Ah, string lights How to attach them?
Let's get into that today, shall we?
I have a little bit of a bias here, but I think that my 50 square foot balcony
is probably one of the prettiest balconies I've made this my own little sanctuary.
And at the height of Covid, that outdoor space was so key for keeping me sane.
I had these string lights for a while and I never put them up,
couldn't find any helpful tutorials about that,
especially to hook the middle one, the two ends.
I kind of figured I knew what to do, but the middle one that was rough,
especially when I didn't want to use any tools.
I didn't want to drill in there. I want it to be easily removable.
So I figured it out and I'm here to share that with you.
Your balcony doesn't have to be exactly like mine to take some of these tip use.
Whatever makes sense for your space. You might not even need to do this.
You might be able to hook some wires together and hang it off of a rail
or depends on your situation to have it in a nice little diagonal stream .
So what you need really will depend on how you're going to be connecting
the string lights to your balcony or your patio, your outdoor patio,
your whole set up, and how big your latest.
In my case, I'm going to go over what I'm going to be doing on my balcony,
which is outdoor command hooks, two of them , Sugru,
for the middle part, in a Sharpie to color the hooks.
Let's get started at the hardware store on Amazon.
You can find these hooks, which is what I'm going to be using.
They can hold up to two pounds.
Don't make the mistake and do what I did,
which was use smaller ones, which are not rated for that.
I assume it's more to do with the tape than this,
but this bigger surface area allows the bigger tape to hold on.
And my whole wire came crashing down. So just save yourself.
The trouble is under 10 bucks. Just get yourself one of these.
Now, this other stuff is optional, but I'm going to take my permanent marker,
which is silver,
and paint this whole thing, including the tape, because it'll blend
right into my aluminum panel and you will not even see it, little hack for you.
These are rated for -29 to 51 Celsius.
It's made to be used outdoors.
It can resist the outdoor elements a little bit better than the indoor ones.
It's recommended to only use this on smooth surfaces,
just like any of the command takes.
So if you're using this on a little bit of a rougher texture,
it will not adhere as well. Do so at your own risk.
It's very easy to fly.
They tell you exactly what you're supposed to do and how to hook it up.
This is the part that goes on your wall, of course, and this is the part
that goes onto your hook when you remove the balloon first.
Stick it onto my hook.
Now, this is optional, but I'm going to take my silver marker
and color this entire piece, including the tape,
so it's going to blend right into my aluminum panel . I'll show you later.
You will not even see it.
All right. Well, I am done my little art projects at the time to put these up.
It's really simple to use these hooks. It's just a three step process, really.
So first off, we're going to do is clean the surface with rubbing alcohol.
You get rid of any debris or dirt that way.
Your tape is actually adhering to the surface that you're sticking it to.
And not the dirt; if it sticks to the dirt,
it's not really sticking your surface.
And that thing might just pop right off, you want this to be as strong as possible.
So don't skip this step.
Hope you can still hear me with all this
construction, remove the backside and then stick it on.
When you apply it, you push for 30 seconds and then you wait
an hour before putting anything on it.
Be patient. I know friends you want to use it but be patient.
Look how smooth it is.
You can barely even see it on.
Those string lights are on.
You're not even going to be paying attention to the light or silver there.
You will not even notice it.
You'll just be wondering,
wow how is it magically floating and holding itself up there? Magic.
Magic. For the middle part, since I'm connecting to the ceiling
and I don't want to drill into the cement, I'm using Sugru.
I'm sure you could find a cheaper, better option from the hardware store,
like if you really wanted to drill into your ceiling.
But I think that's overkill
or probably some sort of epoxy like this is expensive for what it is.
But if you're just an occasional do it yourself.
This is great of you Sugru for multiple projects around my house.
Like I use the gray one to make myself a sleeve or
I don't know, whatever this is called for my glasses,
because this pair for some reason just didn't have any.
I also used it as hooks in my bathroom.
I'll link this down below.
It's some sort of silicone elastomer.
It's good for minus 50 degrees Celsius to 180 degrees Celsius.
So it's good for indoor outdoor, a wide range of different materials
that it can stick on.
Not porous is better, but in my case, the cement is porous.
So what I'm going to do is split into two different parts to make that work.
You have 30 minutes to play with it and then you let it cure.
Twenty four hours for the first three millimeters of depth at room temperature.
In my case, I have it outside.
And because I'm using a thick glob of it, I'm just going to let it cure
for about 72 hours before putting any weight on it.
And it can support two point two kg, four point four pounds.
Now, I don't think my string lights are actually that heavy,
especially since I have hooks on each end.
So the weight is distributed among three different points.
But good to know that this will do the trick.
This comes in different colors.
The black one does stain a little bit.
I'm assuming when I remove this
that my concrete ceiling will be a little bit stained.
But it's an outdoor balcony. I'm not too concerned about that.
I would have gone for Gray, but I had this on hand.
So I'm just going to use what I have.
Basically, like Plato, you're going to want to work with it.
I split it into two pieces and the concrete is porous.
I'm going to use this part to stick on smear it, create a better surface
working area and then create a hook, which I don't need to make perfect.
But you could watch your fingers and play around with it to smooth it out.
And then I'm going to join these two pieces together.
Like that on the ceiling and we wait.
Don't mind me with my tongs cuz I'm little shouty.
Well, I hope this helped you.
I'm going to go enjoy my balcony time in the evening
and my little journal, as I normally do, sitting in my comfy little chair,
my Acapulco chair with this nice little sheepskin to make it comfortable.
Do you know what to do?
You know the drill.
Like if this video helps you, it can help a lot of other people.
I know that when I was looking for this information, I couldn't really find it.
Nothing that I'm showing you is revolutionary.
But it will be quite helpful, I believe, to a lot of people,
especially that a lot of people are enjoying their outdoor space
in a safe environment, especially for renters.
That's quite useful. And comment.
Let me know if this helps you, how you hooked up your life.
If you have another solution, I'd love to hear it as well.
Comment as well, how you're enjoying your balcony space
now that your string lights are up.
I know for me it brightened up the entire space.
I used to just have them set on a ladder for the longest time, a ladder I made,
and now I have them up in there and it's created this beautiful ambiance
light that I can come out here and write and chill.
And I pretty much just chill here all night
and then share share this with all your other buddies,
because I'm sure a lot of people would love to know this information.
Don't hoard this information.
Share it for the world and subscribe and hit the bell notification
so you can continue seeing this little face on your Youtube.
OK. That's it for me.
And to go enjoy my tea.
One of my favorite teas,
no caffeine in it, don't worry,
we'll get by you.