Island Pendant Light Installation

How to add pendant lighting above a kitchen island using an existing wall switch

Summary:

In this video, we install new matching pendant lighting over our kitchen island. We happened to have a nearby existing wall switch that we’ll repurpose to run the lights, but a new wall switch can be easily added if you have a nearby power source.

Parts:

• Pendant lights
• Round old-work electrical boxes
• 14ga Romex (2 conductor + ground)
• Romex staples
• Medium wire nuts
• If you need to add a new switch, you’ll also need these:
  • Rectangular old-work electrical box
  • Light switch, to match your existing style switches
  • Switch cover plate, also match style

Tools:

• Stud finder
• Tape measure
• Laser measuring tool
• Carpenters pencil
• Marker
• Linesmen’s pliers
• Romex stripper/cutter
• Regular and Phillips screw drivers
• Utility knife
• Drywall saw
• Remote grabber/long forceps
• 1/2″+ drill bits
• Drill & bits (Phillips, regular, square)
• Tape
• Hammer
• Gloves
• Head Lamp
• Ladder
• Tool belt (if needed)

Detailed Description:

• Start by scoping out the project
  • Where do you want the lights to go?
  • Where will you get power from?
  • Where will the switch go?
  • How will you get wiring from your power source to the switch to the lights?
  • In our case, we made an early visit to the attic to help with all this – I was able to roughly locate where the new light boxes would go, plus estimate where the wire runs would be.
• Based on the above, procure the needed parts, proper length of wiring/Romex, etc.
• Assemble the light fixtures – this usually provides some insight on exactly how we need to mount our boxes.
• I always start the work at the far end from the breaker, or in this case, at the new round electrical boxes. I located where I thought we wanted the lights relative to our kitchen island using my laser measure, then found the location of the roof trusses and adjusted the box locations accordingly.
• Once the boxes were located, I traced the inner and outer diameter of the boxes on the ceiling, then cut in between the two circles to give a good hole size to insert the boxes.
• Inserting the boxes with the main mounting holes “vertical” I then tightened the three screws that rotate the securing tabs into place – just snug here, not too tight.
• Next I confirmed the lengths of Romex I needed – one between the two fixtures and one from the light switch up to the first fixture. I measured distances, then added 2-3 feet or so to allow for routing the wire as well as doing the wiring in the boxes themselves (I like to have about 9″ of wire into each box). I also marked the Romex that headed down the wall to the switch so I could hopefully have just enough in the wall to pull it right into the box.
• Key Romex info:
  • Black = Hot
  • White = Neutral or Return
  • Bare = Ground
• Into the attic, I took the following:
  • Measured Romex
  • Hammer & Romex staples
  • Gloves
  • Drill & >1/2″ drill bit (spade bit in my case)
  • Headlamp
• Once in the attic, I ran the Romex between the two light boxes, stapling it down as needed. I then drilled into the top of the wall above the light switch and fed in the Romex to the length I had marked. Be sure to staple down this second Romex, leaving some length to allow pulling more wire down into the switch box. Note I had to make a couple trips into the attic before being able to pull the wire into the switch box.
• Back in the kitchen, I proceeded to wire up both light fixtures. I attached the mounting plate to the fixture box first. Then I connected all ground (bare copper), return (white) and hot (black) wires together in groups, using wire nuts. In the far light fixture, we only had one set of solid 14ga wires to connect to the fixture wires, so I was able to use the provided wire nuts. In the fixture nearest the light switch, we had two solid 14ga wires and the fixture wire, which proved too large for the provided wire nuts, so I used some medium sized wire nuts here. Also be sure to connect the ground wires not only together, but to any metal portion of the box or mounting plate (there’s usually a green screw for this purpose). Finally, once all wiring is complete, mount the fixture per manufacturer recommendations. In my case, this involved two acorn nuts over the ends of bolts that had been preinstalled into the mounting plate.
• Find the breaker for the power you’ll be working with, and turn it off – verify it’s off by checking other lights on the same circuit, etc.
• IF YOU HAVE TO ADD A NEW BOX AND SWITCH, locate and verify where you want the box to go (find your studs, and take care cutting the hole as there could be wires running behind the wall) cut it in and mount, similar to the light boxes in the ceiling. You’ll need to run power into this box either from the breaker box, or a close-by lighting box. Usually running the wire before you install the box is easier to get everything together properly. Note this may require more wire routing through the attic/basement/crawl space or other means, but hopefully this gets you setup similar to what I had available moving forward. At your power source box, if that’s your method, simply break into the existing ground, hot and return wiring and add in your new bare, black and white wires, respectively. If wiring directly to the panel, you probably have a new breaker to run the hot to, then connect your ground and return wires to the respective bus bars.
• Moving to the switch box, after drilling into the side of the box, I was able to fish the new Romex into the existing box. At this point, I connected the ground and neutral wire to the existing ground and neutral wires in the box (they already had a large wire nut, so just removed this and added the new wires). Then in my case, I removed the unused wire to the other light fixture (red in my case) and replaced it with the black wire heading to the new fixtures.
• Turn on the power to test once you’re sure you’ve got it all together. I usually do this right before I’m ready to button up the whole box, just in case I need to tweak something, though do be careful, as there will be exposed 120VAC points within easy reach.
• Test the lights – if all is well, you’re ready to wrap this up.
• Push the light switch(es) back into the box, screw in place, then install the cover plate.
• Recheck the light is still operational, and you’re good to go!
• Have a nice cold beverage of your choice to celebrate project completion… 8^)