Bubble Light Install: How We Did It
A few months back, we shared a post with you about our lighting choice for the guest bedroom in our house. We chose to make the space unique with a vaulted ceiling and skylight detail that creates something of an oculus over the center of the room, illuminating an otherwise dull space that previously only had one window. Bedrooms should always have more than one window, and preferably oriented in more than just one cardinal direction (multi-directional light is essential both for happy house plants and for happy people!).
At any rate, the centrally located skylight prompted us to consider a unique approach to the overhead lighting as well, and we selected a classic George Nelson bubble light to suspend directly below the skylight. Obviously, locating the power source and physically hanging the pendant became an important design problem given we only had glass overhead.
A Unique Lighting Condition
The Nelson light came with a very long cord with a very simple silver canopy -- of no use given our unique application for the light positioned directly underneath a skylight. We had to get creative in finding a way to suspend it under the skylight with a power supply that felt clean and simple. We needed an approach that would be both minimal and visually appealing – nothing that would block the views up through the skylight above or otherwise cast a weird or distracting shadow above the fixture. Ultimately, we came up with a custom solution using a solid brass threaded rod that gave us the simple and elegant solution we were hoping for.
Next-Level DIY
As a quick aside, a few months prior to installing the Nelson Bubble light we did a fast install of a small depression-era glass shade in our upstairs study. For the fixture to hold it, we pieced together a simple kit of parts. It turns out that if you have a nice shade you like but no fixture, you can go to a website like Vintage Wire and Supply and assemble a simple all-brass canopy, stem, socket, and fitter. We were able to quickly and easily create a high-quality and economical DIY light fixture for maybe 30-40 bucks.
“Emboldened by the ease of creating brass fixtures this way, we felt pretty confident we could come up with a custom rig to suspend our Nelson light squarely in the middle of the skylight opening.”
So Many Bits & Baubles
It took a little while to sort through Vintage Wire and Supply’s extensive catalog of parts to be sure we had exactly what we needed, but in the end, we discovered that a combination of two flat, face-mounted metal canopies (one for each side of the horizontal pipe that holds the light) plus two 3/8” threaded rods, some hex nuts to tighten things up would work out just fine. Ultimately, after some additional searching around, we found the central three-way coupling on yet another lamp-supply website along with a special coupling that includes a tiny nylon set-screw to tighten up and place pressure on the cord. It’s important to be sure the parts you order all have the correct diameter and threading (in this case 3/8” pipe with a 1/8 IPS thread).
Stripping the white plastic outer layer of our fancy/expensive light was a bit dicey, as it would be easy to accidentally sever the inner copper wires, but ultimately, we freed up the neutral, the ground, and the hot wire so that they could be routed through the brass tubing to the receptacle. Working with the brass tubing and doing the DIY wiring is mostly fun and easy, but make sure you ground all metal parts correctly …. don’t do anything shocking!
Time to Install
When it came to installing the light itself, it was a two-person job, with Rachel supporting the shade and Owen hooking things up with wire nuts, and sliding the threaded pipe into place. We’re hoping to call it a permanent and long-lasting install that shouldn’t give us any problems --- just to be sure, as a little insurance policy, we were sure to spray all the brass parts with a clear varnish to protect the brass from oxidation corrosion (over a few years, raw brass exposed to air can tarnish a lot a turn almost black.
We aimed to set the shade at just the right height to allow for views past the light and up to the sky behind – a unique feature of the bedroom both day and night. The installation was a success!
Be sure to share the love and share this post if you know anyone wanting to DIY some custom light details. It’s a little trial and error when it comes to sourcing all the right pieces but in the end, is totally worth it!
