New Dining Room Fixture

With our house on the market I decided it was finally time to get rid of this old ceiling fan in our dining room:

Blah

I had originally intended on using this shade I bought at a West Elm store closing ($20!) for a modern vibe. But I decided to hang on to it and use it in our next house. ;)

So instead I found this guy at our local Habitat ReStore:

It's not my #1 choice but I thought some spray paint could help with the brassy-ness. (Side note: I saw one of these fixtures at Home Depot in Silver for $70. Ha on them!) I used an metallic antique brown spray paint color to match the finish of the fan we have in the living room.

Before I get to the final reveal, I want to share with you some lighting/ wiring basics. In my last lighting install I wanted to but didn't have a chance. This is a fairly simple project to take on once you know the basics.

First of all, if you're going to work with the wiring in your house turn off the breakers for that room! Electricity isn't scary unless it's still on when your messing around with it. Otherwise it's pretty simple. (P.S.- these are just basics to give you an idea of how wiring is done, if your nervous ask for help. Don't try and sue me if something goes wrong ok?! Ok-thanks!)

After you've turned of the correct breaker you can take down your fixture. It's usually as easy as unscrewing a few screws.

Once it's all down you'll have a mess of wires all attached to each other.

(P.P.S.- If your house is newer than mine; which it probably is since mine was built in 1930, you'll have something like this that houses your wires. It's also what your fixture is screwed into:)

So, there should be 3 wires. A white which is your neutral, a black which is your hot, and a green or gold one which is your ground wire.

Here's a link to handy diagram of wiring which lays it out clearly:

http://galbreathassoc.com/maintenance/ele-fixture.htm

Side Note: My new fixture had all gold cased wiring instead of white and black. 

If yours has this as well you can tell the difference between the neutral and hot wires buy the texture of the wires. The hot  (black) has a ribbing on the plastic casing you can feel. The neutral (white) will be smooth.

Unscrew all the plastic caps connecting the original fixture to the ones coming out the ceiling. 


In the picture above you can see the exposed wiring coming out of the casing, the wires in the ceiling will have the same look. Twist the exposed wires of each fixture around each other by matching the colors together- white with white, black with black, ect and secure with the wire caps you took off earlier. 


Then before screw everything back together, test it out! Pop a light bulb in there, turn on your breaker and see if your hard work has paid off.


If you have light then you're good to go! Screw everything back together and admire your handy work.

(P.P.P.S.- Over at the Brooklyn Limestone she also has a nice tutorial on replacing light fixtures with some good pictures if you want to check it out!)

Good luck!