Today I'm going to tell you how to change out your bathroom light fixtures.
We all have been in that situation where you have an old light. You just want
to change it out into something modern and new.
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| bathroom light fixtures |
And I'm going to be using the Portfolio line of light lighting. And
what I like about that is that you can pick out the lighting bar and then you
can add your own sconce to it
A sconce of your choice, not the choice of the manufacturer So I
picked out these sconces; I'm going to add them to this light; and before you
know it, I'm going to transform this lighting fixture in my bathroom into
something that's cool and modern instead of something that looks like it's from
1988.
So let's get started...
Before you get started, turn the light off at the circuit breaker.
After turning off the power, remove the sconce.
In this particular case, you have to remove the light bulb first
then you just unscrew the sconce. The next step is to remove the mounting nuts that
hold the light in place.
Here's a handy-dandy tip:
Use a utility knife to score around the light. When you score the
paint around the light prevents the paint from being pulled off the wall.
Simply pull the light off the wall. Then use a voltage detector to check for
electricity.
Next, take off the mounting bracket from the junction box. Pull the
mounting bracket out. And at this tip, you definitely want to take a picture of
your wiring. And note we have one neutral wire which is white, and one black
wore which the power is coming into the junction box.
Unwire the hotwires which are black. Then unwire the neutral wire
which is white. Now you can remove the entire bathroom light fixture. The next
step is to add the mounting bracket to the junction box. But before you do
that, notice the orientation on the light fixture where the bolts are going to
be. And they're vertical. They're straight up and down.
So, one at the top and one at the bottom that means that you're
going to have to mount the mounting bracket with that same orientation
And in this case, they have these little mounting screws already in
there. So these mounting screws have to be mounted vertically.
So I line up my mounting bracket like so with the holes that are in
the junction box. Get the two screws that come with the Portfolio light
fixture. Mount the primary screw in place just a little bit. And then mount the
second one through the mounting bracket and into the junction box. You can then
tighten these screws with a screwdriver.
The next item that you want to do is tighten this nut in the center
of the mounting bracket.
The reason why you want to do that is because it'll keep this
mounting bracket completely vertical and, therefore, your light will stay
vertical too.
Before you go to wire anything, make sure that these screws are long
enough to go through this portion of your light. They're nowhere close. They're
not going to come through that hole this hole here.
So either I need to modify the mounting bracket or put a longer nut
on here a longer screw on here. My recommendation is this: Before you leave the
store, open up your lighting box and get a set of longer screws longer mounting
screws that match up with the shorter screws that come with the light fixture.
If the long screws are too long, you can make a mark on them with a
Sharpie. After that you can cut them with combination strippers. Now it's time
to wire the light. Add the grounding wire from the light to the green ground
screw on the mounting bracket. Wire the two neutral wires together so the two
white wires together. Really tighten that wire nut.
And finally wire the two hotwires together with the second wire nut.
Push the wires to the back of the junction box. Position the light on the two
screws that you have sticking out of the bracket.
And finally, add the nuts that hold the light in place.
The Portfolio lights also come with these decorative end caps that
you can screw in place. Slide your sconce up onto the light. Use the provided
nuts to secure the sconce to the light.
All right! That's how you make it. That's how you swap out an old
bathroom light fixture for a new bathroom light fixture. Super easy, right? And
I only needed three tools. A combination stripper, a screwdriver, and a voltage
detector
Make sure you use that voltage detector 'cause you don't want to
look like Doc Brown at the very beginning of your project (That's a Back to the
Future reference right there). And throw in some LED light bulbs so that you're
saving money over time.