I'm currently working on my vanity space and I'm not done but I wanted to share my DIY vanity light. You can find tutorials on how to do this all over the net. I must say that I was a little leery about dealing with anything electrical. When it comes to installing new lighting in my house, I leave that to my husband. My vanity light actually came out of my half bath. We bought new lighting and I decided to save the light because I saw so many transform them into vanity lighting. I read many how-to's on doing this. The last video I watched came from here, https://youtu.be/wb8D_1L8n50?t=1m4s ... she actually inspired me to buy this from Home Depot...
I asked one of the Home Depot employees about my choice in an extension cord. I know this sounds silly to some but I wanted to make sure my cord would be adequate for the voltage usage. The last thing I need is a house fire. I told him what I wanted to do with my light and ask if this was a good choice. He agreed with this so at that point I was able to purchase my extension cord with confidence. :) These are pretty inexpensive and only costs a few dollars. I couldn't find this particular one on Home Depot's website but found this 6ft version for only $1.47.
Now, I knew I didn't want to attach my lights to the wall so I decided to attach some hanging hardware. In order to do that, I attached my light to a 24" long piece of 1/2" x3.5" wood.
Before attaching my light to the wood I needed to pre-drill my holes and then I used random spare screws I had in my tool drawer to attach my light fixture to my wood piece.
Next was to attach my extension chord. used the instructions from this youtube post and they're pretty simple. I cut the end of the plug off (where you would plug something else into) and fed my extension chord through the back of my pre-drilled hole so that I could being connecting everything. I separated the chord down 3 or 4 inches and cut away the rubber/plastic to expose the wires. The wires from the raised rigged side of the extension chord are to be twisted around the wires of your white white chord from your light fixture. The wires from the smooth part of your extension chord are to be wrapped around the wires of your black chord. I had to go buy some new caps to cover my wires because I reused them for my new light fixture.
I bought these from Home Depot and used the red ones. You just twist them on tight. The copper wire is a ground wire which serves its purpose when the light is being used as a wall light fixture. Free standing, it's not needed. I cut mine off. And that's it... all done. I put my light fixture back together and sat in awe as to how easy this was to do.
My next thought was how did I want it to hang? I could let it stay this way, leaning against my wall but of course I wanted something different. I thought about using some type of picture hanging hook on my wall to hang it on but then I got an idea. I saw this wreath hanger at JoAnn's and thought THIS IS PERFECT...
The height on it is adjustable which is perfect. Now I can take my light with me for when I do theater projects and the lighting is terrible when getting dressed or doing my makeup. I am in love with how it turned out! This coupled with the wireless remote... YES! Here's some more pics...
|
| Freestanding Mobile Vanity Light |
I LOVE IT! Now to just finish my vanity space. I still plan to add the same light to the other side of my mirror. Full details on my finished vanity space will be posted once I finish. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Let me know what you think!... and please be nice. ;) Unfortunately, my comments are moderated due to spammers and those who like to post horrible things.