Converting A Hardwired Light To A Plug In Light
I recently was working on a space transformation and wanted to put sconce lightning on the wall. There were no junction boxes in the spots that I wanted to hang the lighting. So, my solution was to buy plug in lights for this space. However, the lights I fell in love with of course needed to be hard wired. My solution, convert these lights to plug in ones. It’s super simple to do, follow along and I will show you how I did it.
Materials I used:
Hardwired light
knife, or wire strippers
electrical tape
extension cord ( I used an indoor 6’ extension cord)
marrettes
I determined the length I was going to need my cord to be based on where my light would be hung in relation to the plug in.
When you cut the cord, be sure to cut off the female end of the cord. This is the end that you would plug the prongs onto. DO NOT cut off the end with the prongs. You need this to be able to plug in your light.
once you have the end cut off, separate the two strands a bit. You can easy do this just by pulling them apart with your fingers.
Then take your wire strippers, or I used an knife to score the plastic coating around the each wire.
I usually expose the wires about 1/2” to 3/4”. Pull the plastic off to expose the bare wires.
Take the wires from your light and connect them to the wires from your extension cord by twisting them together.
Twist a Marrette onto each wire until they feel tight.
I always tug at the Marrette gently to ensure its securely on.
Wrap electrical tape around each marrette.
I may go a bit overboard on the electrical tape but I always it gives me peace of mind that my house won’t ignite in flames due to this wiring job. lol
To install the ones I had, I didn’t want to really see the cord to much, so I decided to out a MDS piece behind where the light would be installed. I ran a groove on the back on my table saw to accommodate the cord.
as you can see in the picture, the extension cord comes out the bottom of the MDF piece. another option may be to feed the cord though the wall behind the drywall. I couldn’t do this since my walls are spray foam insulated that there was no room behind the drywall.
And that’s it. Now install your light where your want it. I didn’t want to have to physically reach down and plug mine into the outlet every time I wanted to turn it on so I got these off amazon and they work amazing. Now I just need flip on a switch and its almost like my light was hardwired.
Here is the link if you want to make a purchase
I hope you found this useful. I absolutely love that you can add lighting in essentially anywhere now. This conversion is so easy.
x
Amber
Set your own trends. Create your own style. This is what separates you from others.