Lighting / wiring / house details

Vintage String Lights

String lights for the house. Twisted cable, warm filament bulbs, little made parts, ceiling beams.

Shop-bought would have lit the room. These make it feel like somewhere specific, cable and bulbs sitting against the steel beams and timber.

Watch the making See stills

Finished vintage string lights hanging across ceiling beams in a living space. — Warm bulbs, black beams, twisted cable

BUILD SPEC DRAFT

Bulbs: —
Cable: —
Fittings: —
Run length: —
Control and dimming: —
Build time: —

What went wrong

To be written up.

What I would change

To be written up.

Workshop cut

Small parts, lots of repetition

Starts in the workshop. Cutting little blocks, laying out parts, wiring holders, testing bulbs.

Wiring

Testing the first glow

Installation

Threading the room

Repetition

Batch work at the bench

Cable

Holders and wiring

Install

Into the room

The idea

Why bother

Lights are easy to buy. A run of them across a room changes how the space feels, so it was worth making something deliberate - warm, slightly industrial, not too polished.

The build

Wires, blocks and bulb holders

Cut, mark, assemble, test, install, adjust, repeat. About forty times, for a job I had estimated at an afternoon.

Wide view of completed vintage string lights across ceiling beams. — The finished lights across the living space

Vintage filament bulbs hanging above a kitchen area. — Warm bulbs over the kitchen

Cutting small wooden parts on a bandsaw. — Cutting the small wooden parts

Marking wooden blocks on a metal work table. — Marking out repeatable pieces

Lighting parts, cable and wooden pieces laid out on a welding table. — Parts laid out

A lit vintage-style bulb holder being tested on the workbench. — First glow

Close-up of a bulb holder and twisted cable during assembly. — Bulb holder and twisted cable

Daniel installing string lights across dark ceiling beams. — Up the steps, across the beams

String lights installed across a room ceiling. — The room being threaded

A dramatic orange and purple evening sky outside after the lighting project. — Lights on, just after sunset

A small block being cut on a workshop saw for the vintage string lights. — Small parts begin

Wooden light blocks laid out on a perforated welding table for drilling. — Batch drilling

Daniel working high on a step ladder while installing the light run across the room. — Up on the steps

Vintage string lights installed across dark beams in the finished room. — The run across the beams