Lighting

Building our DIY Wooden Wall Sconce

We made the modern accordion DIY wooden wall sconce base for each side of the bed out of oak. We were not sure what we were going to do for the lamp shade but then while browsing around IKEA for a cloth light cord set we stumbled upon these ceramic white plant pots and it was as if a lightbulb went off in my head (I am not sure if I intended that to be a pun or not) and it turned out to be the perfect choice. I love repurposing items for other uses. It is a fun challenge that Brent and I like to tackle together.

Brent worked really hard planning and drawing out the wood wall sconce base so that we knew the exact measurements we needed to cut so it would come together perfectly. He rocked it, I am so impressed. I love the added touch of painting the head of the carriage bolts white to match the lamp shade.

Having a DIY wooden wall sconce on each side of our bed makes our bedroom already feel more grown-up and less college mismatch. We are one step closer to our overall design goal for our master bedroom. I am also happy to say they are completely hungry cat resistant.

Project Featured in Bob Villa Academy

Brent and I are 90’s kids. And what was one of the staple family television shows for 90’s kids? Home Improvement. Brent aspired to be the host of his own tool show like Tim “The Toolman” Taylor and I, well, I dreamed of dating Randy Taylor (Jonathan Taylor Thomas). And didn’t we all wish we could just walk into our backyard and our neighbor would peek over and give us all the answers to life? That was the dream.

One of our favorite reoccurring story lines was Tim’s rivalry with Bob Vila. That hot rod race between the two is a classic. We are feeling all nostalgic just thinking about it.

Growing up Bob Vila was the real life go to guy for us when it came to home improvement. I think DIY home renovation was Brent and I’s destiny because we both grew up watching Bob Vila and helping our dads with home improvement projects, you know, typical kid stuff. So you can imagine our excitement when we got an email asking if we would be interested in being professors in the Bob Vila Academy. It is cool to see that the Bob Vila brand continues to grow and morph with the ways we approach DIY projects these days offering in-depth video e-courses to get hands-on experience.

Which brings us back to our DIY wooden wall sconce. The e-course we are teaching in the Bob Vila Academy is how to make a modern wooden wall sconce, just like ours. We will show you what tools and materials you need as well as break down all the steps and demonstrate how to make this affordable lighting solution.

The benefit of this e-course is instead of just one video, we break up the project into a series of videos so we can cover each and every step in great detail allowing you to follow along and build your very own wall sconce with us as we make it.

If you are interested in making your own DIY wooden wall sconce, we would love for you to enroll in our Bob Vila Academy course. As always, we appreciate your support!

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DIY KNOCKOFF

We found the Rose City Classic Schoolhouse Pendant light fixture at Rejuvenation and thought the style was a perfect match. However, the price was not so perfect for our budget. Just buying one was going to be a stretch and we wanted two, one for each of the front rooms. We knew we definitely could not afford to buy two from the store any time soon so we got to thinking and decided to piece one together ourselves. We created the one above and are very happy with the results.

Today we are sharing our affordable solution for creating a classic schoolhouse pendant light that came in $137 cheaper than it’s Rejuvenation counterpart. The lower price allowed us to make two for less than the cost of purchasing one. It was a great solution for our budget.

How We Put Together Our Schoolhouse Pendant Light

1. First, we purchased the three pieces of the light fixture we needed: the pendant, the glass holder and the vintage schoolhouse globe.

1. Light Oil Rubbed Bronze Adjustable Mini Pendant – $16.47
2. 6-in. White Glass Holder – $11.25
3. Antique Art Deco Schoolhouse Tiered Globe 14” Diameter – $49.99

*We bought the vintage schoolhouse globes off of E-bay where the seller had acquired schoolhouse globes and fixtures from an old church. They were in great shape!

1. Brent used a jigsaw with a sheet metal blade to cut a hole in the top of the glass holder large enough so the ceramic part of the pendant light fixture would fit through it.

2. In between cuts he would test the size of the hole to make sure it was the perfect fit.

3. Before painting the glass holders, Brent roughed up the smooth surface with medium grade steel wool. The scratches the steel wool makes give the surface of the glass holder a rough texture so the paint can adhere to the surface. Because the bronze pendant light fixture we bought was a different color bronze than the spray paint we already had to paint the white glass holders, we ended up spray painting the pendant light fixture as well so it would match. Brent roughed up the surface of these pieces also.

4. Next, we applied an even coat of spray paint to all the parts.

5. To paint parts of the light fixture, we wrapped the cords in plastic wrap and secured them down to the cardboard with tape.

6. After the paint was dry, Brent assembled all the pieces to create our schoolhouse pendant lights and then hung them in each room.

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SUPPLIES

• (2) 100 foot black wire G40 globe patio string lights with clear bulbs
• Stainless steel eye hooks
• Zip Ties
• Galvanized Steel Rope
• Stainless Steel Thimbles
• Ferrule & stop set
• Drill
• Stud finder
• Wire Rope Cutter

FYI: This post contains a few affiliate links to products we used to make this project. Gray House Studio does receive commissions for sales from these links but at no extra cost to you. We appreciate you supporting this site. Read our privacy and disclosure policy. You can also easily shop our recommended products here.

STEP BY STEP GUIDE

1. We utilized the large pine tree that sits right along our fence line as the support for one side of the lights. Brent used our drill to make a small hole in the tree and screwed a stainless steel eye hook into the tree.

2. Even though Brent was sure there would be a wood header above the windows along the back of the house he double checked with a stud finder on the inside.

When drilling for the eye hook on the house you can see wood shavings came out indicating he was indeed drilling into wood.

3. Brent measured how much of the galvanized steel rope we needed and then we cut off the excess with a wire rope cutter.

We chose to use galvanized steel rope to bare the load of the string lights.

This should extend the life of the string lights drastically because the cable won’t stretch or break.

4. It is also easier to attach the steel cable to an eye hook than attaching the string lights to an anchor would be.

To attach the cable to the eye hook we threaded the galvanized steel rope through a ferrule.

5. Once the wire was in place we took a wire rope cutter and crimped the ferrule to make the wire secure.

6. Next, we attached the string lights to the cable. Brent uses zip ties to tie the cable and string lights together and I followed behind him and screwed in the light bulbs.

7. After we got all the lights zip tied and bulbs screwed in, Brent attached the other side of the cable to the eye hook suspending the string lights at the correct height.

8. We initially planned to have five runs of string lights from the house to the tree but realized after completing two entire runs that the odd number of runs would leave one of the two plugs at the tree instead of the house.

That was a “Doh!” moment for us. Both strings needed to plug in at the house and we recognized that wasn’t going to happen the way we were doing it so panic set in until we calmed down and had to rethink our game plan.

The solution turned out not to be too difficult. We removed one of the eye hooks and relocated the two inner eye hooks so they were spaced evenly, giving us four runs instead of five.

The one challenging part was after cutting down the second cable we had no slack cable left making it really hard to handle getting it back wrapped around the eye hook through the ferrule.

The cut wire kept poking Brent in the hands and his arms got really tired as he tried to work with the cable above his head. But he was a trooper and made it happen.

9. Because we ended up only making four runs instead of five, we had excess string light.

Brent was able to take the light on the end of the string, which caps the wires, and move it to the spot where we needed and then cut off the left over string lights.

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SUPPLIES

• Screwdriver
• Jigsaw
• Metal Cutting Blade for Jigsaw
• Miter Saw
• Punch
• Table Saw
• Mallet
• Clamp
• Holesaw
• Drill
• Chisel
• Ebony Wood Stain
• Edison Light Bulbs

FYI: This post contains affiliate links to the supplies and tools we used to make our wooden light fixture. As an Amazon Associate Gray House Studio earns from qualifying purchases. This is at no extra cost to you. We appreciate you supporting this site. Read our privacy and disclosure policy.

STEPS

1. The first thing we did was to remove the old bulbs and to use a screwdriver to take off the front piece of the light fixture to expose how this thing was wired up and put together.

Unfortunately, after we took everything off the wall we found that the electrical box was between the two mirrors and off centered so there was no easy way to hang two light fixtures (one above each mirror).

Another problem we ran into was that the wall behind the light fixture was not textured and therefore did not match the rest of the walls in the bathroom.

It’s like the builder wasn’t even trying to care when they installed these lights. So we decided to make our own wooden light fixture front to span across the entire length of the two mirrors and fit in the space better.

2. Using a jigsaw with a metal cutting blade, Brent cut the back of the silver light fixture into two pieces.

3. Next, Brent cut the piece of wood board to the appropriate length using his new miter saw. Even though he only needed to make one cut on this project, he was pretty excited to use his Christmas present.

4. Brent measured and laid out where the holes would need to be drilled into the piece of wood so the light bulbs would fit into the new wood light fixture.

5. Brent used a mallet and a punch to create a small hole in the surface of the wood that would guide the drill bit.

6. He attached the board to our table using a clamp to keep it from moving. Then, Brent used a hole saw attached to a drill to cut out the eight holes where the light bulbs would go.

7. Using a table saw, Brent cut the board to the appropriate width so that the holes were centered on the board.

8. Then he lowered the blade and made multiple passes right next to each other to remove the wood to create an inset on the back of the new wooden light fixture so it would fit over the back half of the old fixture. He used a chisel to remove the excess wood.

9. Once all the excess wood was removed from the back, it looked like the above.

10. Finally, we stained the wood using the same ebony wood stain as the frames of the mirrors so everything would match.

11. We replaced the old large round light bulbs with Edison light bulbs to give it a unique look.

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