I have been wanting to add some wall sconces (outside of the bathroom) to my home for a while. Layering lighting is a belief I strongly subscribe to. I have multiple lamps in each room, recessed lighting in all of the main living areas, and overhead lighting in all of the bedrooms. But there are two categories where I’m lacking: sconces and floor lamps.
I have a little nook in my living room and guest room (the nooks are identical because the two rooms are on top of one another) that would be the perfect spot for sconces, however I wasn’t fully sold on the idea of hardwiring the walls for a permanent light fixture.
But I figured there had to be a way to fake it til you make it, and Jenna Sue Design had a great blog post awhile back on using puck lights inside of light fixtures to avoid hard wiring.
There were a couple of features that the sconce needed in order to make it work:
It had to use some sort of opaque or fabric shade. I didn’t want the puck light visible through glass.
I wanted a matte black finish
Inexpensive
Straight lines.
After searching for a while, I found these sconces on Amazon, and Bingo! They were perfect… except the finish was bronze. But that was the easiest thing to fix, I could spray paint them.
At the time I was looking to purchase, the bronze color was $40 for once sconce. I thought that was a bit steep, so scrolled down to the Amazon Warehouse section, and found two for $18 each in “like new” condition. Sold!
When they arrived, one sconce was perfect, the other sconce was the completely wrong product? So I had to send that back. I ordered again and a week later another perfect sconce arrived.
I used Rust-oleum Universal Advanced Formula in Flat Black. It went on beautifully and this color was the exact matte I was looking for, no shine whatsoever.
In order to attach the cross bar to a wall where there’s no junction box, you just have to use drywall screws into a stud (or wall anchors if the fixture isn’t heavy). Since this going on a wall, you also need to make sure it’s level.
Once the crossbar is mounted, you can attach the fixture the same way you normally would, with the exception of connecting the wires (nothing to connect them to!).
The puck lights work on a remote control, so you just attach them with the sticky pad they come with to the area where the light bulb normally is screwed in.
And voila! Beautiful remote controlled, non-hard wired wall sconces. I really love the way these turned out.
I’m considering adding some to my upstairs hallway as well. They don’t give off a lot of light… think like 25W brightness. But it’s perfect considering all of the other light sources I have in the room already.
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