The GENIUS new reason everyone's buying solar lights for their backyards

today's project is going to start with this round solar light first step we got to do we got to cover it with tape the reason is we don't want to damage or ruin the front part of this light once we got it covered in tape we got to put a border around it we can use just some hard paper or anything like that cardboard that will Circle it up tape it and make sure it's snug but not too tight you want to be able to separate that and give it about an inch to the top once we get it covered go ahead and put some tape on the inside we don't want any of our sand leaking out look at that next step we're going to fill it with sand you can use any kind of sand or anything like that that will fill it play sand also works the best because it also molds to the shape that you want it in once we got that covered go ahead and lay down some Saran Wrap about a 12 inch by 12 inch square will work and we're going to fill that also with sand once we get a little bit in there we're going to roll it all up as in it make it into a little ball once we get it covered go ahead and set it on top of our solar light and the sand next we got to do we're going to mix some color into some concrete I went with a red terracotta look pour some water in first then the color and then mix it all around once you get that go ahead and add your cement now this is really dusty always make sure you're working in an outdoor location pour your Concrete in just like that and wear gloves it'll dry out the skin I hand mix it because it's not that much that we're making once you get it all mixed up it's time to apply it to the light in the sand just goop it on there as if it's like Play-Doh we're just going to cover it now you want to be a little careful because the sand in the bag does move around a little bit so once you get it covered and smoothed over don't mess with it too much we want that to dry like that as you can see it's looking like a little tiny Rock I'm going to add what we call the pig nose right on top it's a little blob that we're going to put on because we need the light to sit on this we also need it flat so I grabbed a huge popsicle stick and just rubbed it all up and down just to make sure I get a really nice flat area about 45 degrees the top once it dries we got a little rock and look at that turn it over and there's our light but it's backwards we need to take that out just go ahead and pop it out and you're also going to pop out the sand so pour that out into a bowl take the bag out and we're going to also clear all the tape and paper that was inside once we get it all cleared out what we need to do then is we got to install our solar light see whenever you put your hand over it it lights up so go ahead and just put that in because we gave a little bit of a distance it moves we can focus it any way we want now it's time to put it where we want it and this one's going to go in my front garden I'm going to move some of that bark mulch out of the way put it in place and look at that when you walk up it just looks like a rock but I have a surprise I want to light up my favorite mushroom that's out in front and watch this when the sun sets it lights it up that way anybody that walks up to my area can see my favorite decoration in the front yard I have this area in the front of my house that I want to beautify but I've got a clean out valve that I kind of want to cover up so I grabbed a bowl from the Dollar Tree and put it over to make sure it fits then I went to Home Depot and grabbed some spray foam next what I'm going to do is put the bowl down on a garbage bag and I'm going to grab the spray foam and start covering all the bowl up every square inch now spray foam is very sticky so don't worry once you spray it on there it's not coming off you want to cover every bit of that bowl what that is that that's going to cause a cavity in our Boulder that we can place over anything that we want to hide in the yard and we're going to go layer over layer now this took about three cans but I want to make sure before I put the next layer on that's a little bit dry to the touch just keep placing the foam on now this foam does take a little bit to dry so once you get it on you'll want to give it about 24 hours and there's the bowl stuck underneath the next step is we've got to carve the foam in nature it's not going to just be one big round ball for a boulder so you're going to want to put some edging to it so you can make it as random as you want I like to cut little wedges out of the foam that gives it a little bit of sharp edges something you can help adhere the concrete to now you're going to shape this all over twist it turn it just make it random like on this side I want a little bit of a Sharper Edge and I'm going to cut that off and it cuts quite easy Next Step I'm going to pour some water into a bucket I'm using cemento now mix a little bit at a time I probably mix a little bit too much here but what we're going to do is mix it and you're looking for not too runny but not too hard you want to be able to shape it and use it almost like a clay on top of the foam once you got it mixed up go ahead and just start adding it to the phone fill in all the little gaps and everything it does stick to it so no worries there just go ahead and keep putting it on all over this is going to be our first layer and so it can be a little rough go ahead and put it all over use any bits that fall off all you're trying to do is fill it in and give that first layer look and just keep smoothing it on for the second layer I made it a little more runny because what I want to do is fill in a little bit of the gaps and make the concrete a little bit thicker on there just go ahead and smooth it in and fix any little imperfections that you think you could feel now if it looks a little rough you can grab a chip brush dip it in some water and then you can start smoothing out the concrete that you put on don't go too rough on it just smooth it out that way you can have some smooth spots rough spots anywhere you want now let it dry and then I took some black paint watered it down and I'm going to add a little bit of color to the Rock I do live in a desert area so they're not just going to be all gray so randomly use a sponge just put some black on there you can go with any color you want I do live in a desert landscape so I'm going to add some Brown to it also make it look really good again use any color you want once it's all colored up it's time to place it in the yard now I'm ready to cover up the pipe that I want to have hidden and it's time to go ahead and add some ground cover and look at that what a beauty just makes the front yard look better and it looks like an actual Boulder I'm going to be using this wall board joint compound that you can get at any hardware store it's about seven or eight dollars for a tub this size and a little goes a long way you can see it goes on really easily and so almost like you're icing a cake just move it all the way around the surface and coat it this is also a really fun technique to take Old Pottery or old glassware and give it some texture and paint it to upcycle some of those thrift store finds now that the joint compound is dry you can see here that really all that is doing is it's adding some texture and depending on the color of the planner that you're using it's making it a lighter color underneath and so I'm going to be using a caulking gun and this Liquid Nails fuse it so all I'm going to do is take the caulking gun and put little dots of the glue in random spots all over the surface it can be a little it can be a lot it does not matter if it's messy this stuff is really sticky and can be kind of hard to work with I'm going to be going and put putting mine in kind of sporadic places but eventually I want this thing pretty well covered some other options for this would be to use the pre-formed rock backsplash tile sheets that they sell at department stores but they do get kind of pricey if you're doing a bigger pot which is why I opted just to use rocks that came out of my driveway for free and so I'm just placing these on here and I'll continue that process all the way over until these are filled so here it is fully covered you guys can see that it takes a lot of time to get these attached but this is kind of the look that you're going for it's okay if you have some gaps here because you'll be filling those in and you're also going to be covering up all of this adhesive so don't worry about it looking messy and I'm going to cover that with this pre-mixed adhesive and grout that I got at the hardware store here's what the pre-mixed grout looks like when you open it this one actually serves as an adhesive as well well so in theory you could have used this for the base I just opted for something else with a little more texture and so there's really no right or wrong way to do it I'm just kind of slathering that on and pushing that really deep down into the cracks and filling in all of those gaps I'm going to work in sections here a little bit you can wear gloves if you don't like the texture of this on your hands but you want to make sure that you're shoving it down into those cracks and crevices because you do want some of that rock to be exposed once you're done so you don't want it all to just sit there on the top so once you get a good layer all the way around go back in and make sure that you're filling in any of the gaps or the exposed adhesive and you'll want to kind of round out your Edge too to make it a little bit more like a pot and get a little bit down into the inside there so that when you do have your plan there that gray isn't showing through as much now that the planner is fully covered it's time to take it outside and wipe off some of that excess grout so here I'm just using warm water in a bucket and a sponge and I'm wiping all the way around the surface to get as much as that excess grout off as I can and you can see the more that you wipe the more of the rock that you're going to expose underneath now that I've wiped off as much as that excess grout as I can I'm going to go back in with just a slightly damp cloth and I'm going to keep wiping off a little bit more and you can see how that color from the rock is coming through even more and once I've got it to a point where I feel good about it I need to set it out in the sun let it dry and Harden and then the last step will be to go back in and take off some of the haze from the grout on the rock after you've given the grout enough time to dry it's time to do the final touch-ups I'm just taking an almost dry cloth going back in and any of the stones that you want to darken up just go in and kind of rub the excess off of that if you're using it outside I would definitely suggest doing some sort of exterior sealer and put your plan in and you're good to go hope you guys have enjoyed this project thanks for watching home talk see you next time [Music] thank you

Channel: Hometalk

Views: 383,254

Keywords: hometalk, how to, do it yourself, diy, home, garden, tutorial, instructions, craft, decor

Id: mttNdTdSyxM

Length: 11min 22sec (682 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 17 2023