How to Replace an Overhead Fixture With a Paper Lantern

Create a unique space with a paper lantern.

When your house is plagued by a lighting fixture that doesn't fit your style or hasn't been replaced since the 1950s, an inexpensive and simple way to update your style is with a paper lantern. Paper lanterns come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors, and they can be used in place of your current lighting fixture through a few simple electric augmentations.

Things You'll Need

• Voltage tester
• Wire stripper
• Needle-nose pliers

Instructions

1. Turn off power to the breaker controlling your old lighting fixture. Test to make sure the power is off by turning the light switch off and on. Use a voltage tester once the fixture is disconnected to ensure that no currents of electricity are running through the wires.

2. Remove your current lighting fixture and disconnect it from the wiring by unscrewing the wire nuts.

3. Restrip the three wires inside the junction box — if necessary — so you have a 1/2-inch section of clean and exposed wire to work with on each.

4. Use needle-nose pliers to create a loop at the end of the wires large enough to fit around the screws from the junction box. Connect each wire with the appropriate screw, black to brass, white to silver, and the green wire — also sometimes just a bare copper wire — to the green screw. Tighten the screws around the wires to hold them in place.

5. Mount the receptacle back to the ceiling using the included screws.

6. Turn the breaker to the outlet back on.

7. Plug in your paper lantern and let it hang from the ceiling.

Tips & Warnings

• For a cheap way to cover your receptacle, drill a hole just large enough for the electrical cord to go through into a small plastic bowl. Spray the outside of the bowl with a white or silver plastic spray paint and mount it to the ceiling around the receptacle.

• To raise the paper lamp farther off the floor, neatly bunch up the excess cord and secure with a zip tie. Hide the zip tied portion underneath your plastic bowl or other receptacle hider.

References

• Family Handyman: Add an Electrical Outlet