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. Out from the porch where the drive opens up. Buy the biggest version of whatever you choose. Everything here is seen from 100 ft away or more, and small pieces simply do not survive that distance.
|
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 near the porch. Stake everything properly. Open country means there is no neighboring house breaking the wind for you.
|
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, matching the left, staked just as hard.
|
10" H | 1 | $18.99 |
| D |
Solar Path Light Stakes, 10 pack (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
10 pieces
The last stretch of drive. Both sides of the driveway for the final 30 ft only, where it opens out by the house. Lighting the whole drive costs a fortune and turns your approach into a runway. Light the arrival instead.
|
1' 3" H | 2 | $49.38 |
| E |
Warm White Incandescent Mini Lights, 300 count (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
300 pieces
Roofline and porch. Full gutter line and the porch. This is what people see from the road through the dark, so use warm bulbs with real output rather than fairy lights.
|
2" H | 2 | $51.98 |
| F |
Bare Arch, Dressed
Build it
The mailbox end. 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. 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.
|
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.