out, you can replace them now.
Hanging Christmas lights can be a rewarding DIY project that will get you in the holiday spirit, but if you want to save time, stress, or simply don’t feel comfortable on a ladder, professional Christmas light installation is available. The cost to hire a holiday light hanger ranges from about $220 to $650, depending on the size of your home and the complexity of your designs.
While your imagination is your only design limit, there are a few things to keep in mind when lighting up your garage door for the holidays.
Use lighting trim clips and self-adhesive clips to avoid damaging the house, door, or trim work.
Avoid using lights or other decorations that require plug-in electricity to operate on the garage door itself.
To light up the garage door, consider projector images or spotlights.
Always use proper ladder safety techniques when hanging any out-of-reach decor.
Ensure your outdoor holiday decorations plug into a GFCI receptacle for safety.
Some Christmas lights are marked as being “UL Safety Certified” or Underwriters Laboratories Safety Certified. This lab is a trusted source for determining the safety standards of electrical products—you should make sure your Christmas lights have this label. Brush up on other electrical safety tips before installing any lighting features.
LED lights are certainly more energy-efficient, using 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs—this can help you save on your utility bills during what is an already expensive holiday season. In addition, LED lights last much longer than incandescent bulbs, about 25% longer. That said, they are also a bit more expensive than incandescent Christmas lights, and emit a bluish hue which some people don't like, compared to the golden glow of an incandescent bulb.
Outdoor Christmas lights cost between $80 to $300 on average without installation. This comes out to about $4 to $50 per strand. You can get a box of outdoor Christmas lights for as little as $20, if you just want to decorate a small area, like a doorway. If you want to go all out and cover your entire home, you'll need between 10 to 20 strands of 100 to 200 bulbs each.
