Soon after moving into the duplex, I knew we were going to need to do something about the lighting situation in the main room.
It's a really long room with only two small ceiling lights on either side of it. Even with the addition of an obnoxious number of lamps, it still wasn't getting the job done.
I decided overhead lighting was the way to go. After getting our dining table - which we most often use for games - and struggling to see anything on it after dark, I knew I wanted a fun pendant light right over the table.
I found this cord kit at ikea which would allow us to install overhead lighting with zero electrical work. The cord plugs into a regular outlet, and has a light bulb socket on the other end. This means you can get overhead lighting anywhere in your room within 15 feet of an outlet!
You then can choose from any of ikea's pendant lamp shades to attach to your cord. They have so many stylish options! I wanted something big, so we went with the 23" nymo.
We hung the cord using a ceiling hook and attached the shade. To make the cord more discrete, we ran a raceway from the ceiling hook all the way down to the wall outlet. Then we screwed in the lightbulb.
Supplies:
- Cord kit
- Ceiling hook (our cord kit from ikea had ceiling hooks included)
- Pendant lamp shade
- Lightbulb
- Raceways to cover exposed cord
Directions:
- Decide where you want your light to hang and screw in the ceiling hook directly above that spot.
- Hang the light bulb side of the cord from the ceiling hook.
- Attach your shade to the cord and make sure it's the height you want.
- Affix the cord to the ceiling and wall using a raceway with adhesive backing.
- Screw in the lightbulb, plug in the cord, and admire your new pendant light!
Total cost of supplies for this project was under $60 - less than the cost of most floor lamps - and gives us lighting exactly where we need it. Installation took less than an hour.
If you're in need of overhead lighting and either don't want to pay for electrical work, or can't have electrical work done because you're renting - this is such a great way to get the lighting you want! It's inexpensive, really easy, and totally removable.
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