Outdoor Illumination: Bucket Lights

 

Yup we'll be changing out the green bulb for red for our 4th of July trips and then black lights for our halloween ones!

The finished outdoor result, I'm told I need more lights! Bucket lights out front, new chandelier inside the dome and all my running lights turned on. Thanks Furpod and R&T's Pod for that tip!

Materials: I made two buckets, obviously cut in half for one! 2 buckets, you can get this for free from bakerys usually, mine are 3 1/2 gallon, extension cord, I used a 40ft one to have room to move them around, 2 junction boxes, 2 light bulb receptacles, wire strippers, electrical tape, drill, Goop, and a set of nuts with bolts to secure the junction boxes.

After cleaning my buckets well, I flipped the lid and traced the holes where my extension cord will enter and the holes where I'll secure the box with the nuts and bolts. Then just drill those holes and attach.

Here we are with the box attached to the underside of my lid and the simple wiring of the receptacle.

All wired up and secred to the junction box with the provided screws.

Little bit of Goop to seal the holes where the cord and bolts enter my buckets.

And there we go, 2 colored CFL bulbs later and voila, bucket lights!

And here is the dome chandelier made from a hula hoop, some electrical tape and a few cannibalized strands of our party lights. Very cheerful in the dome now at night.

So pretty easy like I said, your buckets end up being a nice weather resistant housing for the CFL bulbs of your choice. Assuming you can find some free buckets and probably already have an extension cord you can use the materials list is very cheap, with the CFL bulb being the most expensive thing but you can easily get out the door at your local home store for under $10.