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Day #2 – are your light boxes old and small?

October 2, 2013

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Don’t be shy. It’s ok if they are.

Unlike some things that would never want to be described as old and small.

Like grapefruit.

I like a big, juicy, fresh grapefruit.

I can’t seem to think of one other thing at all that would never want to be called old and small.

Not a thing. 😉

31 things you need to know

Anyway, we thought we had run into a potentially major snag when we went to install our new ceiling fan from Lamps Plus and noticed that our light box looked like this.

Update: Always make sure your light boxes are properly installed to support the weight of a ceiling fan, if you’re unsure you might want to call in a professional electrician.

old light box

I’m realizing how uninformative that picture seems without a measurement. But basically those two little screw holes that you see on the perimeter of the light box are not as far apart as they are on modern-day light boxes.

And modern-day light fixtures.

Lo and behold we found just the thing to fix our problem at the hardware store.

old light box adapter

Its selection of holes and grooves are designed to line up with a variety of light box sizes and make them compatible with whatever style of light you are looking to install.

And then after following all of the detailed instructions and using up most of these parts.

guest bedroom ceiling fan parts

Joel did make a point to mention that more than enough hardware was provided, which was equal parts cool and nerve wrecking. 🙂  It’s always nice to not have to worry about losing a little screw, but when he was all done and there were so many screws left over he was all “Well, I think I hung it right.”

guest bedroom ceiling fan installation

And she looks mighty fine I think.

guest bedroom ceiling fan

If you remember the choices I had it narrowed down to, I picked one that I don’t think anyone chose as their favorite. Sorry guys. 🙂

It’s the 48″ Kichler Celino Brushed Stainless Steel Ceiling Fan and I really do love her.

She’s simple with a really does just remind me of a propeller for some reason. I like that the blades are reversible, we have the lighter side on the bottom. But I have considered even staining them to match our DIY closet shelves and the side rails on the DIY wood bed frame … maybe down the road.

So, that’s the little trick we learned when we tried to install a new ceiling fan into our old light box.

It’s one of those handy tools that you don’t even realize exists until you need it. Then you’re super thankful someone had already invented it. It was about $4.

See the full 31 Day series right here.

« that day we found out our porch roof wasn’t really attached to the house
Day #3 – the best leftover pizza microwave tip »

Comments

  1. txvoodoo (@txvoodoo) says

    October 2, 2013 at

    I like this fan! It’s simple and elegant and bright, and living down south myself, I know you won’t actually see the blades still that often. 😀

    • Karah says

      October 3, 2013 at

      Ohhhhh, such a good point about not seeing the blades much. I turned ours off in our master the other day and was like “yikes, someone needs to clean that sucker” 🙂

  2. Ally says

    October 2, 2013 at

    I don’t know why, but when I read the title of your post I immediately started singing, “Do your ears hang low.” Yeah, I don’t know why, it’s late and my mind is mush. Great ceiling fan though!

    • Karah says

      October 3, 2013 at

      hahaha!!

  3. Heidi @ Decor & More says

    October 3, 2013 at

    Good to know! I bet ALL of our light boxes are of the old and small variety. 🙂
    xo heidi

  4. Traci says

    October 3, 2013 at

    Hi Karah. I don’t want to be a buzz kill but I want to give you a little info on electrical boxes. Your old and small box is not meant to support the weight of a ceiling fan.Home Depot has a great YouTube video showing how to replace the box and add support for the fan. We had one above our bed come loose in the middle of the night. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coDff5RLIas
    Traci

    • Karah says

      October 3, 2013 at

      Hey Traci!! No buzz kill at all. And I’m glad you brought this up because I probably should have mentioned it in the post, we had an electrician look at ours when we had the ceiling open in there to make sure we were good to go. What we were told was that the important thing to look at is the support, like she commented on the the video. She used a bracket but we actually have a 2 x 4 cripple it’s called secured to each ceiling joist and our bracket is secured to that. If only we’d known at that time that we were going to want a bigger box. 🙂

      • Traci says

        October 6, 2013 at

        I am so glad it was braced already. It was so scary to have one come loose from the ceiling.

  5. RHome410 @ Friday is Pizza, Monday is Soup says

    October 11, 2013 at

    Love that fan! We live about as far away from you as we can on the Continental US, diagonally, so we don’t have the same cooling needs for ceiling fans. Instead, we need them to push warm air down from high ceilings to where the people are. Anyway, there are some ugly fans out there, so I’ve been looking for more interesting, contemporary options.

    • Karah says

      October 12, 2013 at

      there are some seriously ugly fans out there that is for sure!!

Trackbacks

  1. 31 things you need to know {and won't believe you didn't already} the space between says:
    October 12, 2013 at

    […] #1 – how to clean a washing machine Day #2 – are your light boxes small and old? Day #3 – the best leftover pizza tip ever Day #4 – diy swiffer cloths Day #5 – […]

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