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A Thoughtful Place

A Thoughtful Place is a Tennessee based lifestyle blog about design, fashion, gatherings and the occasional from the heart post.

Reading Light Tutorial

August 15, 2011 by Courtney 13 Comments

I have received so many wonderful and sweet comments on our big boy room reading nook. I have also received a ton of emails asking about how we wired the reading light. I had originally asked my husband if we should do a tutorial on the light, but he was a little reticent giving out electrical advice. So this is my official disclaimer: we are merely showing what we did, and do not in any way claim to be experts . .  ! Now that I have that off of my chest, we can get on with it! IMG_2875 There really wasn’t much to it! We started with an outdoor lamp from Home Depot. Because it is an outdoor lamp, we purchased a lamp cord so that we could plug it in. STEP ONE:  Drill a hole in your bookcase. We could have drilled more holes in an effort to hide the wire, but we were confident that it wouldn’t show and wanted to keep things very simple! Slip the lamp cord through the hole. IMG_3391 STEP TWO:  Attach the lamp cord to the wires in the lamp. Use screw caps {sorry we didn’t have a photo of this} STEP THREE:  Attach the lamp to the bookcase {Nothing out of the ordinary here. Simply follow the directions given that came with the lamp}. IMG_3392 STEP FOUR:  Use a large accessory on the shelf to help hide the wire. The basket worked great for us. IMG_3393 STEP FIVE:  Although it is anchored to the wall for safety, the Expedit is not flush with the wall which allowed us to have the space needed to plug it in. The curtain hides the gap between the bookcase and the wall. IMG_3394 STEP SIX:  Use a switch at the outlet so that it is easy to turn on and off and little hands are not going anywhere near the actual outlet. IMG_3402   IMG_3404 IMG_2959 And there you have it my friends! Not much too it. If I didn’t have the accessories which were helping to hide the cord down the back of the bookcase, I would simply use some electrical tape to tape the chord into place along the thick edge of the Expedit. Hope that helps to shed some light on the situation {sorry, couldn’t help myself!}. And because the hubs is pretty darn cool, he found this “How to Make a Hardwire Light Fixture into a Plug In,” link for you which also might help! Hope you all had a great weekend!

Filed Under: bedrooms, Do it yourself, tutorial, Uncategorized

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Comments

  1. -Kasey says

    August 15, 2011 at 10:01 am

    How cool and how simple! Thanks for sharing 🙂

    Reply
  2. Shelley says

    August 15, 2011 at 12:22 pm

    This is so cool! I've got to come up with a space to do this in 😀

    Reply
  3. Lisa says

    August 15, 2011 at 12:52 pm

    It looks great Courtney, and I love how (relatively) easy it was to install. Thanks for sharing your steps!

    Reply
  4. Cassie {Hi Sugarplum!} says

    August 15, 2011 at 2:01 pm

    Great tip! we tend to 'rig things up' over here too. 😉

    Reply
  5. natasha {schue love} says

    August 15, 2011 at 3:18 pm

    I LOVE it! Totally want to do something like this in one of our rooms!

    Reply
  6. Marissa Waddell :: ROOST says

    August 15, 2011 at 3:51 pm

    That light is beyond beautiful. Fantastic choice 🙂

    Marissa
    http://www.roost-home.blogspot.com

    Reply
  7. Allison says

    August 15, 2011 at 5:34 pm

    Love the light and seems easy to install. Great tips and thanks to your hubby for the link! Have a great week, Courtney!

    Reply
  8. Aubrey {All Things Bright and Beautiful} says

    August 15, 2011 at 10:43 pm

    That switch converter is the thing that is so genius to me…I always get nervous when my little ones think it's a good idea to plug/unplug stuff (yeah, I'm one of *those* moms…I cried dropping my four year-old off at his first day of preschool today…it was only for two hours. yep.). Still absolutely adore that light fixture, it's just so darn cool!!!

    Reply
  9. Lori says

    August 16, 2011 at 1:24 am

    What a great job! Love the converter.
    Take care,
    Lori
    http://www.lorimayinteriors.com/blog

    Reply
  10. emily says

    August 16, 2011 at 5:43 am

    I love this idea! And great tutorial!

    Reply
  11. Marianne {Style For Living} says

    August 16, 2011 at 3:02 pm

    Love how you did this. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  12. iheartorganizing says

    August 17, 2011 at 4:48 am

    Exactly what I needed to see! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

    xoxo,
    Jen

    Reply
  13. Nikki says

    March 12, 2012 at 6:29 pm

    Just wondering if the glass gets hot after being on for a long time. I am considering this light for my kids bunk beds as a reading light but don't want them burning themselves. Thanks. Love your reading nook.

    Reply

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