DIY: Pendant Light Fixture | eHow UK

Use decorative pendant lamps for task lighting.

interior lights image by Georgios Alexandris from Fotolia.com

Buy a pendant light fixture you can modify to your liking or build your own unique lamp. Besides a traditional lighting store or home improvement centre, antique stores and thrift shops are excellent places to find pendant fixtures or materials for making the pendants. Pendants can be made from any number of materials, including small vases, bowls, lamp shades, bottles or metal cylinders. The item you choose will need a small hole so that you can feed the electrical cord through and attach a light socket. Drill the hole yourself or, if you are working with glass or antiques, have a professional do it for you. Thread the other end of the cord through a decorative canopy for a DIY pendant fixture.

Shut the power off at the fuse box or electrical pane before installing. Remove the fuse or flip the circuit breaker to the Off position. Before you begin working, test the wires with a circuit tester to make sure that there is no power running through the wires. As an extra precaution, tape the cover shut and put a note on the panel or box indicating that you are working so that the power isn t turned back on by mistake.