Light for J + K

I blogged this project in another blog I don't use anymore called Recycled Wood Projects. When I decided to start keeping a blog I had several stories and projects to document, I thought blogging would be the perfect way to organize projects with pictures and text. I just wasn't sure how to organize the different related topics, i.e. house projects, work projects, ranch projects and art projects. I created a blog for each topic, then realized I had a bunch of work to do updating and keeping blogs, so I sort of gave up and didn't really do more than a few blogs for each one. Now I have narrowed it down to this. I don't blog anywhere else.

I started documenting my projects in Flickr when we started restoring our Gothic Revival Farm House in 2006. I asked my sister in law #typegirl, "What is that the best program on the internet that I can save and organize my photos in?" She recommended Flickr so I upgraded my free account, at the time it cost me $25 dollars a year to upload as many photos as I needed. The free account only allowed 200 photos. I guess things have changed and the free account now has a 3 Terrabyte (or something huge like that) limit and 50$ a year will upgrade you to not seeing ads. So now we have to pay just to avoid having to see ads. I am not blogging to rant on the annoyance of ads, this is the purpose of this entry...

This is a project that will remind me how I did it before because now the client wants two more and I had forgotten how I did it last time.

The first thing I had forgotten was that I attached a stick trim frame around the board that was drilled with a Forstner bit in a drill press. The frame hangs over the board on the back side enough to hide the back edge of the lights. The back was scooped out with a dado blade to make enough room to store the wire nuts and wire.

The problem I ran into on the new lights is the tab connected to the light fixture. Before, I was able to bend the tab so that I could put a screw through it and into the wood. The metal on this new set of lights that was ordered must be high tempered (or something) because the tab didn't bend, it broke. I couldn't get the tab to bend with pliers so I put it in the vise and it snapped like a stick. I picked up some brass to make my own tab if it happens again. I also picked up a light that is similar (from Pierson's) to see if it bends or breaks.

Next hanging the brackets. I bought these back when I made a display case for a closet that before was a dark hole in the wall. I put a wooden shim behind the bracket on the wall so that the light is tight to the wall. I love these brackets, you just push (whatever is hanging) up and it comes off the wall. I used them at R + L's for a decorative wooden piece they wanted hung above the bathroom door.

Well that pretty much sums it up, the rest is easy enough to figure out. Here are a few more snaps showing how I installed the stick trim, then the light ready to hang and then the lights hung over a vanity I built.

glued and nailed

hooked up and ready to hang

before mirror was installed