How To Install a Light Fixture

I own a rental property and we recently had to advertise it for new renters again. I looked through the listing photos and noticed that everything looked great and updated except for the chandelier in the dining room. The light fixture in the dining room was there when we moved in and it didn’t go at all with the rest of the style of our town home.

I had envisioned doing a circular chandelier. I wanted to get one that would stand out in the listing photos and catch the attention of potential renters. I chose this one because it looked more modern but still simple enough and not too trendy that it would still appeal to a larger audience of potential renters.

Supplies I used:

Chandelier light fixture(came with most of the supplies)
Wire Cutters

Step 1

The first thing I did was turn off the power to the dining room at the breaker box. The breaker box was in our garage. I looked at the guide on the door to determine which switch went to the dining room and clicked it over to off.

Step 2

Then I tested the light switch in the dining room to make sure the power was off before I got started

Step 3

We removed the current light fixture. Now from the junction box we can see the three wires. The black wire is the hot wire. The white wire is the neutral wire. The copper wire is the ground wire. You want to make sure that the wires do not touch and that the wing twist caps are on the black(hot) and white(neutral).

Step 4

Then we determined how long we wanted the chandelier chain to be. Our ceilings are pretty low so we didn’t need the chain too long. Once we determined how long we wanted the chain to be we took out the excess links

Step 5

I drilled in the light fixture plate that came with the light fixture into the junction box

Step 6

Once I drilled in the electrical plate into the junction box. I threaded all the wires from the light through the center of the plate. We kept the cord long so that we had enough slack to work with.

Step 7

Then we determined which wire from the light fixture was the hot and which one was the neutral

The ribbed wire was the neutral and the smooth was the hot.

The wire on the left is smooth and the one on the right is ribbed. I could tell by running my fingers across the wires

Step 8

We cut the excess of the cord from the light fixture with the wire cutters

Step 9

Then we connected the copper or the ground wires together from the junction box to the one on the light. We connected the hot wire with the hot wire and the neutral with the neutral from the light to the junction box with the wing caps. The neutral and the hot wires have to be screwed in with the wire caps and made tight so that neither can come out of the wire nut.

Step 10

We pushed all the wires back into the junction box and screwed on the plate cover to the ceiling.

Step 11

Then we screwed in the light bulbs and attached the light covers that came with the light.

Step 12

Then I turned the power back on at the breaker box back and tested the light and it worked.