Do it yourself Free
One weekend, a sheet of plywood and some string lights. Costs almost nothing and still stops traffic.
| Spot | What to get | How big | How many | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A |
42 in. Bunny Silhouette (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
The star. In the alcove, out from the front door and clear of the garage wall. The garage sticking forward has already built you a three-sided room. Put the best thing you own inside it. This one works just as well mirrored to the other side of the walk, so if a tree, a slope or the way you come and go says the far side is better, swap it and swap its partner with it. What matters is that it is beside the path and not standing in it.
|
3' 6" H | 1 | $44 |
| B |
18 in. Giant Easter Eggs, 6 pack (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
6 pieces
Sidekick, left. Left of the walk against the front bed.
|
1' 6" H | 1 | $26.99 |
| C |
Pastel Bunting, 30 ft (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
24 pieces
Sidekick, right. Right of the walk, tucked against the garage corner. Keep it out of the swing of a car door.
|
10" H | 1 | $18.99 |
| D |
Solar Path Light Stakes, 10 pack (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
10 pieces
Walk and alcove lights. Both sides of the walk, then turn the corner and run along the base of the garage wall. That turn is what stops the alcove from going black.
|
1' 3" H | 2 | $49.38 |
| E |
Warm White Incandescent Mini Lights, 300 count (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
300 pieces
Roofline, both planes. Main roofline and the garage roofline, which sit at different depths. Lighting only the back one makes the garage look like a shadow stuck to the front of your house.
|
2" H | 2 | $51.98 |
| F |
Bare Arch, Dressed
Build it
The garage wall. Nearly bare, which is unusual for this build and is the whole point of it here. The theme is a set of tracks and the arch is the place whatever made them came through, so it wants to read as a gap rather than as a decoration: greenery low on both legs, nothing on the crown, and the tracks running under it and out the far side. Dress this one heavily and you have built a gateway, and a gateway is something a person installed rather than something an animal passed through. Put it partway along the line of tracks, not at the start of it.
|
7' 4" H | 1 | $31 |
2 things need an outlet, about 2 amps all together. That all fits on one 15 amp circuit, you are fine. Outdoor GFCI outlets only, and leave a drip loop in the cord at every plug so rain runs off instead of in.
You will also need
The cord is the part everybody forgets, and stores run out of them at the peak of every season. Outdoor rated only, and plugged into a GFCI outlet.
- 1× 25 ft Outdoor Extension Cord, 16 gauge (opens in a new tab) 2 plug-in pieces across 1 spot $16.98
- 1× Outdoor Timer with Photocell (opens in a new tab) Switches the whole display on and off on its own $14.98
About $31.96 of hardware, on top of the $222.34 of decorations. Buy it once and it comes back out every year.