How to Create a Wood Bowl Pendant Light Fixture

DIY Wooden Light Fixture Tutorial

If you love a modern wood pendant light but you’re not sure about the cost of buying one from the store, here’s a tutorial to DIY a wooden light fixture on your own! With this list of supplies, step-by-step instructions, and GIFs, you’ll have a personalized and unique design that perfectly fits your aesthetics. Follow along to create a customized light fixture for your space!

Essential Tools & Supplies

You might already have a few of these things at home, but you should make sure you have this entire list of essentials before starting your DIY wooden light fixture. You can buy an all-in-one pendant light kit and just add a bowl, or source everything individually.

• Colorful lamp cord of your preferred length
• Single port ceiling light canopy with included canopy mount, nuts, and screws
• 6” stem cord grip
• Basic ivory socket
• Metal washer
• 1/8 (⅜”) IPS coupler
• 1/8 IPS all-thread nipple
• Socket cover (optional)
• Phillips head screwdriver
• Flathead screwdriver
• Needle-nose pliers 
• Standard wire strippers
• Razor blade or cloth cutter
• Masking tape
• Power drill with ⅜” bit
• Your preferred shape, size, and style of wooden bowl

Do you have everything on this list for your DIY wooden light fixture? It’s time to follow along with these instructions to build your modern wood light pendant.

Remove the bottom platform or extra material from the bottom of the bowl. Some bowls may have rubber feet or a second bottom that you should get rid of. 

Now, measure the diameter of the bowl to find the center and use your drill to create a hole all the way through it. 

Double-check the size of the hole with your all-thread before moving on to the next step. The all-thread should easily slide in and out of the hole.

If you’re using cloth-covered cord, you’ll need to expose the copper wires on the interior to make wiring simple. 

To start, place a strip of masking tape around the cord about an inch and a half from the end. Using your razor blade, cut at the center of the masking tape all the way around two or three times. At this point, you should be able to pull away the cloth or PVC housing of your cord to expose the positive, negative, and ground wires.

Using your wire strippers, remove about 3/16” off the tips of the three interior wires. You should now see the stranded copper wires underneath. 

Tin the ends for a better contact point in your completed modern wood pendant light. However, you can also simply twist the strands tightly together with your fingers.

Loosen the two screws underneath the cap. One screw is the smaller set screw for inserting the all-thread, and the other is a ground screw for when you wire the socket. Insert the all-thread into the top of the socket cap (it should twist in easily) and tighten down the smaller set screw. The all-thread should almost fully extend out of the top of the socket cap to attach to the rest of your DIY wooden light fixture.

There are three unique metal parts that you need to string onto your cord that will sit above the bowl lamp shade to give your DIY wooden light fixture a professional, finished look. 

Start by removing the set screw on the cord grip and putting the cord grip onto your cord with the hole from the set screw positioned toward the bottom of the cord. 

Follow the grip with your coupler and metal washer. Then, feed the cord through the hole and, if you have one, string on your socket cover to help your pendant light appear more polished.

The socket cap with the all-thread comes next. Slip it onto the bottom of the cord so the all-thread is aimed at the bottom of the bowl.

Feed the green grounding wire through the hole of the grounding screw and tighten the screw back down. Now, grab your socket body and wire it to the socket cap. Insert the black and white cord into the correct holes to align the black cord with the long prong and the white cord with the short prong on the interior of the body. Snap the body onto the cap and feed the whole thing into the socket cover so it sits flush inside of it.

Feed the cord back through the hole on the underside of the bowl until the socket cover with the socket cap inside is flush against the wood. The all-thread should just be showing at the top of the bowl. Now, bring down the washer to lie flat against the wood bowl, attach the coupler to the cord grip, and bring everything down to meet the washer. Screw the all-thread and cord grip together. Finally, tighten down the cord grip set screw to secure all the pieces to the cord.

Strip and prep your color cord just like you did in steps 2 and 3. 

Now, flip off your light switch and breaker box to ensure your safety before wiring anything to the ceiling. 

Use the included screws to attach the canopy mount to the ceiling over the junction box. 

Grab your DIY wooden light fixture and feed the cord you just stripped through the canopy to your preferred length. Tighten the canopy cord grip set screw to secure it.

Take the exposed wires from the junction box and attach them to the corresponding wires from the top of your modern wood pendant light — black with black, white with white, and ground with ground. Push all the wires into the junction box and secure the canopy over the cover with the side set screws.

The last thing left to do is choose your light bulb, screw it in, and flip the switches to enjoy a beautiful DIY wooden light fixture in any space!