Kitchen Ideas Faqs

How do I split/add a box for my current light (over my kitchen island) to accomodate two pendant lights?

The current fixture is attached to one electrical box, but the pendant lights that my wife wants will require two boxes (I assume).

Public Comments

1. Grab a few wire nuts and another box and 15 amp wiring and find the closest stud in your ceiling near where you want it and make the hole, fasten the box. Use a special box if your fixture will be heavy. run the wiring from one box to the other with the power off! punch out the disk for the new wiring to go in the box leaving a little more wire to work with. wire the new wire in with the black wire to black, white wire to white, ground to ground with wire nuts. use mounting brackets from your new light and install it to your box, connect new light fixture, put in place and that's it.
2. I have the same problem, what's your wife's name.... A couple of approaches. YOu can use a track light and use the current box to attach the power end of the track to. Then pendant down where ever you want or , you can locate the joists, over the counter plumb up (I use a lazer plumb bob but you can do it from the top down) locate where you want the lights. You want to locate the lights between the joists and not next to one. Buy either an old work box to hang on the drywall(should be good enough for most smaller pendants) or a box holder made for ceiling fans etc that have a bar that you tighten into the joists on each side. Cut the hole precisely, remove the existing light, insert a wire through the box and stick your arm through the new hole and hopefully find the wire. you may have to make a wire hook or something to grab the wire with. stick the wire through the new box, install it in the ceiling and do the connnections. This assumes you have some attic space and the distance between the old and new lights is not real long. It's not a pretty job but doable.