How to Make a DIY Wood Beam Light Fixture

If rustic vibes are your thing, and you’re looking for some light fixtures to transform your space, you may want to consider designing your own wood beam light. This is a big project that allows you to infuse your personality into your home and provides a unique focal point for large spaces. Follow along with this DIY wood beam light fixture tutorial to discover how you can make yours in just ten simple steps.

You’ll need a few materials to bring your wood beam light fixture to life, but you shouldn’t forget some essential supplies, like pliers and tape. Take a look at this list to find out exactly what you need.

Materials

• Big Slab of Wood
• Junction Box
• DIY Light Kit
• Cloth-Covered Lighting Cord
• Light Bulbs
• Socket Cover (Optional)
• Steel Brackets

Supplies

• Welder
• Drill
• Router
• Grinder
• Adjustable Wrench
• Standard Wire Stripper
• Power Saw
• Metal Wire Brush
• Phillips Head Screwdriver
• Flat Head Screwdriver
• Ruler
• Socket Wrench
• Wire Nuts
• Toggle Anchors
• Flat Head Screwdriver
• Ruler
• Socket Wrench
• Wire Nuts
• Toggle Anchors

Using a thick wire brush, clean the beam of wood to your preferred finish level. You can create a sophisticated look for this DIY wood beam light fixture by removing all flakes and splinters and waxing the wood with a wax paste finish. You can also leave your wood wild and rustic without any finish — just make sure the wood is clean and termite-free. The color, type, and size of the wood beam is completely up to you.

You need to designate a spot on the wood beam light to insert a junction box inside. Measure your junction box and route out a space in the wood for it to fit. Drill the corresponding holes in the beam to match the junction box and screw in the box to keep it hidden. 

Your J-box plate (the cover) won’t have any holes in it, so you’ll need to drill in holes to correspond with the metal female cord grips. Ours needed 15 holes because of how many lights we used. Once you’ve drilled the holes, screw the female cord grips into place.

The lengths and colors of the pendant cords for the DIY wood beam light fixture are up to you here, but take into consideration the height of your ceiling and how many times you’d like to wrap the cord around the beam before ordering your final lengths. 

With cords in hand, you’ll need to strip one end of every pendant and expose the copper wires beneath the PVC housing on the cord. Feed the stripped cord through the cord grip and optional socket cover. Thread on the socket cap and insert the green wire into the ground screw, the black wire into the positive gold terminal, and the white wire into the negative silver terminal. Secure all the screws back into place to hold the wires down and attach the socket body over the cap. Bodies and covers are self-sealing, so once they’re screwed in place, they’re there to stay! Finally, slide the socket cover over the socket and tighten the cord grip set screw. 

Repeat step three for each cord.

After all the wires have sockets, you’ll need to strip 4-5 inches of cord on the other end of the wire to prep them for wiring part two

To wire the individual cords into the junction box, start by removing all the set screws from the J-box plate. Feed the exposed wires from each pendant cord through. Twist seven sets of black positive conductor wires together with one end of a  standalone positive wire. Use the other end to attach this bundle to the second bundle of positive conductor wires. Repeat this step using a standalone white negative wire and a standalone green ground wire.

You’ll now have six individual bundles of wire that each get their own wire nut. Use heat string tubing to secure each bundle of wire inside of the wire nuts. Reattach the set screws you removed earlier to secure the wires to the J-box plate.

Don’t forget to include a lead wire (that’s what the 15th hole was for) so you can eventually wire it to the ceiling junction box in wiring part three.

Cut your steel brackets for the DIY wood beam light fixture down to the right size. Since the size of your beam may vary, you need to measure it to determine the exact size of steel brackets that will fit. 

Weld the steel pieces into a rectangle and grind them down to smooth the corners. This way, they’re prepped for primer and paint if you want to change the color. You’ll prepare two brackets, one for each side of the wood beam light.

Measure a little over an inch into either side of the short ends of your brackets. You’ll drill bolts into one side to attach it directly to the wood beam light and the other side will have smaller holes for the toggle anchor that mount your DIY wood beam light fixture to the ceiling. Repeat the drilling process for both brackets.

Start by measuring the distance between the two holes and two brackets and drill the corresponding holes into your ceiling. While you can use toggle anchors for your own DIY wood beam light fixture, studs or joists are more reliable for heavier fixtures.

Install the toggle anchors into the top of your brackets and lift the wood beam light to the ceiling so the anchors can butterfly out and you can tighten them with a power drill. The bracket/beam should be secure and flush to the ceiling. Make sure you mount the beam with the junction box facing the ceiling.

Once the DIY wood beam light fixture is mounted, take the J-box plate with the attached pendants and mount it to your junction box with the provided screws.

Since this DIY wood beam light fixture is designed to be customizable, it’s up to you how you want to wrap your pendant wire around the beam. You can wrap them all evenly, or create an asymmetrical design. You should experiment with a few different configurations before making your final choice. Some people spend a few days wrapping and rewrapping before finding the perfect setup.

With the pendants wrapped around the DIY wood beam light fixture according to your preference, you can now attach the lead wire between the ceiling and the beam J-box. This wiring will be similar to what you already did with the beam junction box. 

Thread the lead wire through the canopy plate and attach the green wire to the ceiling J-box ground wire (usually a bare copper wire), the black wire to the positive J-box wire, and the white wire to the negative J-box wire. Once you’re done attaching the wires, secure them with a wire nut on each set.

Now mount the canopy plate back over the ceiling junction box and screw it into the canopy bracket using the included screws. Tighten down the set screw to secure the cloth covered wire into place.

The hard part is finished! All that’s left to do is screw in a light bulb for each pendant and flip the switch.

You should have already chosen the light bulb setup for your DIY wood beam light fixture, but if you haven’t, you can explore a variety of bulb shapes and sizes that may fit your aesthetic. Just keep the bulbs bare so that the beam and colored cord can shine.