DIY Upcycled Solar Wall Sconces

2 Materials
$5
4 Hours
Easy

For my very wooded back yard I not only needed some extra solar lights, but also wanted to decorate a very plain fence that surrounds our dog pen. We need the extra lights in the pen for letting the dogs out at night. A purposeful trip to the local thrift store and I was able to find exactly what I was looking for to create both decorative and functional solar lights.

Old Candle Holders


At the thrift store I found 3 sets of old candle holders for only $3.99 each. These were such a good find and would work perfectly for what I wanted to create.

Making the solar glass globes


Not did I want solar lights but I also wanted to use up some of the glass jars in my recycling bin. Two sets of the candle holders had a flat base that was perfect to use the old jars as globes for the solar lights.


First I removed the top section of the $.97 cent solar lights I purchased at Walmart. Then I applied Gorilla Glue to the edges around the solar light and attached it to the bottom of the glass jar.

Solar Glass Jars


I allowed the glue to dry for several hours while I continued to work on the other parts of the project.

Spray Paint the wall sconces


I selected Rust-Oleum Spray Paint in Seaside Gloss to spray paint the wall sconces and the tops of the glass jars.

Create the solar light base


Once the paint was dry overnight, I hung up each sconce and attached a painted lid to the candle base of each sconce. I needed to hang them up get the lids to stay in place while the glue dried.

Hang them up on the fence outside


After that, it was just a matter of hanging the sconces on the fence outside and making they got plenty of daily sunshine to keep them charged up.

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Donna Powell
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  1 question
  • Nancy Nancy on Jul 26, 2021

    Fantastic idea! How did you use the sconces that were not flat - the ones meant to hold tapers?

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  • Goldbeargirl Goldbeargirl on Jul 25, 2021

    Love it! I've been putting fun things on my fence for years!

  • Michael Michael on Jul 24, 2022

    Thats all fine and dandy while the rechargeable battery last but theres two tiny screws to get out plus hope you fingers are long enough to get to the battery to replace.worst case though is to break the glue seal and pull it out then use velcro cut to fit around the solar panel and stick the ones that will go in the Bottom of jar still attached to each other and. Peel off the paper backing exposing the sticky side and push in place and next time it needs a battery just rock it side to side and pul it off and the velcro that held it will still be in jar to reattach.just remember dont block any of the solar panel when putting on the velcro.ive been making these for years and the velcro saves you alot of time changing the battery.

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