DIY Barn Wood Light Fixture

DeeDee
by DeeDee
8 Materials
$55
2 Hours
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I believe this is the fourth post I've done all about our newly remodeled entry hall and there is still so much to do! Today its all about the lighting. Just a note before we get started, as usual when I say "we" in this post, I mostly mean my honey because he's the one who does most of the work. I'm just his helper!
Since before we moved in and scraped all the popcorn ceilings off, the light fixture in here was literally dangling by the wiring, from the ceiling with no type of covering over the bulb.....not even joking.....yall, that was 6 years ago!
Sorry, I didn't snap a before picture but just imagine an old shiny brass fixture with ceiling spackle all over it just hanging there from its wires.  Yep, that was it! Lovely, huh?


Anywho.....we used blue painters tape to get to the size of fixture we wanted.  After a few attempts, we ended up with a 28" x 14" fixture.
Next we went out to our stash of wood, we have lots.  This wood is special though, its over 100 years old and it came from my honey's family's barn.  Its very rustic and that's how we like it!  We chose one piece for the base and one for the sides.


Visit our blog for the link to read the story about the old wood.
This is the mini pendant light set up we bought at Lowe's in French Bronze.  We totally disassembled it to create our light.  While we were at Lowe's, we also picked out 3 light shades too.  We got the shades for 1/2 price. Bargain!
This fixture is basically a very shallow box.  It's just deep enough to allow for the wiring inside.  First we cut the base down to size.  Allowing for the sides, it ended up being 12-1/2" wide by 26-1/4" long.


Next using the smaller piece of wood he made the sides, or the part that would be closest to the ceiling.  This wood is 3/4" thick.  (2) of them are cut at 28" long x 2" tall and (2) of them are cut at 14" long x 2" tall.
We used gorilla wood glue along the edges were wood touches wood.  This helps hold everything firm and secure.
We held everything together using our nail gun being careful to stay right on the line where the two wood pieces met.
We used a 3/8" drill bit to make three holes for the wire to thread through.  We found the center of the box and made one hole there and then center again between the first hole and the edge for each end hole.
We threaded the wiring through and cut them to length.  The length will be your own preference of course.  Just make sure you leave yourself enough length of wire to work with so you get the look you want.


Visit our blog for more detailed step by step instructions.
Here's what it looked like and the lengths of each pendant light when he was finished.  The center is 10" long and the ends are 7" long.


Of course I couldn't snap pictures of the step where we connected the fixture to the ceiling because I was helping hold up this heavy monster up so my honey could wire it up (making sure the power is OFF!) and get it screwed into the ceiling securely.  We used two screws that measured 2 1/2" long to hold the fixture to the ceiling.  Please make sure you're screwing into a stud board or your beautiful creation will come down and that would be awful!
This is how it looks with the new light fixture turned on.  I picked out three 60 watt LED bulbs in the natural light version.  I love it and can't stop looking at it!


Have you ever made your own light fixture? If so, what kind did you make?


Thanks for looking!
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Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
3 of 6 questions
  • Cheryl Williams Cheryl Williams on Aug 08, 2018

    How tall are your ceilings?

  • Holly H Holly H on Aug 08, 2018

    How did you wire the 3 pendants in the ceiling?

  • Crystal Jean Crystal Jean on Jul 21, 2021

    How hard was it to scrape popcorn ceilings? And do you have a tutorial for it? Thanks!

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2 of 142 comments
  • Monique Monique on Jul 20, 2021

    Love the lights.....the wood part, not so much!!

  • Linda Abate Linda Abate on Jul 21, 2021

    An awesome job creating this beautiful trio of lights in your entryway. Definitely gives plenty of light. This would also be a great way of getting lighting over your kitchen sink, in a laundry room or over an island. Beautiful.

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