I’ve been doing a lot of home improvement projects around my main bathroom lately and most of the work has been DIY plumbing projects, but this time I thought I’d show you how I took out an old dated bathroom light and installed a new light fixture on the wall. The process is relatively simple, but because this is an electrical project I have to warn you to only do this if you’re comfortable working with electrical things. Installing a wall light is just like any other electrical DIY project: you could really get hurt or even killed if you’re not careful.

Ugly. You don’t see a difference between the blue and purple bulbs when it is on.

Our old light fixture on our bathroom wall was dated and ugly and was clearly something that was installed as a cheap “temporary” solution for lighting and happened to stay there for a number of years. I found a good deal on generic but much more contemporary looking bathroom light fixture at one of those big box warehouse stores and just had to buy it. I set aside an hour last weekend and put up the new fixture without any real problems. You can do the same. Here’s how:

First, don’t be stupid. Be safe. I’m not an electrician and these instructions may not follow your local electrical codes. I try to be as careful as possible around electricity because I’ve been shocked a few times and I can tell you that it’s just not fun. And, sorry, I can’t be liable for anything you do as a result of reading this article. Any electrical work you do is done at your own risk. And since your power is going to be off, you may want to plan to do this during the daytime when you still have lots of sunlight or at least plan to run an extension cord to a lamp so that you have some light in the room you’re working in.

After being installed our new wall light fixture looks much better than our old one!

Now let’s begin replacing that wall light fixture! Turn off the power to light fixture you’re going to replace at the fuse box or breaker box. I know, you can just flick the switch, but that’s not the safest way to do things. A switch could accidentally be turned back on or there could even be wires in the light junction box that aren’t controlled by the switch. Be safe and turn off the power. If you’re unsure about whether the power is really off or not you can pick up one of those non-contact voltage detectors. They’re small and relatively inexpensive and a lot of fun at parties. They basically beep and flash whenever they’re placed near a wire that’s live or turned on. Yes, they can detect the flow of electricity through the insulation on most wires (as well as walls), so they’re safe to use as well.

Once power is off open up the box for your new light fixture and make sure there aren’t any parts missing or broken pieces. Many a home improvement project has been put on hold for me because I opened a box and found that I was missing something I actually needed.

I’m putting up a new wall light fixture in my bathroom, but the steps are pretty similar no matter where you put up a new light. I’m using a wall fixture in this example, but these steps are almost identical for replacing a light fixture mounted on the ceiling. Be absolutely certain that the light fixture you’re using is designed to be installed where you want to put it. For the bathroom I had to make sure my light fixture is rated for damp environments (it is) and in my case I had to make sure the fixture was designed to have the glass globes mounted downwards. Also make sure your light fixture is rated for interior or exterior use. Never use an interior light fixture outside! One more word of caution: ceiling fans cannot simply be installed over a ceiling fixture box. Ceiling fans need special brackets and supports put into the ceiling to hold them up.

Our old wall light fixture plate is pretty big.

Now onward to that ugly bathroom wall light I have now. All light fixture are different, but most wall-mounted light fixtures follow a similar pattern: remove the light bulbs, remove the frame or structural part of the fixture, detach the wires and remove the fixture plate. For my particular light I had to unscrew all three light bulbs, gently pull out the silver rings around each bulb and then simply pop off the metal plate they were resting against. I now had a large metal plate exposed with some wires sticking out of it. At this point you probably want to remove the fixture wires from the wires in the wall. The wires should be tied to wires of like color. So the white wire of the light fixture should be tied to the white wire coming out of the wall. Black wires are the same, though sometimes instead of a black wire you’ll see a red wire. Always assume that a black or red wire the wire that carries the electricity and treat it accordingly. You may also have a a ground wire. That’s either going to be a bare wire or have green insulation around it.

If you’re sure the power is off, detach the black wires first, then the white wires then the ground wires. I was always told to do it in that order becase the black wire carries the juice and if something went wrong the ground and white wires might keep you safe.

Clean out the old electrical box and inspect all the wires carefully.

Once the wires are disconnected you can remove the metal plate from the wall. More than likely there are just one or two screws holding that in place. Find them and remove them. You should now be able to totally remove that metal plate, exposing the light fixture electrical box. Wall light fixture boxes almost always having two or four standard holes that are threaded for screws. These screws are ultimately what holds the light fixture the wall. The wall light electrical box itself is usually nailed into place against a stud in the wall. Just to be safe you may want find the wall stud just to be sure you know where you can work.

When you pull the plate out and have all the wires dangling there it might be a good time to inspect the electrical box with a flashlight and make sure everything appears to be in order. Make sure there is no corrosion, clean out any dust or debris that may have accumulated and make sure the wires are all in good condition with all the insulation still solid around them. If you do find any worn or torn insulation on the wires you should consider replacing the worn section or if there’s just a small cut, wrapping the wire in some electrical tape.

After you’ve completely removed the old fixture you may want to actually read the instruction manual that came with your new light fixture, just to make sure there aren’t any surprises. Most wall fixture installs are pretty standard, but sometimes the more stylish wall lights have some hidden snaps and levers to hide wall plates.

Our new wall light fixture plate is small and easy to attach to the electrical box with screws.

That’s almost always the first step when installing a new light fixture: attaching a wall plate of some sort to the electrical box in the wall. Most electrical boxes have screw holes and light fixtures come with standard screws to fit the holes. You generally thread the wires (black, white, green for ground) through the plate and screw the plate into the electrical box. Once that’s secure you may want to take the ground wire from the electrical box and attach it to the metal plate. Most newer light fixture plates will have a little green screw on them. Ideally you can connect the ground wire from the wall to that green screw and also connect the ground wire from the light fixture to the same green screw.

Depending upon where your wall light fixture is placed, you may need a helper for this next step. Usually you want to now connect the rest of the electric and a helper is usually needed to hold the light fixture while you connect the wires. The best way to connect wires is with wire cap connectors. To use these take the two ends of the wires (let’s use white from the wall and white from the light fixture and put then next to each other, both ends pointing in the same direction. You now lower the wire cap over the two ends and turn to the right. Keep turning and pressing down on the wire cap and you should feel it and the wires getting tighter. Turn until they’re snug. For extra safety I then usually wrap a few inches of electrical tape around the wires below the wire cap, just to keep the wires in line and reduce stress on the connection.

Once all your wires are connected you’ll probably have to work with your helper to somehow attach the actual light fixture to the wall plate and hide all the wires at the same time. This can sometimes get tricky and I’ve learned to just take it slowly in most cases. Make sure your wires are secure, but not too crammed or crushed or crimped or you might have troubles later. Most wall fixtures attach to the wall plate on the electical box with a series of screws or latches or a combination of both.

Now that your light fixture is on the wall and everything is wired up you can complete everything and finish up this project. Generally that means installing glass globes or lamp coverings and then putting in the light bulbs themselves. When everything is in place turn the power back on and then go into that room and turn on the switch. Everything should be working well!

The typical installation process for most wall light fixtures.

If you have problems, then you’ll want to simply work your way backwards to find the issue. Each time you start to take the light fixture off the wall, though, I’d strongly recommend turning off the power. If you’re really uneasy about troubleshooting electric problems then save yourself the stress and play it safe: call in an electrician.

The good news is that it’s relatively easy to update and install a new light fixture on the wall where an older one already existed. I am thinking about using wall light fixtures in my basement remodeling project, just so I don’t have to try to run electricity through my basement ceilings. And if you’re a little unsure about some of the above steps and you don’t want to try to install a wall light fixture on your own then you can take heart in knowing that this is a relatively simple job for a qualified electrician. There aren’t too many home improvement projects you can have done for under $100 these days, but hiring an electrician to replace a wall light fixture for you is still one of them!

A single light fixture can completely change the look and feel of a room, so it’s a relatively inexpensive home improvement project that usually has a big pay off in home value perception. Home value aside, the relatively simple task of installing a new light fixture on the wall makes our bathroom at least ten times less hideous than it was before!