Looking for a clever way to light up your flowerbed without digging trenches for wires or spending a fortune on fancy fixtures? I’ve got a DIY garden lighting idea that’s both budget-friendly and actually looks like art: solar lights on concrete pillows.
This all started with me staring at my flowerbed one evening, realizing it looked gorgeous in daylight but completely disappeared at night. I didn’t want to run any wiring (not trying to get electrocuted on a Tuesday), so solar lights were the obvious choice. But those thin stick-style ones? Too basic. They just felt… sad. Like tiny garden soldiers poking out of the mulch. I needed something cozier.
That’s when it hit me. What if the lights weren’t standing at all? What if they were nestled in like they’d just sunk into a soft concrete pillow after a long day of glowing? And yes, it sounds weird, but the vibe is exactly what I was going for. Think spa day, but for lamps.
So here’s what I did, mistakes and all.
The basic idea (with a few kitchen hacks)
To start, I picked up the simplest solar lights I could find—white globe-shaped ones from Dollar Tree. I liked how they looked like little moons. Not sponsored, by the way, though maybe they should be considering how good these turned out.
I dug through our recycling and found some tortilla ZIP bags (yep, the kind we hoard after taco night). If you don’t have those, any good quality zip bag will do, but make sure it has some structure to it. Trust me, flimsy bags = weirdly shaped pillows.
And yeah—I may or may not have used some old kitchen tools to help with this. That’s just who I am now.
Materials
For 1 pillow:
- 1 sturdy ZIP bag (mine was from a tortilla pack—don’t judge)
- 1 solar garden light (the kind with a stake you can remove)
- 1.5 kg cement
- 1.5 kg sand
- 800 ml water
- 4 teaspoons black pigment (optional, but moody and pretty)
- Vegetable or mineral oil (to coat the inside of the bag)
- 1 can or jar filled with sand (to make the light indent)
- Some sort of weight (I used a stone from the flowerbed)
How To Make These Pillows
Solar lights are from Dollar Tree while the ZIP bag is from a tortilla pack.
So here’s the part where you want to move slowly. I mixed the cement and sand in a 1:1 ratio, then added the water gradually. The final texture should be like thick pancake batter—something you can shape, not pour. If it looks like gray soup, start over. Been there. I threw in 4 teaspoons of black pigment powder because I wanted a darker base that would match the house trim and garden vibe. Totally optional. Regular concrete color looks good too.
Mix it in a bucket with a drill and mixing attachment if you have one. Way easier than stirring by hand unless you have arms like a cement truck.
Once the mix was ready, I oiled up the inside of the tortilla bag so the cement wouldn’t stick. Then I shoveled the mixture into the bag—slowly. Give it a few gentle shakes to settle the concrete into the corners. Don’t overdo it or the bag could split. I speak from messy experience. Before sealing the zip, gently press the air out. Then seal it shut like your project depends on it (because it kinda does).
Place the bag flat on a surface. Now, grab your can of sand and press it into the middle of the bag. That creates a nice dent where your light will eventually sit. I used a regular soup can, and it happened to be the perfect size for the light’s base. Pure luck, really. To keep it in place, I added a flat stone on top. Again, whatever’s heavy and nearby will work. Now walk away. For real. Don’t poke it, don’t wiggle it. Let it set for at least 24 hours. If you’re impatient like me, distract yourself with snacks.
After a day, I peeled off the plastic bag. It came off surprisingly easy, probably thanks to the oil. The concrete looked like a little sunken pillow—soft in shape, but solid to the touch. Then I popped the solar light off its stake (sometimes you need to cut off the stake bottom to get a flat base), and nestled it into the dent I made earlier. You can glue it down if your garden’s windy or if you have a curious dog. Mine stays put just fine for now. I made three of these pillows because I liked the idea of a little trio scattered through the mulch. They look way more artistic together.
Looks great at night too!.
Some final thoughts
If your “pillows” look a little too goth for your garden setup, you can totally paint them. Bright yellow, turquoise, even gold. Go wild. I liked the dark contrast against the white globes, so I left mine as-is.
These little solar light pillows turned out way better than I expected. Now my flowerbed glows at night, and every time I see them, I feel kinda proud I made them out of, well… groceries and cement.