DIY: How to Hang cafe string lights

ince we’re coming up on entertaining season I wanted to post how to hang cafe string lights on steel cable wire, because I could not find any good references or good instructions online! I also will show you how to hang string lights around trees as they grow without hurting them. I also swapped out a different wire because the first one was terrible!

I would say this project takes a full day and it’s not difficult at all. You just need a ladder and a few more things which I will list in this blog post.

I used a total of four string lights and based upon that, I will tell you all the materials I needed and used – with links because my goodness, there needs to be a post out there that can help us DIYers who want to do this ourselves and know we can!

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Tools and Materials Needed to Hang Cafe String Lights

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• Tree straps – if you are going around trees (Amazon here)
• Aluminum wire (I would suggest 20 gauge at least) This wire is a high quality one on Amazon, here’s a cheaper wire also on Amazon. You can also consider this Hanging Light Kit – but don’t use the wire that comes with it (it will detach and slide off) but you can use the zip ties, and a variety of hooks.
• Micro-pruning snip – for cutting zip ties closely. (Amazon here)
• Wire cutters – to cut the wire (Amazon home)
• Needle nose pliers – Helps turn the small screws (Amazon here)
• LED String lights
  
• Outdoor Remote Control + Dimmer for LED string lights (Amazon here)
• Zip ties – black or clear to mach your lights and fasten the lights to the wire. (Amazon here)
• Twist and Seal cord protector – to protect plugs from weather (Amazon link)

To see the above entire list of product in an easy to add Amazon idea list click here.

1. 1. Fasten the eye screw to a wall, string the wire first rightly, then attach the string lights by zip ties.
   2. I go back and then screw in the lights as they can be a little tricky to make sure it is screwed all the way in for a good connection.

Below’s photo is using the wire kit, don’t use it, the plastic will slip off – but at least you can pretend this wire is the non coated wire and loop it through and you won’t need that fancy fastener either.

When it comes to stringing through the trees, I used the tree straps as if I was hanging a hammock on them (looping through each other, the idea is that the fabric is more forgiving with flexibility to let the tree continue to grow without any indentations.

When I strung all four lights and I turned it on and and went, oh shoot, this is way too bright it’s hurting my eyes and killing the ambiance! So I went to Amazon and found this LED dimmer that also operates on a remote turning the lights on and off.

You can go from 100% down increments of 25%, all the way down to 25%! It is so helpful depending on how many strings you have strung up.

Happy nights of entertaining! If you want all the string light items click here and add them individually to your Amazon cart.

This post was originally published on April 4, 2019 and revised and updated on May 22, 2020.