My DIY Edison Bulb Chandelier

Our DIY Edison Bulb Chandelier has received the most comments both on and off the site. After the garden, it is the second largest source of interest in our home. We designed and created this industrial light fixture with 15 Edison bulbs shortly after we moved into the Burke house.
The original lamp was pretty but small and certainly nothing to get excited about. It did have an Edison bulb which inspired our creativity. It was this bulb that led to the industrial and plumbing theme for our entire house. Unlike many of our tutorials, we do not have step-by-step photos of how to build an Edison bulb chandelier, however, we can give you an overview, links to tutorials, and supplies so you can make an Edison light fixture yourself.

Design of Edison bulb chandelier

As I mentioned above, our main interest started with Edison bulbs, and we have always wanted to feature this Edison bulb chandelier on our blog. So that everyone can also experience the joy of owning it.

Do you know how many different types of Edison bulbs there are? We didn’t either, but while researching this project we found a ton of different shapes, styles, and prices.
There are so many, and Edison bulbs aren’t cheap… I purchased all of my bulbs online. If you’re patient and willing to go the Ebay route, you can easily cut the cost of the construction and Edison bulb chandelier in half! All of our materials were sourced by bidding on large quantities of Edison bulbs, brass sockets, and cloth covered wire, mostly shipped from China. This meant we had a lot of extra bulbs (saving them for when the others burned out) and had to wait a few weeks for them to arrive. If you can’t wait, then go with Amazon. You’ll pay a little more, but the item will arrive faster.

When designing our fixture we knew we wanted to match the bronze fixtures, industrial design, and combine modern with traditional. I had every socket finished. Buying brass saved a ton of money over buying bronze! We used cloth covered wire to bring in a traditional/vintage feel and used a recycled wood box cover to give it a modern feel. We also did a lot of research and consulting on power supplies to make sure we could make a fixture that could safely handle 15 bulbs. We also decided it would be cool to have them where each light could be turned on and off. This allowed us to mix up which bulbs were on display and when we needed a really bright light source we could turn them all on.

Edison Bulb Chandelier Supplies

Edison Light Bulbs: I have an affinity for the tube shaped lights, but here are some options for traditional shape, and a fun round one. Next time I might try out the new LED type to save on electricity and get durability.

Cloth Covered Wire: We went with a mix of bronze, gold, and copper. We also went back and forth between twisted wire and round cord. There are so many options available! You could go hot pink even or get a neat chevron style.

Bulb Sockets: As I mentioned above we bought the cheaper shiny brass and then used this faux cast iron tutorial to paint them all.

Junction Boxes: Electrical safety is paramount! We used three.

Regular Wire: Use this to do the interior wiring as it will not be seen.

Wiring Caps: We wanted all the connections safe and secure

Wire Strippers: If you don’t have these you can still pull back the wire to make connections, but they make this so much easier.

Wood Slats: Adam built took various boards and stained them multiple hues using this tutorial. He then attached them to a simple box frame.

Screws: We went for some dark interesting square screw heads that could show on the outside of the box after assembly. You would need a special bit if you use these.

Heavy Duty Hooks: for the ceiling and inside the box to hang the light fixture once assembled

Chain: For hanging

Basics of Edison Light Fixture Assembly

• Assemble your supplies and build your box

As mentioned above, we spent a lot of time sourcing our supplies online. Once they arrived, we did the following:

1. Create a frame: You’ll need to stain the reclaimed wood and connect the strips into a basic frame, like we did with the potato boxes.
2. Faux painted sockets: If you are not satisfied with the original color, you can fake them into cast iron or bronze color, whichever you like.
3. Determine the length of the cloth-covered wire: We used different heights, so we needed to cut the wire to various lengths.
4. Finishing off the light placement: We used wires at different heights, laid out on the box floor. We drilled holes in the floor just big enough to allow the wiring to pass through so that there weren’t huge gaps that needed to be covered. Our wires were laid out fairly evenly.

• Wiring

We don’t have pictures, so we suggest searching Google for wiring tutorials. Please be extra careful when wiring! The basic principles are as follows:

1. You need to connect wires to each outlet.
2. Then, each outlet needs to be connected to a junction box.
3. The boxes need to be chained together.

• Hanging the Fixture

We hung two heavy-duty hooks from the ceiling joists. The wood on this fixture makes it heavy! We used two loops of chain on each end. They are attached to the inside near each corner with smaller hooks, and the loops of the chain simply hang from the hooks. We used loops, chains, and hooks for two reasons. First, because they are heavy enough to support the fixture. Second, the chain allowed us to hang the fixture lower than we originally intended. This is important because you will need to hang the fixture and then connect it to the power in your home. Remember to turn off the power before doing any wiring. I highly recommend turning off the main circuit breaker when doing any wiring. It is not safe to turn off the circuit breaker in the room you are in. It is easy to mistakenly turn off the wrong breaker and connect a live line.

Anyway, back to why we chose the chain mount: When someone else hooked it up, it was too heavy for one person to hold the entire Edison bulb chandelier. Plus, you need space from the ceiling to the top of the industrial light fixture to actually run the wires. Once it was all hooked up, I reached into the chain with my little hands and hung each corner higher until we had just a tiny gap from the ceiling. It covered the hooks and made it look like a floating bracket. It was much easier to just hoist it up one by one than to tie rope or wire to the new location.

• Test and finalize your design

We tested each lamp to make sure all connections were secured with a single bulb. That way, if the socket doesn’t seem to work, you don’t have to wonder if the bulb is broken. It saves all the process of elimination. Once we were sure all the wiring was in proper working order, we hoisted it into its final location and then tried different bulbs. We fiddled with all the types we bought, playing placement games and which bulbs looked good both on and off. Finding a good balance with the variable lengths and sizes of Edison bulbs took much longer than expected, but it was fun to do. The end result still varied from time to time as we turned them on and off.

Since we share all the pictures of assembling the Edison Bulb Chandelier, if you have any questions, let us know in the comments. We are always happy to help and would love to see what you create!