If you’re on Pinterest and you like outdoor lighting ideas you’ve probably seen the string light poles with concrete bases. I fell in love with them and decided to make my own version.
You don’t need a lot of things for this project. For my four poles I got two bags of concrete (25 kilos each), four buckets, hooks and the string lights. I also got four beech poles but I was lucky to get these for free. The cost for each pole was 95 swe kronor/11$ but you can probably do it for even less:
8 liter bucket 70 swe kronor/8$
12,5 kilo concrete 21 swe kronor/2,50$
50 millimetre hook 4 swe kronor/50 cents
I started with the poles. I made mine about 170 centimeter long but they where not all exactly the same length.
I placed the hook 160 centimeter from the bottom.
A great tip from my mum: a screwdriver will help you with the last bit.
I punched some holes in the buckets for drainage. I also intend to store them inside during the winter so they don’t freeze.
I’ve never worked with concrete before but was pleasantly surprised over how easy it was!
I mixed it directly in the buckets and found the easiest way to to it was to mix a little at the time and then keep adding more.
I made a hole in the middle for the pole.
Make sure you find an even surface to place them on while they dry.
Time to wait for them to dry over night. It took me about a day to make four but now I know how to do it I could probably do it a lot faster.
Ready for a swedish fika!
They can also be used over a table.
A good thing about the days getting shorter is that the evenings are getting longer and you get to use more cozy lighting 🙂
I’m super pleased with the result and already looking forward to make more next summer. I wasn’t hard at all and definitely worth the time and money!
Ida klipper och klistrar 
Great idea! One thing that could help with the setting of the concrete is drill long screws or nail in 3+ inch nails. Gives the concrete ”more” to grab onto.