# Anatomy of DIY wall sconces



## seattle_ice

After completing most of my theater almost a year ago, I kept procrastinating buying and installing the 4 wall sconces that were supposed to be there. But I could only ignore those ugly electrical wall boxes for so long (actually my wife insisted I finish them, I hardly noticed while the movies were going).

After many, many hard hours of manual labor googling and clicking on links, I finally found a light that I loved. I wanted fairly good sized wall sconces that did not shine out into my eyes, that looked somewhat Art Deco-ish, and that had a good color scheme to match my Wine/Dark Leather/Black theater color scheme. It looked like this:










I loved it. My wife loved it. Except it was more than $500 each and I needed 4. OUCH!

So I said the dreaded 4 words. I CAN MAKE IT! And we're off to home depot.....


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## seattle_ice

After calculating the approximate dimensions from the picture and specs listed on the web site for that light, I modified them a little to suit my needs and came up with a sketch - \/. 

Here's the real one:










To test the sketch out, I made a cardboard mockup, complete with paint and everything:










I really liked the look, so I took my little sketch and went to see a friend who works in heating and cooling. He sent my pics to the fab shop and they used a break and a plasma cutter to whip up four of those for around $30 each. They weren't perfect, but a couple hours of grinding and wire brushing, and they were much smoother.

Total spent so far: $130


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## robbo266317

Well done. :clap:
And the money you saved can be better spent on something else.


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## seattle_ice

First I had to figure out how to attach it to the wall and power the lights. This two light holder seemed ready made for the job:










After unwrapping it though, it was definitely not going to be sturdy enough for the hefty sconces I was making. Not that the sconces were huge, but somewhat of a BBW in the lighting world. So I found another piece to use:










I assembled them by pushing the prongs from the holder through the wafer before pushing it into the base. So it looked like this:










This still had some wobble to it, so I tack welded some small braces(1" square or so) where the light holder meets the base.


Total spent so far: $174


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## seattle_ice

To mount the front pieces, I first lined them up and drilled the pilot holes for a 10-32 tap.










I tapped all the holes in the main pieces, and slightly reamed out the holes in the front pieces:










I found some 1" 10-32 button head socket drive screws and some 3/8" nylon spacers at my local Ace Hardware. First rough test fitting went well:










Now time to clean them up and prepare for paint.


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## seattle_ice

A couple hours with an angle grinder and a 80 grit disk on my ******* work bench:










This is what they looked like raw:










Yes, the swirly patterns are on purpose. I planned on finishing these with a sort of semi-transparent finish so the patterns would show through the color.

Next: Testing

Total spent so far: $183


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## seattle_ice

I temporarily mounted one to a board to test out the lighting:

Camera Flash On (washes out the lighting from the sconce):










Camera Flash Off(Sconce is very dark, but you can see the lighting effects): 










Perfect. The glow around the gap between the front and back pieces was really quite excellent. But when I was mounting the sconce to the board, I realized the sheet metal was a little too flexible and was getting bowed in by the pressure. So a little reinforcement was in order. After yet another trip to the hardware store, I added some 1/4" steel angle piece to the appropriate places in the back:










Next: Finishing

Total spent so far: $191


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## seattle_ice

For the finish, I needed a semi-transparent look, so I tried a number of different options, and the one that worked for me in the end was using the Varathane gloss wood stain and polyurethane all in one.

I simply brushed on one very thin coat straight, then a second coat using random swirly motions.

For the front, I used a burgundy stain, and for the back a gold one. It is very striking, although not terribly visible during a movie. :sarcastic:





































Total spent so far: $209


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## iconrl

Wow, nice job! Those look very good!
Great write up too.


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## Prof.

Very well crafted..and a very nice looking unit..well done..:clap: :T


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## orion

I am impressed. Those look very good. You saved quite a bit of money vs the $500 lights. I am trying to find sconces now and I am having a hard time. No hurry right?


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