Yikes! You guys how in the world has it taken me so long to post about our ladder lights?! I know I said it before but this summer is kicking my butt! Well I finally had a chance to sit down and edit all my photos and write out my thoughts about how we put our new kitchen lights together. This one was a doozy you guys! When you just put something together without really any instructions it’s hard to go back and explain exactly what you did! So here’s my best attempt at a tutorial for our new DIY ladder lights.
DIY Ladder Lights
I know I’m still raving about our Waco trip but it was just so much fun and we picked up some amazing finds when we were there! I was so inspired at The Findery, everything there is just gorgeous. It’s like farmhouse heaven. They have so many antique pieces mixed in with new modern ones- exactly how I picture our home someday. We noticed that they used a lot of old ladders to help display their lights and lanterns and loved the idea so much we decided we needed to figure out how to incorporate it into our kitchen. Lucky for me we found the perfect antique ladder, just the right size and color! And we found the perfect lantern globe lights! I didn’t waste any time when we got home and had the hubs putting them together by the weekend!
Step by Step
So first we took the ladder and centered it where we wanted it to hang, centered over our table. We placed it on the floor and used a laser level cube on the rungs to point out on the ceiling exactly where we needed to put the hangers.
To hang our lights we created hook hangers that we looped jute rope through. We used these drywall anchors with an eye hook and this carabiner style hook to create it. We spray painted everything to get the old metal look to match the lights and ladder.
Then we started to work on the ladder. We placed the same carabiner hooks, just a bit larger than the ones in the ceiling, on the rungs of the ladder that would hold the light fixtures. This took a little bit of filing and hammering to get them to fit on the ladder rung. We also had to detach the lights electrical wire from the bases they came with. Because the lights came as two separate lights we had to junction them together. We placed an electrical junction box on the inside of the ladder to junction the wires together safely.
We connected the lights to the ladder and tacked the wires up along the top of the ladder so that they would be mostly hidden once the fixture was hung.
Once the wires were tacked and running to the junction box we ran the jute rope through the ceiling hooks and attached them to the ladder. We used rope clamps to finish off the rope ends instead of learning a fancy knot. It was way easier and more trust worthy in our minds. We started by attaching just two opposite corners and just tying the other corners off for the time being. Because our ceiling is so high and at a slope we really wanted to be able to pull the ladder up to the point where it felt like a good height vs trying to measure it out. This was interesting to say the least! Trying to pull this ladder up with the lights hanging off of it and keep everything level was a lot more challenging than it sounds!
Once the ladder was at the right height and the ropes were finished off we just had to junction the electrical wires. We then attached the wire to the back of the rope with the same tacks we used on the ladder. Then it was time to make sure we didn’t screw anything up and the lights turned on!!
To be honest it didn’t work at first! Luckily it was a wiring problem, we just hadn’t screwed one of the light bulbs all the way in! So there you have it! A pretty simple tutorial for how we made our ladder lights! I absolutely love them and love that they have meaning and a story to them as well. Every time I look at them it reminds me of our fun trip. You can check out my saved Instagram stories to see the process in video! Just follow the link at the bottom of the page.
