DIY wood bead pendant light

So I promised that I was going to talk about the wood bead pendant light from my fall tour on Monday (click HERE if you missed it).

I love the warmth from the wood that it adds to our white kitchen.

Sometimes I like to DIY lighting and if you are interested then you can check out my DIY crystal vanity light shades as well.

Handmade Etsy Wood Bead Pendants

So lets back up there for a minute. Here are some handmade examples from Etsy again to refresh your mind which I would love for our bathroom.

1 | 2 | 3

The pendants pictured in the original design aren’t available anymore (click HERE to see more)

 

The reason I don’t have any pendants hanging in the bathroom yet is that our electrician hasn’t gotten to it yet. We need him to relocate the wall light to the ceiling to create two places for pendants. It just hasn’t happened.

Meanwhile, I have become so obsessed with the thought of having pendants like this that there was no return. I have been incorporating more and more natural elements into our decor and I have always had a soft spot for light wood tones, note my light-colored wood flooring which I have had for 16.5 years and still love.

You all know my turquoise colored pendant which we had over our kitchen sink for a while now. Don’t get me wrong, I still like it, it was just time for a change. Temporarily or permanent, it depends on our electrician.

How to make a wood bead pendant light

Materials used for wood bead pendant light

• pendant of your choice (I had to use a conversion kit for ours since there was a can light in place)
• wood beads (If you can’t find any large beads then check out my post by clicking HERE about a recent idea I had. This could also be used for this lighting DIY. I used wooden furniture legs)
• pliers
• electrical tape

 

Wood bead pendant instructions

DIYing a light might not be for everyone, I get that. Some of you might just say “Sure that I’m just buying it. I don’t need the hassle.” That reasoning sometimes applies to me too depending on the project. I had looked for wood beads for a while and bought some small ones on Etsy which didn’t work out (I recently found THESE and THESE huge ones though). Fast forward a couple of weeks to a trip to Pottery Barn when I came to screeching halt at a bin with some strands of giant beads in it (click HERE, they aren’t available anymore online though, just in some store). I have told some of you already that I couldn’t grab them fast enough to run to the register.

{Update: I came up with a DIY for you how you can use furniture feet as large beads. Click HERE)

And I just couldn’t wait anymore to make one. For the bathroom, I would probably like to use a strand with a single light bulb at the end but in the kitchen, I light the shade with it. And when I was at our local Target and saw the below Threshold pendants on sale for $12.98 (click HERE) I knew that I just had to give it a try.

As you can see the problem was that they were plug-in pendants. Not my favorite thing. I really wish they wouldn’t do that. Our kitchen pendant was a light that converts a can light to a pendant though (like THIS one). So I had to be brave, take some risks again and cut some electrical cords. Hint: use a wire cutter like this one HERE to cut and strip the wire ends.

The one part screws in like a light bulb and is pretty cool if you ask me.

So I took it all apart. Sorry for the bad cellphone photos but it’s just so much quicker when you are working on a project.

(No matter what type of pendant or bulb you use, you have to take it apart to put the beads on)

It was pretty easy to take apart. I cut the plug off the pendants and exposed the copper wire. And then it was time to put the conversion kit and pendant together.

#1 TIP

Make sure the two correct wires are put together, meaning HOT and neutral.

neutral = white

black = Hot

But do you notice in the below photo they are both black? Hmmmmm! The conversion kit was colored black and white but the pendant light was not. The pendant wire was all black with one wire smooth and the other wire ribbed.

Here is the tip:

Connect the the

ribbed wire to your white wire because they are both neutral.
And connect the smooth wire to the black wire which is hot.

Either use electrical tape or wire connectors to secure the connections. Don’t forget this step!

 

 

And then put the entire thing together. Make sure to strand the beads on first before connecting the electrical cords! Very important 😉

I used THESE stools and painted them. You can find the tutorial HERE.
And the gold faucet HERE and pineapple HERE.

And like I said if I’d use it in the bathroom, I think I’d like to use a pendant with just a build like this one HERE.

I don’t know what it is but I’m obsessed with the beads.

Tschüß

(Youleeya)