DIY Hardwire Fixture With Ground Wire Safely Into Plug In

by Becky at Flipping the Flip

10 Materials

$35

2 Hours

Easy

Transform a hardwired sconce into one that can plug in anywhere!

diy hardwire fixture with ground wire safely into plug in

I had installed these fixtures, which I do like, on either side of our headboard but the more I looked at them, the more I realized they were totally wrong for the location. So I picked up ones I liked but they're meant to be hardwired. And they have a ground wire. And this spot doesn't have a hardwire box. Hm, what to do, what to do.

Research. Which I did a lot of.

Now, before you yell at me for being a terrible dangerous person....

I know, I'm not a licensed, bonded, insured, nor trained electrician. I get it. But rest assured I went above and beyond to ensure I did this in the safest way possible. If you're not comfortable with wiring, absolutely hire a professional.

And besides, I was just at a restaurant where professional electricians had done this very same thing, soooo, pros do it.

So please, don't yell at me.

Because this fixture has a ground wire, I made sure to handle it properly which meant getting 3 wire cord and a grounded plug. Otherwise the fixture could electrify if there's a short and no one wants that.

Wiring the plug was super simple especially since everything was labelled inside.

Next was adding the feed through inline cord switch. As our outlets are not controlled by a wall switch, I needed to add some way to turn the fixtures on and off.

Here I ever so carefully spliced the cord, snipped the black wire in half, and wired it to the screws.

For more on this and a slew of other really darn cool projects, come swing by my blog Flipping the Flip!

Once everything was done on the cord, it was time to damage the sconce. Since it's meant to be hardwired, there's no "out" for a wire so I had to make one. Yeah, it was scary. Be sure to lay down some painters tape to protect the fixture in case your drill bit skitters around.

After wiping a bucket of sweat off my brow, it was time to install. Whew.

Ok, so I traced around the base of the sconce where I wanted to install it then attached an electrical box cover blank and a 4" offset crossbar to the wall. Make sure you slip on the fixture mounting screws before you do this.

Next I taped all the wires down to the inside of the fixture base with electrical tape and wrapped a huge glob of tape around the cord to keep it from being yanked out by accident. You can also tie a knot with the cord or wires.