Our house had a serious kitchen lighting dilemma. The kitchen lighting consisted of one ugly huge fluorescent light fixture which you can kind-of-sort-of see in my terrible “before” picture of the kitchen. Oh – and popcorn ceilings.
Once I removed the light fixture (oh – and scraped the popcorn ceilings, spackled, sanded, primed, and painted), I was left with this:
One light fixture junction box for the whole kitchen. Which meant that if I didn’t want to hire an electrician and put a bunch of holes in my newly-perfect ceilings, I needed a single light fixture that would provide enough light for the entire kitchen. I kicked around a few ideas, but I wasn’t 100% sold on even my favorite option. For one, it was almost $200. For another, it felt a little bland.
Would you believe that it was my husband Bryan’s idea for me to make my own light fixture? The boy has some great ideas sometimes! I was all, “What? No way – I can’t make my own light!” But he reminded me that I had always wanted an industrial pipe light fixture, and encouraged me to go for it…
So what do you think – was he right?
I’ve kept this project under wraps for quite some time. I started working on it just about one month ago, and primarily finished it in a few days. However, I needed to wait for my awesome dad to come over and help me figure out the logistics of hanging it, hence the long wait to reveal my handiwork… It almost killed me not to show it off immediately, but once I pictured the shame of excitedly sharing pictures of the not-yet-electrified light fixture only to possibly find out once it was hooked up that it was a dud, I resisted the urge.
But, to my screams of elatedness and vigorous jumping up and down after ceremoniously flipping the switch: it works!!!
I, Brynne Delerson, wired this whole light fixture myself from scratch. So the fact that all six bulbs lit up, the metal frame didn’t start sparking, and I didn’t plunge half of the neighborhood into darkness was a big deal.
We had not had a kitchen light fixture for three months now. Instead, we were using one dinky floor lamp. It feels AMAZING to reach over, flip a switch and be bathed in the brilliance of six 60-watt light bulbs.
Bryan now complains that he needs to wear sunglasses. I suspect this is because he is a vampire and the bright light burns his skin… (I will test this theory further by looking for sparkles in direct sunlight.)
Maybe the fact that I stand there flipping the switch on and off in ecstatic wonderment over and over gets a little annoying… Who knows.
What I do know is that you probably want to know how to make your own fabulous plumbing pipe light fixture. And I desperately want to share with you. So you will have to check out Part 2: How To Make A Fabulous Plumbing Pipe Light Fixture.
Brynne, that's awesome! I can't wait to see the tutorial. Love it!
Thanks so much!
Where can I get the build sockets to pipe threads adaptors. I want to give that a try. Thx
Hi Tod! You can find all the details on specific supplies here in this post: https://www.thegatheredhome.com/how-to-make-fabulous-plumbing-pipe/
Good luck with your build!
Brynne that looks great! and the work you did on that ceiling! I don't think I would have the patience by any means. Looking forward to the tutorial – may have to try something like this. Do you think it would look good with maybe some branching to make more of a chandy?
Oh my goodness, yes, a chandelier shape could be totally fab! I may have to draw a few alternate shape ideas for my tutorial… Thanks so much, Kaci!
Wow we are so on the same page … Contemplating making my own since the Serge Mouille is just a tad out of budget. I'll stay tuned for your tutorial. Thank you for the inspiration {as always}
I had to look up Serge Mouille… I'd seen the design before (and love it!), but didn't automatically connect it with that name. There's got to be a way to create something similar with pipe materials, right? 🙂
Thanks Kiki!
oh, wow–that is so fabulous! I am trying desperately to think of somewhere I need one in my house!
Thanks so much Gretchen! Everyone needs one of these in their house 🙂
I found you on the YHL forums, and I love your light fixture. Bryan is an intelligent young man, suggesting that you build it yourself. As for his sensitive eyes, you should install a dinner switch. I love having the ability to chose the amount of light in any room, and a dimmer is the best way to achieve that effect.
Thanks so much for stopping by! I think a dimmer switch is definitely the way to go – I guess that's the next thing I can learn to DIY… 🙂
Love the industrial and simple style of this. Beautiful!
Thanks Meagan!
Pinned this seriously amazing project! I'm intimidated by anything having to do with electricity so I'm in awe of you right now. It doesn't look DIY even one bit…very impressed!
Hi Mari! Thanks so much 🙂 Electricity scares me too! I'm so thankful I had my dad to doublecheck that no one would get electrocuted 😉
I am in love with this light! It matches the bench I made, I so need to make one of these 🙂
I’m thinking about trying this in my kitchen! I can’t decide if I will put it above the sink or above the island. I need something with a lot of lights since this old house doesn’t have a lot in the light department, like yours. NO recessed lights or anything.
Oh yay! Yes, finding a light fixture that can provide enough light from one junction box can be a tough job! I will say that with 60-watt bulbs, this one is practically a floodlight – you could probably get away with some dimmer bulbs, haha 🙂
How does one work the sockets so they’re secure and…. look just like what you have here?
Hi Kurt,
The sockets sit inside the reducer pieces. The PVC reducer pieces don’t exactly connect with the iron pipe nipples, but you can kind of screw them together and use an adhesive to make sure they hold well. Hope this helps!
I really wanted to thank you for this blog. I built my own style of chandelier and was stuck on one piece of the puzzle. You’re post on mounting it saved my night. I went to Michael’s and also used a 7″ round plaque. This worked like a charm. Tell your dad thanks too! I was going to post a picture but had no way of doing so. Thanks again!