Rewiring a Vintage Green Pendant Light
- By Joan
- June 6, 2017
- 11 Comments
I’m returning today with another of my farmhouse finds. This time it’s this grimy green pendant light. From looking it up on the internet, I believe it’s a Benjamin light. I don’t know if that name refers to all green barn pendant lights, but it is in that style.
There was a layer of dirt on all my treasures, so after visiting the farmhouse everything got a much needed bath.
Of the four items pictured, the pendant light was the last to get a makeover. I’ll remind you of the other three transformations at the end of the post.
Besides showing you what I’m doing, I like to take pictures along the way so I know how to put these things back together.
With a half turn this top galvanized metal part screws onto the lower metal part. There are three screws (you’ll see in a second) that attach the lower metal part to the green enamel pendant.
After taking everything apart this is what I was left with. The white porcelain fixture was corroded but that’s the part that holds the bulb. I’ll need some kind of replacement.
When I have no idea of what to do with my electrical parts, which is usually, I head on over to the local ACE Hardware. You know the commercial…Ace is the place with helpful hardware man. I can vouch for that ad. They have helped me out of more than one puzzle.
With these two pieces in hand I just stared blankly at the wall of electrical components until my nice ACE hardware man asked if he could help me.
Why yes, yes you can.
I’m looking at this picture and you can’t really tell what he fixed me up with but it was really simple. It’s the black socket with a black and white wire and two metal clips on the side which allow it to lock into my metal piece.
Three screws thread down thru the metal piece and are held in place by nuts on the inside of the pendant.
Before attaching, I did clean up the inside of the pendant. A couple of rust spots were starting to work their way thru the enamel, these spots were sanded then spray painted a gloss white.
The very top piece…. the one that just screws onto the piece I just attached…. got a washer glued into the center of the opening. I don’t know if I’ll need it or not but the opening was rather large and I wanted my wire to be centered.
I’m using a cloth covered wire I picked up on Etsy for my orb chandelier, but I had enough left over for this simple project.
Thread the cloth covered wire down thru the top piece.
As you can see, there are no black and white wires on my cloth covered wire to attach to my new light socket. Apparently my wire is European. In Europe, and the rest of the world, brown is the hot color (black), blue is neutral (white ) and the green/yellow is the ground wire (isn’t google wonderful?). Once that was figured out , it was just a matter of stripping off the very ends with wire strippers to expose the wire and twisting those together with wirenuts to the existing wires from the pendant.
Use a half screw to reattach the upper metal part of the pendant back to the lower part.
I also needed a Pendant Lamp Canopy Kit to attach the pendant to the ceiling.
Use the wirenuts to connect the wires in the pendant to the ceiling fixture wires.
As promised here are the other three farmhouse makeover victims. There have been more farmhouse transformations but I’m just showing you those that were pictured.
Chair makeover with a new padded seat.
Frames made from wood siding and inexpensive IKEA frames.
And a repurposed drawer which is now a shelf.
Don’t be afraid to take on a rewiring project, it’s always easier than you think. For step by step lamp rewiring make sure you visit this post . You can find all my lamps and pendants here. My most unusual lamp upcycle is probably my septic pipe lamp….that one is there too.
Stay inspired.
Shared at Talk of the Town,
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11 Comments
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I am wondering what type of wire you used to make the light work because I have 2 pendant lights and I am trying to rewire them and was wondering what wire
I needed to get the job done.
Follow the link to the Etsy shop for a nice cloth covered wire ( I just updated the link). Most of the lighting pieces were from Ace Hardware.
I have 33 of these light that I need to rewire. Using 3 above my island and the rest on my wrap around porch. Thanks so much for the information!! Do you have a picture or information from the base you used without it being installed?
Thanks
Sorry, I don’t have any more pictures. I can’t imagine rewiring 33 of those things but the guys at the hardware store fixed me up with the right sized socket. Good luck
I have one I need to retire but it doesn’t have the top part. The first part you took off . Do you have any idea how to find one
Hi Karen, sorry I don’t. You could try a shop that specializes in lighting and lighting repair. They often have spare parts laying around. Maybe a place like Ebay, a lamp could be in terrible shape but still have the top piece intact. Good Luck
Great info, I found two similar lamps, with out the electrical , do you know where I can find the metal cap and inner workings. Thanks
Hey there! I have some huge white Benjamin dome lights that have MASSIVE bulbs in them so I need to make them have the standard socket size. Thanks for this post (even though I’m kinda late to the party lol) I’m just wondering, once you got the new socket in place, did you just wire nut the tails to the new fabric wrapped cord tails and then tie a knot in the fabric wrapped cord to keep it from adding too much pressure on the connection? How did you keep it secure? Thanks in advance!
Just want to say ‘thanks’ for your post about the green light. I just picked up one this week at an auction and I will be restoring it as well – mine appears to be in a similar condition to yours.
Do you know where I can get the “top part” that screws onto the socket. I bought a barn light that didn’t come with it
Thank you Jaon,
your post and this post really help me fix rewiring issue with my light issue.
https://bestlightfor.com/chandelier-ideas/how-to-rewire-a-chandelier/