Classing up the Closet

Our master bedroom walk-in closet already was classier than most - back in 2010 when we redid the bedroom, I painted the closet a pale shade of blue and reinstalled some of the bars so that the clothes slid around better. As closets go, it's pretty nice in there.

The lighting left something to be desired though - an exposed bulb with a pull cord. Fears of having a CFL bulb break over our head led us to put a cage around it a couple of years ago, but it certainly wasn't pretty. 

Worse, the fixture had some kind of short, possibly from the metal base and screws. Sometime it wouldn't turn on and sometimes it flickers and sometime it would only turn on if we turned the cage or jiggled it, and every time, it was a little scary. The electricity in our old house has always been somewhat of a (fire-hazard) mystery.

So for a long time, we've wanted to replace it with something a little less "unfinished basement" and a little more "elegant dressing room." After discussing a few options, we decided to splurge for a very impractical but awesome upgrade - the Ikea Kristaller (don't click the link if you want to be surprised by the big "reveal" picture at the bottom.

Fortunately, the wires, while old, all looked like what they were supposed to look like - no surprises there.

One "oh duh" surprise that happened literally minutes after purchasing the lamp: this lamp is designed to be used with a switch (as most are) and not with a pull cord. And we certainly weren't willing to have an electrician come and wire us a wall switch just for a closet. Crud! We had just gotten to our car and decided to turn back and look into returning it, knowing full well that returning something to Ikea is a miserable multi-hour process.

Our ticket said something like 690. We estimated that moving through almost 30 returns before us with just two lines open would be something like 3 hours. I think we'll keep our $40 lamp, thank you very much. Oh, and as if it were a sign from above (or below) - see what number they were handling when we walked up?

Now calling customer 666...

Incidentally, Ikea is tricky because this lamp was $40 but it took 3 rather specialized light bulbs, each costing $7. So really we spent over $60 for the lamp. Still not worth waiting 3 hours to return.

Fortunately, Home Depot sells a kit for $3.50 that can convert a lamp to a pull cord, used most often as a ceiling fan switch replacement. Drill a large hole into the lamp:

Screw in the pull cord, attach the wires, and voila! Pull cord lamp!

The install was pretty simple - standard lamp fare, given how many lamps we've installed in this house.

We removed all the links and have the chandelier hanging at its highest possible spot (without doing anything dramatic like trying to cut the pipe and rebuild it, etc.). Practical? No way! It gets in the way of the clothes a little and doesn't even light all that well. Amazing and makes us smile? You bet!

Worth it!

(Yes there's still some ugly orange insulation visible. We might paint over it or we might try to go all in on this ornate look and buy a fancy ceiling medallion instead.)