Industrial/retro light fixture
The light we had above the dining table was getting old and so I was encouraged to replace it; as any good husband I of course said "no worries" but obviously 6 month later it was still not done (like any good husband)...
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When I finally got around to it, I decided to match it with the reclaimed wood console by reusing some of the leftover strips/planks (not sure what to call them really).
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As you can see on the left, the idea was fairly simple:
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fix a "crown" to ceiling with threaded inserts
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Add the main "circle" on top where the light bulbs will drop from while hosting/hiding all the electrical connections
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I used some leftover panels I had laying around for all of it, and just glued on the old wood strips to look from below.
Simple enough overall, provided you have basic notions of electrical connections.
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For a bit more clarity, I spent the whole of 5 mins on MS Word to try and create some sort of blue print that you can see just below here on the right.
When it comes to sourcing the rest of the material:
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I had all the hardware already (inserts, screws...)
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I just bought a few meters of electrical cable from Bunnings
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The retro LED bulbs and the retro sockets come from eBay and AliExpress.
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All in all the total cost for the finish product would not exceed AU$ 50 (about 30Eur or US$38). Quite cheap if you do not count the time ;-) (probably around 3Hrs, hard to evaluate as I would work on this 5, 10 or 20 mins at a time).
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Now, what were the flaws, complications and general hassle?
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As you can see in the finish product below, the circles I cut are far from perfect: I used a jig Saw and Sander, obviously not enough --> if I had to do it again, I would use a router (with a circle jig) or even a table saw...
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The cable I purchased came with blue inscriptions along its length, no biggie but I had to scrape it of with a utility knife
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And now for the biggest hassle, definitely a design flaw/mistake. Once I assembled the lower "circle" with all the sockets and connections, I had still to connect the whole thing to the cable from the ceiling before securing it on the crown. A real headache it was since I did not leave enough length, I had only about 20 cm to work. And while cursing trying to connect the bloody thing, I had to have somebody holding the all thing for me, steady... So, it worked in the end, but it was not fun, I would definitely leave more cable length if I had to do it again...
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All that being said, it works and looks as intended! We do like it and it will stay for a while.
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A side note: when you buy cheap material (i.e the bulbs) you usually get what you pay for... I had to change a few already when LED lights are supposed to outlast human kind...
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