Spring ’21 ORC How to Convert Hard Wired Lighting
Hello from week 3 of the Spring 2021 One Room Challenge! If this is your first time visiting, you can get caught up with our ORC project here and here. The time is flying by, and Colin and I are working hard on weekdays and weekends to get the office done. This week we touched up the paint and installed some amazing sconces from Sazerac Stitches. Today I’m going to show you how to convert hard wired lighting to plug in. Feeling intimidated? Don’t be! I’m far from an electrician, and if I can do it, so can you!
I have been ogling Sazerac Stitches lighting for over a year now and was so excited to finally use their sconces for the office. I picked the Terra Cotta Loa Sconce because it coordinates SO well with the cornflower blue wallpaper. It is just *chefs kiss*. Even though I am not committed to a historically accurate mid century renovation, I do try to incorporate design elements such as color in our home. Terra cotta and cornflower blue were majorly popular around the time our house was built and I was happy to bring the colors into the office! Look how pretty these sconces are!
The only issue we had was that the sconces come hard wired. YouTube to the rescue! Apparently this is a very common DIY because I found tons of tutorials on the subject. I’m going to attempt to dumb it down as much as possible for other non-electricians like myself. This was an incredibly easy project that required only a few tools and very little money. If you are a renter or just someone who doesn’t want to make permanent lighting choices for your home, learning how to convert hard wired lighting is a great option! Keep reading for the tutorial and never limit your lighting choices to plug-ins again!
Materials
- Hard wire light fixture
- Lamp wire with plug
- Wire strippers
- Wire connectors
- Needle nose pliers
How to Convert Hard Wired Lighting
- Expose about an inch of wire with the wire strippers and then pull apart the two wires on your light fixture
- Using the pliers, wrap each end of light fixture wire with one end of the lamp wire
- Cover each of these wrapped wires with wire connectors, twisting to make sure they are sufficiently covered
- Hang your light fixture!
To quote one of my favorites, “How easy was that?!” Love you, Ina! The whole process took less than an hour and now we get to enjoy these beautiful sconces in our new office. I hope the directions and pictures were helpful for anyone wondering how to convert hard wired lighting to plug in. Don’t let hard wiring limit you from installing a gorgeous light fixture! We are now one step closer to finishing our One Room Challenge and I can’t wait to share more. The DIY IKEA shelves are going in this week and it’s already looking fabbbbbulous. The other participants this Spring are crushing it, so be sure to hop on over to the ORC blog to check out their work. See ya next week!
