I bought a really cool ceiling fan that looks awesome and goes great with the look of the house. However, it doesn't have a light, and I need one. All the light kits available at Home Depot hung down way too low, so I decided to make one myself out of the stock light and some bits. I didn't document this as fully as I usually like to, but I did take a bunch of pictures at beginning, middle, and end, so, onward!
Here's the stock light. These lights are installed all over the house, so it was important to me to match it with the finished product.
Our house is Spanish/Mission/Craftsman style, so this wrought-iron looking fan goes perfect with it. It took me a solid evening to install, having to reinstall the whole thing (including the support box) three times to get it all installed to my liking (I'm still not totally happy with how the wiring is)
This fan didn't come with a light, but the bottom 'cone' is removeable--or rather, I had to install it. It had a bunch of electronics in it that I decided to relocate slightly, but more on that later.
Here's the lamp on the ground. I am going to use the shade...the guts are no good, they're made of cheap sheet metal that I won't be able to use. It only has two bulbs anyways, and I want my light to have three.
Here's a mockup of what I'm going for:
All of these electronics were in the cone (told ya I'd come back to it), and I relocated them to attach to the bottom of the base. No major problems with getting everything to fit, I'm not sure why it wasn't like that to begin with. Note the white and blue wires with the quick disconnects--those are what we will be using for the light (it's what they're for...see, the blue one says 'for light...who am I to argue?)
Due to a great stroke of luck (because I hate drilling glass), the little cap on the end of the cone threads onto a bolt that fits perfectly through the whole already in the glass glass. This will make my job waaaaay easier. Also, I think this looks pretty snazzy...this just might work!
A quick run to Home Depot later produces three sockets, a six pack of bulbs (I'm a sucker for the 'reveal' lights), and a nice long 10mm x 1.0 bolt (the thread pitch that the cap fits on). Oh, and a bunch of tiny screws to mount the sockets...their little tabs had a TINY hole.
Here's the plan to mount the shade. I was going to drill out the threaded end that the cap fit on, but it actually unscrewed (even easier!), so the bolt goes into the cone, a retaining nut goes on to hold it securely, and I'll sandwich the shade between neoprene washers on the end. Easy peazy.
Here is where I stopped taking pictures and just WORKED...it took me about 3 days off and on to finish it all. Three light bulbs was a tight fit in the shade, so I had to dremel clearance holes for the bulbs (ugh, dremeling FOREVER), I had to drill tiny mounting holes for the sockets to mount, and I drilled a nice big hole for the cables to pass through. I also threw in some reflective heat protectant sheet that was in the light...don't want to fry whatever was in those electronics boxes!
Here's what it looks like with all three bulbs on. I picked this bulb arrangement because you can actually change the bulbs (something I almost didn't think of, haha)...I tested each socket before I tightened them down.
Yay finished product! This is unlit. You can just barely see the purple of the bulbs...I may have to change to regular white bulbs (or clear) to get away from this if it starts to bug me.
Here it is lit. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Total cost, around $10ish dollars in parts, and I had to buy a new pack of cutoff wheels for the dremel, but I didn't use them up so I'm not counting them. I like it better than any of the $30+ light solutions I saw for sale, and they all hung down way further (important, as this light is already pretty low)
I call this project...success!
