Scavenger Chic

Pallet Wood and Bedsprings Light DIY

• By Joan
• September 7, 2014
• 10 Comments

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When I first came upon these bedsprings, I immediately remembered all my pinterest searches about what to do with old bedsprings.  Wreaths, candle holders, christmas trees, angel, snowman…so I began to unscrew these springs from the metal that they were attached to.  My husband, who has not been searching pinterest, who had no such preconceived ideas in his head, asked… Why are you doing that?  Wouldn’t they make a great light just the way they are?  And so, another light idea was born.

These are the supplies I needed.

a.  Bedsprings,  they did not necessarily have to be attached to the metal strip, but why not use what I had.

b.  Wire cutters and strippers, replacement lamp wire with plug, extra lamp wire (about 2 ft) and wire connectors.  I had lamp wire on hand from another chandelier I had dismantled, but if you don’t, Home Depot sells lamp wire by the foot.

c.  Lamp sockets with the black and white wires already attached.  These are from Ace Hardware and run about $3 each.

d.  A box made of pallet wood to attach your lighting project to.  I was lucky that this box was left over from my son’s wedding, so this pallet wood has been recycled twice.   If you would like to read more about my pallet wood centerpieces you can find them here.   This one was not shown , but in it’s past life it  was a windowbox on a bar   holding white pansies and pumpkin gourds. Unfortunately with the cold winter we had last year, the flowers didn’t make it to spring. My box measured 38x6x6.

First thing I had to to do was straighten out the metal holding the springs. More than a little rust fell off while I was hammering the thing to death.

I then drilled a hole through the metal at the center of each bedspring so that the wire could feed through.

I lined up the bedsprings on my box an equal distance from both ends marking where the center of each bedspring would hit the box.

I drilled holes where I had marked.  These holes are on the bottom of the box and the opening (where my pansies used to be) will be towards the wall.

I fed  the black and white wires through the bedsprings and then through the box. I then screwed the metal strip to the box.

 I was then ready to connect my wires.  With my extra lamp wire, I cut down between the two wires about an inch on both extra lamp wire pieces on both ends. Then with my wire strippers, I stripped the outer layer of plastic off the wires , about 1/2  inch, exposing the bare wire.   Then it was just a matter of connecting the black to black and white to white.  Oh right, lamp wire doesn’t have those colors.  What it does have is a slight ribbing on the plastic outer coat on one side. The side with the ribbing is considered the white side or neutral side.  The no ribbing side is the hot side, or the black side.  With a sharpie I added a little black to the smooth side on all my wire pieces so I wouldn’t mix them up.

Working from the side farthest from where my plug would go I started attaching my wires.  I used my fingers to begin the  bare wire twisting and then screwed on the wire connectors until tight.  When I got to my last spring, I connected the plug wire in the same way making a knot against the side of the box so the wire would not get pulled out.

Now was the time to test out my wiring.  I’m always amazed when the lights actually work. 😀

This was also the time to install my flip switch so I wouldn’t have to turn the light on and off with the plug.  This one was found in the lighting section of Home Depot.  The directions are on the package.  I had never installed one of these before and I would love to say it worked first try, but I would be lying.  It took a couple of tries before I could do my happy dance.

Now for the installation.  I predrilled 3 holes in the top of my box then screwed 3 screws part way, they were screwed into this…

…Just a simple piece of scrap wood, leveled, and screwed into a stud.

 The box was placed over top of the board and screwed from the top.

All finished.  I did end up painting the lamp cord the color of the wall so it wasn’t quite as noticeable. 

I hope this inspires you to do your own lighting project.  It’s a lot easier than you may think.

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