Farmhouse Rustic Pool Table Light With Recycled/Reclaimed Materials

One of my buddies bought a pool table with his Christmas bonus, which he keeps in his basement. The lighting down there is terrible, so I though I'd make him a nice pool table light out of some reclaimed and recycled material I had saved.

• (2) reclaimed barnwood boards, approximately 3/4"x9"x8ft
• (3) recycled industrial light shades
• yellow wood glue
• oxidizing iron paint
• oxidizing solution
• 4x4 junction box and cover
• 14ga wire
• wire nuts
• (6) clamp connectors
• two-prong power cord
• electrical tape
• nail-on wire clamps
• (2) HeadLOK screws, can be replaced with 1/4" lag screws and matching washers
• 3/4" plywood, 5" x 12"
• light socket outlet adapter

Tools:

• Table saw
• Miter saw
• Pin nailer
• Drill
• Impact driver
• Drill bit set
• Wire stripper
• Lineman's pliers
• Drill press
• Forstner bit set
• Pocket hole jig
• Tape measure
• Plumb bob

The general concept for this lamp is that it will be a barnwood "beam," mounted to the ceiling, with three lamp shades hanging from it.

Start by deciding on the dimensions you want your beam to be. Mine were about 5 feet long, 8 inches wide, and 4-1/4" deep. Since my boards are 9" wide, I could get the material for the sides of the beam from one board.

I started with a squaring cut on one end of the board, then cut off a piece 8" long and another 5ft long. Each of these pieces I ripped to 4-1/4" wide.

Next I set my miter saw to a 45-degree angle and lined up the miter cut on one end of a short piece. Once satisfied with the location of the cut, I clamped a stop block so that the next piece would be cut exactly the same. I cut the miters on both of the short pieces, then rotated the miter saw to cut 45 degrees in the other direction. Again, I lined up the cut and set a stop block, then made the remaining two miter cuts on the short pieces.

Cutting the long pieces was a bit trickier. Cutting one miter end was simple enough. Then, since the bed of my miter saw isn't long enough to clamp a stop block for the second cut, I moved the saw such that the wall would become my stop block.

With all the miters cut, glue up follows easily. Spread some yellow glue on the joint and spread it around, then press the two corners together. I like to use a pin nailer when making miter joints since they tend to slip around under clamping pressure. What's nice about this barnwood is that it's so weathered that you don't even see the pin nails afterward!

Glue and pin nail one end of the beam together, then add a clamp or two to hold things firm. Repeat on the second end. Once both ends are glued together, use some long clamps to apply pressure end-to-end. Set aside for the glue to dry.

I salvaged these lights from a dumpster at my old apartment complex. They were being replaced by some newer fixtures.

They come apart really easily by unscrewing a couple of things - first, the threaded ring on the socket body, and second the nut on the hollow threaded rod that the wiring passes through. The other end of the wires was attached to a metal junction box cover with a clamp connector, and I just snipped this off with a wire cutter.

Since these are going to be painted, I gave them a thorough dusting and cleaning with denatured alcohol.

The paint I chose for this has iron particles suspended in the paint, and it comes with an oxidizing solution applied after the paint dries. The paint goes on simply with a brush. According to the paint directions, there's a specific primer that's supposed to be applied before the paint, but I didn't find this necessary. Fair warning - this paint smells like regular latex paint...mixed with rotting swamp. Paint outdoors if you can. I ended up using three coats and then touching up any bare spots.

After the paint dries, brush on the oxidizing solution. I was pretty liberal with the application of this stuff. It was neat watching the paint start rusting before my eyes - it took about a half hour to an hour for the full rusted patina to develop.

This next step is optional, but you may want to protect the rusted finish and/or knock back how aggressively orange the rusted color is. I sprayed on three coats of satin lacquer. Do this in a well-ventilated area and NOT your basement. The fumes get sucked into your HVAC system and get distributed throughout the house otherwise. Ask me how I know...

Light re-assembly is exactly the opposite steps as dis-assembly. Pass the wire through the hole in the top part of the light, then tighten the hollow threaded rod to the part using the nut.

Then put the top part of the light on the main part of the shade and screw on the threaded ring. Once wired up, these lights are good to go.

Once the glue on the beam dries, remove the clamps and set aside. Measure the opening in the beam to get the rough dimensions for the bottom piece, and cut the other barnwood board to the rough dimensions. You want the board to be oversized to the opening.

Next, bring the board to the beam and tuck it into one corner of the opening. Using a knife, mark the length of the beam and cut to length with the miter saw.

Bring the board back to the beam, press it into the opening (it should fit length-wise now) and mark the width with a knife. If your cut is parallel to the first edge, then simply cut it to width with the table. If, like me, your opening is slightly tapered, you'll have to cut the taper.

There are a couple ways to cut this very light taper, including with a taper jig in the table saw. I chose instead to use a jointer plane to bring the board down to final width. Once cut to size, test-fit it in the opening. If it fits, glue around the perimeter of the bottom board, fit it in place, and clamp it until the glue dries.

Since I have three lights, I marked three spots: one at the center of the beam, and two at 6" from either end of the beam. I picked a brad-point drill bit slightly larger in diameter than the lamp wire and drilled through the bottom at these locations.

Pass the lamp wire through the holes. Using clamp connectors, affix the connectors to the lamp wire, which will stop the lamps from slipping out of the holes with the light is hung. You'll want to measure and mark the wire so that the clamps are all at a consistent location and the lamps are all the same distance from the beam.

To provide a spot for all the wiring to come together, I added a 4"x4" metal junction box on the inside of the beam. I salvaged this box from my kitchen remodel. The junction box isn't strictly necessary, but it's nice for keeping things tidy.

The wire for the two end lights wasn't long enough to reach the junction box, so I spliced in some longer wire. This wire (14 gauge) was also left over from my kitchen remodel. Splicing is as easy as stripping about 1/2" of wire, twisting together the matching colors, and attaching them with wire nuts. I like to use electrical tape to keep these things together. I also used some nail-on clamps to keep things in place.

Where the wires pass into the junction box, use a clamp connector. A red bushing protects the wires from being cut on the clamp body, and the clamp gets cinched down on the wires with a screwdriver. A threaded coupler fixes the connector to the junction box.

With all of the lamp wires fed into the junction box, do the same with the power cord. Splice all the wires together and connect them with wire nuts. Close the junction box with a cover. At this point the light should be functional.

Mounting the light can be accomplished a few different ways, such as screw-in hooks and chain. However, the ceilings in my buddy's basement (where this light will reside) are not that high, so I want as much headroom as possible. Also, his ceiling has fiberboard tiles below the joists, so I can't directly attach to the joists.

To mount the light, I'm going to make use of some HeadLOK screws leftover from my Pergola project. These screws have a wide head that will work great for catching a mounting bracket.

I make the mounting bracket out of some leftover 3/4" plywood. The brackets are 5" wide and sized to fit inside the beam opening. I mark the center of the brackets and also mark for a slot that will accept the shank of the HeadLOK screw. To attach the brackets to the beam, I drill four pocket holes.

At the drill press, I drill a shallow counterbore that will accept the head of the screw. This is slightly larger in diameter than the screw head and as deep as the screw head. Then I drill a hole through the center of that counterbore for the screw shank. To finish, I cut the slot out with a hand saw.

Now at my buddy's house, we find the center of the pool table by measuring from both directions and marking on a piece of masking tape. Then I suspend a plumb bob from the ceiling to meet this mark, and make a correlating mark on the ceiling.

I marked two screw locations 2ft from this center mark and aligned with the long axis of the pool table. I located these screws so that they would catch the furring strips that support the tile ceiling. Alternately, they could have been screwed into the ceiling joists, but my HeadLOK screws were not long enough. Screw in the screws enough that they will allow the mounting brackets to slid on easily.

Next, transfer the screw measurements to the beam and install the mounting brackets. You'll want the slots to be facing the same direction.

To allow the power cord to pass outside the body of the beam, I sawed and chiseled out a little recess for the cord. This was located so that the recess was right next to the ceiling light fixture we tapped into for the light's power.

With the screws in the ceiling and the mounting brackets fastened to the light, all that's left to do is mount it! If you've done everything correctly, you should be able to bring the light up to the ceiling and slide it onto the mounting screws. If, like us, you have a small hump in the ceiling, you may need to tap it into place with a hammer and a block of wood.

To provide power, we turned the adjacent light socket into an outlet using a screw-in adapter. This way, the light can be controlled by the pull cord on the fixture.

The light is finished! This is a huge improvement to my buddy's basement and provides great lighting for the pool table.

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