The warm flicker of candlelight is the perfect antidote to cold winter evenings. It may be chilly outside, but these easy brick lights will turn your garden into an inviting place and all the more atmospheric for enjoying a steaming hot mug of cocoa on your patio as dusk draws in.
They’re made from engineering bricks with three holes in the centre, painted with some positive affirmations to lift your spirits. And the beauty of making these yourself is that you can choose to write whatever words you want!
You can try painting them on freehand but for a really neat look, use a stencil. We used a couple of tester pots of waterproof masonry paint to make the words permanent, but if you’re going to be using the candles in an undercover pergola, you can use acrylic paint or some leftover emulsion wall paint, sealed with a coat of PVA glue to make it water resistant.
How to make brick garden lights
You will need:
✽ Wire brush or pumice stone
✽ Engineering bricks, 82p each wickes.co.uk
✽ Pencil and ruler
✽ Stencil, £3.99 amazon.co.uk
✽ Masonry paint: 2 x 150ml Sandtex Ultra Smooth Masonry Paint, £3 each wickes.co.uk
✽ Paintbrush
✽ Candles, £4/10 dunelm.com
Total: £16.45/3
What to do:
1 Use a wire brush or pumice stone to remove any loose bits of brick and smooth them down as much as possible.
2 Turn the bricks on their sides and use a ruler to lightly draw pencil lines as a guide for printing your words. Work out how many letter spaces there need to be and which one will be in the middle so you can work out where the word should start and end to position it centrally.
3 Place the stencil on the brick, making sure it is flat and flush with the surface. Lightly dab paint through the stencil using a small, stiff paintbrush. Don’t overload paint onto the brush as it will make the letters blot if you add too much in one go. If you want to, add a shadow or highlight to the lettering in a lighter or darker colour, to make the words pop.
4 Once dry, position the bricks and place the candles in the holes. Pack the sides of the holes with moss to anchor the candles firmly in place if needed. To give the holders extra garden charm, we added a few sprigs of evergreen foliage.
PHOTOS: NEIL HEPWORTH