4 DIY Light Fixture Rehab: Finale

Good news, friends! The end is near. When I left you yesterday, our old-made-new light fixture was assembled by not yet fulfilling its full illuminating potential. For goodness sakes, let’s get this bad boy hung and get the weekend started.


Yesterday, we left  a few inches of wire exposed. Using a pair of wire cutters, I stripped the end of the wire about an inch or so.

Once you are ready to hang your fixture, stop and read this seemingly no-brainer of a disclaimer: Electrical currents hurt. Head to your breaker box and turn off the breaker to your light fixture. Then test the wires with a voltage tester ($10 at the hardware store) to make sure you’re in the clear. 

If you are hanging your new light fixture where an old fixture once dangled (like I was) you should be able to easily loosen the screws mounting the old fixture to the ceiling and expose two sets of wires joined together with wire connectors. Detach the old fixture wire from those coming out of the ceiling and reattach your new fixture wires by twisting and securing with wire connectors.

Then tuck the wires with connectors back into the box and screw securely back into place. True confession: I know my descriptions are a bit rocky and right about now you visual learners are thanking me for photos. You are welcome.


Ready to see my lovely new light fixture in all its rehabbed glory?

I used the ceiling hook included in the swag light kit to anchor my light in just the right position. 

With a vote of 2 to 0, the general consensus in this household is that this kitchen nook is quickly becoming a favorite spot. For me, the light fixture tops this space off. June dog, on the other hand, has her own reasons for loving this corner of the casa…


Have a wonderful weekend, y’all!

Post blog post text from know it all brother-in-law…

 

Booyah! Happy now, Ollie? :)

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1 DIY Light Fixture Rehab: Day 3

Here we go with day 3 of our DIY light fixture knock off from Vintage Revivals. DAY 3?! Before you become too overwhelmed by the apparent workload, the project from beginning to end only takes a couple of hours (and this includes plenty of time spent twiddling thumbs while paint dries). To spare you from the world’s longest blog post, I just decided to break the project up and share little by little this week. Feeling better? Do-it-yourself confidence level rising? Great! Let’s keep going with this bad boy.

Last I left you, we’d just outfitted the lamp with a longer wire better suited to my space.

 
Now let’s keep pushing forward with a little paint and assembly. First up, removing the clips from each of the hanging baskets. We’ll only need to hang on to (and paint) three clips, so go ahead and toss the remaining three.

Once the baskets are free, head outside with your can of spray paint, lamp, baskets, hooks, chain to cover your wire (plenty of extra chain comes in the swag light kit if you are without), and any other miscellaneous parts from your old lamp that you feel may come in handy as you reassemble. Better to spray paint too much than too little.


Be sure to protect your light bulb sockets. I stuffed each socket with bits of tissue to make sure the spray paint stayed clear of these areas.

Spray away! Let dry and spray again until well coated.


Once nice and dry, time to reassemble our light fixture—once again those dozens of photos we snapped as we were disassembling the original light fixture come in handy here.


Example of old light part still needed: I had to super glue this silly piece of plastic from the original lamp to the top of my upper basket to make sure the lamp fit snuggly.


Remember this piece from the original lamp? It also received the spray paint treatment and came back to hold the lamp in place.


Then, weave the wire through the chain…


And attach the bottom basket using the three spray painted clips.

Nice! Now all we have to do is install this bad boy. I can think of no better Friday blog post than such. See you tomorrow as we wrap up this DIY masterpiece!

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2 DIY Light Fixture Rehab: Day 2

Alright, friends. Before we take off full speed on this post, I need for you to read this: I am not an electrician. Sure, I don’t mind piddling around with electrical currents in my own house, but not once in my twenty-something life did I claim to be a pro. That being said, this project is pretty simple and if I can do it, you can too. Just don’t sue me. Here we go!

When I left you yesterday, we just finished rounding up all of our materials to recreate the fabulous cage light fixture from Vintage Revivals. All our gear was lined up, but my $5.00 light fixture definitely needed a longer wire, so add a longer wire we will!

First we need to remove the disgusting shade from the lamp. 99% percent of the light fixtures you’ll find will have a piece that easily unscrews to release the shade. Pardon the schnauzer snout…


Note to the rehabber: When disassembling, take plenty of pictures along the way so that you can remember which part goes where. You’ll thank yourself (and, ahem, me) that you did.

Shade removed, now it’s time to crack open the lamp to reveal its guts. Once again, a simple part on the underbelly of the lamp unscrews to make this possible.


Once open, unscrew the two wire connectors (yellow things below) to expose the wires…

 
Once the connectors are removed, you’ll find two wires twisted together. Untwist, freeing the two wires…


Free at last! Next, using my swag light kit, I cut a much longer wire that will extend from the top of my fixture to the ceiling. Always leave more that you think you’ll need, we can always trim later (I cut my wire 4 feet long just to be safe). Twist each end of the new wire to the wire inside the lamp. Then twist the wire connectors back into place.


Now that we are rewired, reassemble the lamp in the same way you disassembled…this is where those photos are start to come in handy.

Step 2 complete! Now on to the good stuff—actually putting together our light fixture. Check back later this week for a little spray paint and elbow grease.

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0 DIY Light Fixture Rehab: Day 1

When I left y’all on Friday, I was obsessing over this do-it-yourself light fixture from Vintage Revivals…


The good news is I now have my very own copy cat hanging in my kitchen. The even better news is this project was so simple that there is no reason why we can’t all have one of our own. Let’s spend the next few days getting our DIY bearings and breaking this project down step by step. First things first, we need to round up a few supplies.

Note to the reader: I estimated the cost of each item. I could have told you down to each last penny how much the items cost, but my purse carrying all of the receipts is all the way across the room and I reserve the right to be a little lazy.

Supply List:

	Creaky old light fixture…I found mine for $5.00 at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Don’t worry if the shade doesn’t look too hot. All we need is the inside lamp that holds the bulbs…$5-ish
	2 metal hanging planters…make sure the baskets are large enough to contain your lamp. I used two 12” baskets…$10-ish at Walmart
	1 can of flat gold spray paint…$5-ish at Home Depot
	Swag light kit…if the wire on your original light fixture is too short for your space, you can rewire using one of these kits. Don’t worry we’ll go into detail on how to do this…$11-ish at Home Depot

Total: $20-ish…or $31-ish if you need the light kit like I did.

Check back with me tomorrow and we’ll get into the nitty gritty goodness of demo. Happy Monday, y’all!

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