Did you know you can convert metal sconces into solar lights? It's an inexpensive way to get one-of-a-kind solar lighting for your outdoor living space. Almost everything you need to make them can be found at the thrift store and dollar store, and I'll show you how easy they are to make in the tutorial below.

DIY Solar Metal Sconce Lights

The motivation for making the solar metal sconce lights was for our budget-friendly deck makeover. The inspiration came from a set of metal candle sconces that I had previously spray painted a creamy white and tried unsuccessfully selling at a couple of outdoor markets.

I'm so glad to have found a great purpose for them on our deck because they add such lovely ambient lighting to our outdoor living space.

Convert metal candle sconces easily into one-of-a-kind solar outdoor lights.

Since using real wax candles or flameless candles on timers wouldn't be a wise choice exposed to the elements (been there, done that), converting them to solar was the next best choice.

The birdhouse sign hanging between the sconces is also an upcycled thrift store find for flanking the outdoor solar lights.

Pictured below is where we started with the spray-painted thrift store metal candle sconces. If you don't have any wall sconces to convert, I see them often at thrift stores.

What You'll Need To Make Them

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Supply List

Metal Candle Scones (thrift store)
Sage Green Spray Paint
Whitewash Glaze
Exterior Clear Coat Sealer
Pathway Solar Lights (dollar store)
E6000 Glue

Here's How To Make Them

While the sconces looked great painted white, the color would be lost against our white stained repurposed louvered door deck privacy screen and so they needed to be repainted.

Step 1 - Paint Metal Sconces

The easiest way to paint metal sconces is with spray paint but I wanted to echo the seafoam green color we have going on in our deck space.

I happened to have a custom mix of chalk paint from a previous project that was an almost exact match and brushed three coats over the creamy white.

Step 2 - Painting Solar Lights

I looked everywhere for solar pathway lights with glass fixtures but unfortunately, they only come in multiples and I only needed two. I found these plastic ones at the dollar store and while not as classy as glass, they look fine.

First, I removed the stems from the lights and painted the solar tops the same seafoam green to match the sconces.

This step is completely optional and I could have just left the seafoam green color alone. But I decided to whitewash the seafoam green with white glaze on both the solar caps and sconces. Then I removed the excess glaze before it dried with a lint-free rag.

Once the glaze was completely dry I protected the paint with a matte exterior water-based clear coat.

Step 3 - How To Convert Sconces To Solar

To convert the sconces to solar lighting, I attached the plastic cover of the dollar store solar light to the candle sconce with E6000 glue. In order to keep the sconce upright during the curing process, I wrapped a soft cloth around the base and held it in place with a vice.

Once the glue cures twist on the painted solar caps and the solar fence lights are ready to hang outdoors. See, I told you it was easy!

These DIY Solar Fence Lights would look terrific hanging on fence posts flanking a gate or mounted on a patio screen or wall flanking a garden bench.

Thanks for stopping by the Interior Frugalista today! I hope you were inspired by these converted metal sconce solar lights.

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