How to Wire Your Own Hanging Modern Lamp

As we began decorating our nursery, I knew we wanted some kind of unique lamp for our reading corner, and I love the look of the vintage bulb and cord plug-in lamps that I've seen around, but it wasn't until I saw just regular ol' cloth-covered wire for sale on eBay that I imagined it was possible to make my own! Well, technically, I enlisted Josh to make it for me, but that's what husbands/friends who aren't intimidated by electrical things are for. Right? The best part about this is that you can pretty much find lamp cord in ANY color. For real. Neon yellow? Bright orange? Metallic gold? Yep, definitely. You could really go crazy with this. As this is our first time wiring a lamp, I'm sure we'll be updating this sometime, but for now, we are really happy with our hanging lamps, and I am already brainstorming for more!

Supplies:
-light cord (you can find a bunch of awesome cord colors, kits, and even really fun socket accessories here. I'd recommend about 10 feet of cord per lamp.)
-plug and bulb assembly (we got ours here! You'll need a plug, a socket, and a strain relief piece.)
-shelf bracket (optional; this is what we used to hang ours on the wall!)
-electrical tape
-light bulb (now, there's an idea!)

Tools:
-screwdriver
-utility knife
-wire strippers (optional)

WARNING: Never work with plugged-in cords. Even when you are screwing in the light bulb, make sure the cords are unplugged. Consult an electrician if you are at all feeling like you don't know what you're doing.

Step One: Get organized. Open all of the packages and lay the parts in a neat row. This way, you can make sure you have everything you need, and it's easy to find the pieces. When working with electricity, you don't want to be sloppy, or you could end up burning your house down. That's never fun. When you start out organized, it sets the pace for the rest of the project. This is a straightforward project, but it's still good to be careful! In this step you can also get some strips of electrical tape ready to go; you'll only need an inch or so for each. I like to cut the strips with a razor blade; the straight edge looks better than stretched-out, torn-off pieces.

Step Two: We ordered 20' of cloth-covered cord and cut it in half, giving up two 10' foot cords. (This math is tricky; try to keep up!) Cut about an inch of the cloth part off the ends. There will be two colored wires inside the black rubber. White and black. White is neutral and black is hot. Make sure you don't cut back the rubber too far back. You want to cut off just enough of the rubber to wrap the wire around the screw. If you cut back too much rubber, the wires could end up touching inside the plug, causing a short.

Step Three: Wire up the plug. There should be a brass and silver screw. Feed the cord through the end of the plug. The assembly we used had a support tube that screwed onto the back, so you'll want to put that on the cord before feeding it through. The black (could also be red, depending on the type of cable you have) wire goes to the brass screw, and the white goes to the silver one. Twist the exposed wire strands, then bend the wire into a hook and wrap around the screw. The bend of the "hook" you make should go in the direction (clockwise) that you turn the screw to tighten it. That way, when you tighten the screw, the end of the wire gets tightened into the screw. Does that make sense? The wires should be hooked around the screws nice and snug. Don't the let exposed black and white wires touch each other. If need be, wrap exposed wire in electrical tape. Once you have the wires attached, put on the plug cover.

Step Four: Slide the strain relief piece onto the opposite end of the cord, what will be your socket end! Don't tighten it yet, but we need it on before we wire the socket.

Step Five: Wire the socket exactly as you wired the plug end. Wire the black wire to the brass screw, and the white wire to the silver screw just like you did before. After you tighten the screws, you can tighten your strain relief piece onto the top of your socket.

And you're done! Plug your new lamp in, and celebrate that you just created a LAMP. We chose to hang ours on a makeshift shelf bracket, but the great thing about these is that you can hang them anywhere, with a hundred different types of cages or bulbs or shades. There are so many options! If you make one, be sure and show us! xo - Josh and Sarah

Credits // Armchair is from Joybird. Authors: Josh Rhodes and Sarah Rhodes. Photography: Laura Gummerman, Josh Rhodes, and Sarah Rhodes. Photos edited with Imogen from The Folk Collection and Piper from The Signature Collection.