Above the peninsula in my kitchen, there have always been pendant lights. The lights I used were by Worth Home and they had an adapter that screwed directly into can lights. No tools needed! And while I did like the look of the old pendants I had, I was itching for a change after I changed the chandelier above my kitchen table. The shapes were too similar and I needed some contrast.
I found these pendants at Arhaus and I instantly fell in love with them. They were small but still had plenty of style. The only problem was, I did not have a traditional box for wired lighting, I had canned lighting. So I asked a contractor friend of mine and he informed me there are conversion kits available for changing canned lights to wired connections.
They were fairly inexpensive at $14 a piece.
I watched the instructional video. However the first step of screwing a sheet metal screw directly into the canned light felt like it was nearly impossible. I had to call my dad to help, and after about an hour, we got the two screws in. We were dripping sweat at that point.
The next few steps were fairly easy, but I realized I disliked the ceiling medallion they provided. It was cheap looking. Luckily I had a spare medallion on hand that I never had used for an earlier project. It was perfect.
The tricky thing about ceiling medallions is that you have to use much longer machine screws in order for the cap of the pendant to screw into box. So after looking for the right length screws for 30 minutes in my toolbox, we finally found the right length.
We had to hold the medallion in place with painters tape while we finished installing the pendant. And then the moment of truth, would the light work? After holding our breath, we turned on the switch.... and it worked! It took us four hours to install one pendant.
I only had one ceiling medallion on hand so I had to order another, plus get more machine screws in the length we knew we needed. So when all that arrived a few days later, we installed the second pendant in about an hour.
Was it worth it? I would say yes. Now with the conversion kit up, I can use any hardwired pendant I want anytime I feel like a change.
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