Bracket Lighting

Bracket Lighting

Sometimes you need to add lighting to a room or a space, but simply want to do the project inexpensively and without the need for an Electrician. To be honest I do wish my DIY skills extended to electrical because then I could be all that! However, because I don’t have those skills, I had to think inside my skill set and problem-solve my lack of lighting issue in our 1997 mobile home that we are DIYing on a very small budget to be a Fab Lake Cottage!

This is the before of our kitchen when we purchased it in January of 2020.
The original light fixture was a single bulb light fixture that was a little underwhelming.
We replaced it with a single bulb and it added to the charm of the kitchen, but didn’t improve the lighting situation.
As you can see we had made it pretty far with our improvements other than resolving the lighting issue.
Even the new dining room light (that I purchased off FBMP for $15 didn’t fix the lack of lighting in the nooks and crannies of the kitchen.
I decided my best option was to add lighting to each side of the new rustic vent hood that I had made.

So now that I quickly updated you with pictures and comments that show the progression, I’ll start with how I made rustic brackets and what lights I purchased to resolve my lack of lighting on a very small budget. I had a few 1 x 4″ boards of Alder wood. I really wanted to do the brackets out of Alder because I love the grain and the knots of Alder. Since Alder is more expensive than pine, I really can’t use it for bigger items like the vent hood shown above because it wouldn’t keep me on budget for this renovation.

I ripped one of the two 1 x 4″ x 8′ boards into two. That allowed me to have a thinner piece to partially hide the cord on my pendant light.

I cut the following pieces for each corbel. I wanted the corbel bracket to be simple and purposeful. The groove on the back side allowed me to hide a portion of the electrical cord.

This is the product that I choose to order to hang from my rustic corbels. I thought they had a similar look to the single light fixture I had replaced over my sink. I also loved that the pair of corded lights were inexpensive. I bought the pair of lights for under $35.00

Before I stained and added poly to the corbel brackets, I held them in place to determine where they should go. With this placement, I felt that each corbel light bracket gave me considerable light on my countertop work space below. Plus they also added a bunch of light to the whole kitchen.

I just measured how far from each side of the vent hood I wanted the corbel to be placed. Then assured my line of tape was level so it could act as a guide while I attached them to the wall.

In the left light fixture, I tried an Edison light bulb and a regular LED light bulb in the right. Even though I loved the look of the Edison bulb, this project was about getting more light into the kitchen so I opted for the regular style light bulb.

Click here to see the short video that I have on Instagram about this project.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CTUb1ndHIPH/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

2 thoughts on “Bracket Lighting

  1. Why would u name your designs by a name so close to the profane four letter word that demeans women? Has it obtained the attention you need?
    Are you a mother? Do u drive a truck?
    You like building something better? Improving your dwelling? This is easier than building on character and education which will last longer and become a benefit.
    Mary Perkins

    1. Ms. Perkins, I am so sorry I am just now seeing your comment and that I haven’t responded to it. I don’t think that the bad version of this MF is related solely to women nor do I think of that name when I think of my nickname that later became my business name. I hope when people see this name that is not what they see. I have inquired with many people before I chose to use this as my business name and they didn’t seem to think so. This was a fun, sweet nickname given to me some 30 years ago as a female firefighter who was assigned to a truck (there are fire engines and there are fire trucks… and being assigned to a fire truck is a coveted position). If you look at my pictures you will see that I did, in fact, at one time drive some of those fire trucks. Then I became a Mom and a Fire Captain. Anyone whom I have crossed paths with in my career did not seem to deem this as a negative name. When I first was hired, there were not that many females in this occupation. Males on Trucks were referred to as Truckmen. It was a name given to me because they liked and respected me. It was also just a name to let me know I fit in in the brotherhood of a mostly male occupation. I later became a Mom and I think the title fits even better. Firefighters become your family and as a female officer, I would say I had the role of a leader, mentor, parent, and mother. I hope when you see my business name now, you will see it as a positive thing and hopefully show me grace if you still find it in bad taste. I am quite proud of my career and my inclusion in this great fire department family. I view my title of “Mother Trucker” as a beautiful thing.

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