Yard Plotted to scale, promise

Lace Valentine's Day · L-Shaped with Projecting Garage

Lace Valentine's Day layout for a L-Shaped with Projecting Garage

Cut-lace panels, white lanterns and warm light coming through patterned edges. The quiet, grown-up end of Valentine's Day, and the only version of it that still looks right on a February morning with nothing switched on.

your l-shaped with projecting garage, 62′ × 28′ 6 of 11 spots filled
To-scale site plan for a L-Shaped with Projecting GarageA to-scale overhead site plan of a l-shaped with projecting garage, 62 feet of street frontage by 62 feet deep, with the house set back 26 feet from the front sidewalk. The street runs along the top of the drawing. 6 of 11 marked positions are filled. Filled: the star; sidekick, left; sidekick, right; walk and alcove lights; roofline, both planes; the garage wall. Left empty: under the porch roof; deeper, off to one side; along the eaves; porch posts and rail; the front door. STREETDRIVEHOUSEGARAGE62'ABmax 6'Cmax 6'DEFPmax 8'Hmax 6'TRWmax 6.7'

Drawn to scale. Everything is measured in feet from the front sidewalk, and your front door is 80″ tall if you need something to check against.

this theme on this shape

Lace Valentine's Day fills 6 of this shape's 11 marked spots for free, and 6 of them once every budget is unlocked.

The paid tiers do not fill any more of them on this shape. What they buy here is a better piece in each spot rather than extra spots.

With everything unlocked, four spots stay empty because this theme has no piece written for that kind of spot: under the porch roof, along the eaves, porch posts and rail, the front door.

Another stays empty because its one piece for that spot is already standing elsewhere in this yard: deeper, off to one side.

first, the deal with your yard

Read this before you buy anything

The garage is the front of your house whether you like it or not. It is closer to the street than anything else, it is wider than the door, and headlights hit it first. Fighting that is a losing game, so decorate it on purpose. The reward for this shape is the alcove: a recessed corner with walls on two sides that shelters things from wind and frames whatever you put in it. The risk is that the alcove is also in shadow, and anything unlit in there is invisible from the street.

Who's looking, and from where

  • Straight on from the street, where the garage dominates
  • From the driveway looking into the alcove
  • The angle down the block, where only the garage face shows

The classic mistake

Treating the entry as the center of the house and spacing everything around it. The entry is off to one side. Symmetry built around it looks lopsided from the street.

Check this one thing

Keep everything out of the garage door swing and off the apron where it meets the drive. An up-and-over door needs more clearance in front of it than people expect.

same yard, four budgets

Pick your number

Every version below was worked out against the map up there, and nothing gets a spot unless it physically fits. Footprint and height both. The Do it yourself version is free and complete, so you can go do that today. The other three are the paid guide.

Every price below was checked on or after 27 September 2026, and each item carries its own date. Holiday pricing moves weekly.

Do it yourself Free

stays under $250
$202.74 $47.26 to spare

One weekend, a sheet of plywood and some string lights. Costs almost nothing and still stops traffic.

The Do it yourself plan: every piece, its spot on the drawing, how big it is, how many and what it costs.
Spot What to get How big How many Cost
A 36 in. Lace Heart Panel (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' H 1 $49
B 18 in. Lighted Heart Stakes, 6 pack (opens in a new tab) Amazon 6 pieces
Sidekick, left. Left of the walk against the front bed.
1' 6" H 1 $24.99
C 24 in. Lighted Heart Wreath (opens in a new tab) Amazon
Sidekick, right. Right of the walk, tucked against the garage corner. Keep it out of the swing of a car door.
2' H 1 $24.99
D Pink Solar Path 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 $46.78
E Pink 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 $25.98
F Bare Arch, Dressed Build it
The garage wall. Lace panels down both legs and nothing on the crown, then one warm light on the ground BEHIND it aimed back towards the road. This theme is light coming through a pattern, and the arch is the only thing in the yard that can hold a pattern up at eye level with air behind it: everything else is flat against something. Lit from the front you see fabric, lit from behind you see the cut. Weight the bottom hem of each panel with a rod or a line of washers, or the first breeze wraps it round the leg and it stays there.
7' 4" H 1 $31
the plug situation

4 things need an outlet, about 0.7 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.

About $48.94 of hardware, on top of the $202.74 of decorations. Buy it once and it comes back out every year.

Image prompt for this exact list
Photorealistic evening photograph of a two-story suburban with an attached front-facing garage house on a l-shaped with projecting garage, 62 ft of street frontage with a 26 ft front setback, photographed from the street at a slight angle toward the entry side, so the forward-projecting garage and the recessed front door alcove are both visible, camera height 5.5 ft. The yard is decorated in a lace valentine's day theme. Cut-lace panels, white lanterns and warm light coming through patterned edges. The quiet, grown-up end of Valentine's Day, and the only version of it that still looks right on a February morning with nothing switched on. Decorations, in position: 1. The star: a white cut-lace heart panel like an enormous paper doily on a stand, 3 ft tall. 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. 2. Sidekick, left: six flat hearts on stakes at staggered heights, outlined in warm red light, 1.5 ft tall. Left of the walk against the front bed. 3. Sidekick, right: a heart-shaped wreath of red and white blooms with light woven through it, 2 ft tall. Right of the walk, tucked against the garage corner. Keep it out of the swing of a car door. 4. Walk and alcove lights: 2 of them, a line of short stakes glowing soft pink along the edges of a walkway, 1.3 ft tall. 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. 5. Roofline, both planes: 2 of them, a dense run of tiny pink bulbs along a roofline, soft rather than hot, 0.2 ft tall. 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. 6. The garage wall: a metal garden arch over a front path at night, dressed down both sides so it reads as a gap in something rather than as a frame, people walking through it, 7.3 ft tall. Lace panels down both legs and nothing on the crown, then one warm light on the ground BEHIND it aimed back towards the road. This theme is light coming through a pattern, and the arch is the only thing in the yard that can hold a pattern up at eye level with air behind it: everything else is flat against something. Lit from the front you see fabric, lit from behind you see the cut. Weight the bottom hem of each panel with a rod or a line of washers, or the first breeze wraps it round the leg and it stays there. Shot at dusk with the sky still faintly blue, every lit decoration switched on and brighter than anything else in the frame, warm light spilling onto the lawn. Palette: #F2E8E4, #D2506B, #FFFFFF, #C9A227. Nothing floats; every piece sits on the ground at the stated distance. Scale reference: the front door is 80 inches tall.

see it first

The other two prompts

Each budget above has its own prompt for the finished yard, because each one is a different list of things. These two do not change between budgets: one for the empty yard so you have a before picture, and the negative prompt that stops every image model on earth from burying your lawn in snow you did not ask for.