With the dark coming earlier, and mornings starting later, adding solar exterior stair lights to your yard becomes so important for safety. (And it’s SO PRETTY!)
This is going to sound funny, but I never trained Bentley on how to climb or descend stairs. Each night I’d go up to bed and he’d happily sleep on the main floor until morning. It wasn’t an issue, he never knew any differently? Then I adopted Stella and Bella, puppy mill Mamas that had also never done steps…
As silly as it sounds, it was a real concern when we moved into this new house – where they would have to climb/descend stairs several times a day to go to the bathroom. I mean, the puppy mill Mamas are 5 and 6 years old with some trust issues.
After a LOT of gentle coercion with liver treats, cheese, a bit of pulling, and eventually bacon placed on each step, all three got it!
BUT it did take some changes to the steps to make them safer for dogs and humans alike.
First up was adhesive stair grips. I won’t link to them here because I don’t think they’ll survive the Winter. I picked them up at Home Depot and already one appears to be loose. At $12/step – that was a waste of money.
The other necessary change was to add some kind of lighting. I wanted solar powered so I didn’t have to run wires everywhere and add to my hydro bill, and I wanted something fairly bright in a warm white.
After reading about a million reviews, I decided to give these Amazon solar exterior stair lights a try. (This post contains Amazon affiliate links to items I used in this project. These links are for your convenience, but do provide the blog with a small commission. For full Amazon affiliate disclosure, please see the bottom of the page)
The general consensus in the reviews was that they were beautiful and bright and easy to install, but that in any given box at least one light wouldn’t work.
Sure enough, in my box of 12, two weren’t working… at first.
But it worked for this photo to show you the difference between the stairs that are lit and those that aren’t.
Each step has one exterior stair light on the right-hand-side (as you look down). It’s so bright, but not obnoxiously so, that it reflects off of the left side to give full coverage to the whole step!
When I say that two weren’t working “at first”, they did end up working! I got lazy and left them on my deck to deal with another day, and suddenly, after a few days of sunshine, they both started working! That’s not to say that will work for everyone, but it’s certainly worth a shot when Amazon returns can be done anytime within 30 days.
I have done zero editing to these photos except to sharpen the image so you can see details better. No lighting tricks, or shadow removal – they really look exactly like this!
These solar exterior stair lights come with stickers that you can adhere to your deck or fence. I decided to create a little paper template so that I could put screws directly into the side of the deck stairs and then click the little triangles into place. Very quick, very easy and they come with the screws as well.
I have a full-sun backyard, so these stair lights charge for more than 8 hours each day, but I can vouch for the fact that they also last more than 8 hours on each charge. This photo was taken at 4am after my dogs heard coyotes howling and decided to go apeshit. ♀️ (Dusk this time of year is about 8pm)
If you click through the link for these solar exterior stair lights , you’ll see that they are waterproof, heat resistant and even frost-proof. I can’t vouch for Canadian Winter survival just yet, but I’ll follow up in the Spring. I have high hopes.
For now, I’ve had them for just over a month and they are better than I expected.
SO, while this isn’t my typical DIY post, it is something that will improve the look and safety of your outdoor spaces – and since I’ve guinea-pigged (tested) them – I wanted to share a great find.
They are on sale right now for $112.99 CDN (8% off) or $79.99 US with another 20% coupon you can apply, for a 12 pack. With Prime Days coming up October 8-9, they might even go lower – so save this image to check back. (*posted prices subject to change per Amazon)
Have a great one!!