Last week this DIY made the blog rounds because of the fabulous Morgan from The Brick House . That’s where I first saw the light fixture and decided it was the perfect fit for the breakfast nook.
I immediately bought all the parts that Lindsey recommended. I knew I wanted to hard wire the light (the instructions are for a plug in light), but decided I would deal with that when the time came to install it.
All the parts arrived and I was eager to put it all together. I thought I would share some of the tips I would have found helpful before I tried to put this together.
First off, here is a visual of the parts she lists on the PDF and website. Some are not even visible on the diagram of parts, so this would have been helpful.
And another set:: The ones that are not lettered are the wiring tools and electrical needs from mcmaster.com
Here is the finished product, sans hard wire parts.
The cool thing about the project is that all of the different DIY’s will be slightly different because it’s up to you how you want to use the various lengths of pipe and how you want the elbows to bend.
A couple of helpful tips when trying to make this for your-self::
a | no matter what your electrical skill ( I have basically ZERO) you CAN DO THIS. It’s really easy, but time consuming and methodical.
b| indexfasteners.com have a $50 minimum purchase policy so I didn’t buy the 2 plug buttons from them. Basically it’s a plug that covers up the hole in the cluster body(item F.). No biggie, either live with the holes or go to Lowes or Home Depot and get one from there.
c | I wish I had bought some sort of electrical sleeve to thread the wires through the pipes and keep them together. You can probably find this from mcmaster.com. Maybe something like this?
d | I assembled the brass pipes together to my liking before I started wiring the light. This seemed to work well. I did have a little trouble with some pipes not tight enough and I had to tighten them with the wires inside. I was worried I would twist the wires too much and pull them out of the socket.
e | a couple times the white wiring broke as I was assembling the sockets. I kept wondering if a higher gauge wire would work better since in the demo photos it looks as if Lindsey has a much higher gauge wire than what she recommended. Maybe that was for demonstration purposes? I don’t think a much higher gauge wire will thread thru the pipes as well as the ones she recommends.
f | buy extra feet of wire. you will want it as a safety net in case you have any breakage. Maybe an extra foot? or two if you’re clumsy.
g | I didn’t use the electrical tape. I kinda forgot. I have plans of completely rewiring the whole fixture because I’m not sure all the connections are safe. I’ll use the electrical tape next time to ensure all connections are secure.
h | you will need a phillips and flat head screw driver to assemble. scissors are helpful too.
i | i plan on purchasing another pipe and a ceiling cap similar to this item #BAFL06NW from GrandBrass.com.
j | there is not right or wrong way to install the misc pipes. place them where you want. Lindsey doesn’t specify where the lengths of pipe should go, so go with what looks good to you. Same goes for adjusting the elbow joints.
k | I assembled the light buy looking at the drawn diagram via the PDF from Lindsey’s website. I also assembled the sockets straight from her drawn diagram.
I am ordering more parts from grand brass this week. Hopefully by next weekend we can try an install. I may have a step-by-step instructions for the wiring up soon as well. We will see if i can produce that…
