How to Connect an Electric Cable to a Light Bulb

Flip the switch in the fuse box to cut off the current that goes to the room where you’re installing the light bulb. Lock the fuse box shut so nobody can turn the power back on accidentally.

Find a stud in the general area of the room where you’d like to place the light. Cut a round hole the same diameter as the junction box at the spot on the wall where you want to place the junction box.

Slide a razor blade between the wall and the baseboard at the area of the wall just underneath where you cut the junction box hole. Insert a pry bar between the baseboard and the wall. Pry off that section of baseboard. Slide the razor blade between that section and the adjacent sections of baseboard, to cut through the paint holding them together, if necessary. Remove any nails in the baseboard with a hammer, if necessary.

Cut a hole in the drywall on one side of the junction box’s stud. Make sure the hole is narrow enough that the baseboard will be able to cover it once the baseboard is replaced. Grab hold of the cable that runs behind the baseboard from the floor below. Pull the cable from the narrow hole until you come to one end of the cable.

Place fishing tape on that end of the cable. Attach fishing tape to the end of your hooked rod. Poke the hook through the junction box hole, and tilt it toward the cable. Wiggle the hook toward the cable, until you can see it through the narrow hole at the bottom of the wall. Loop the hook around the cable and join the tape on the hook with the tape on the cable. Pull the cable up through the hole for the junction box so the end of the cable dangles out of the wall, using the hooked rod.

Place the end of the cable in the junction box. Position the box in the hole. Place the screws through the box’s pre-drilled holes. Screw the junction box to the wall stud. Replace the baseboard into its spot on the wall (over the narrow hole you cut) and nail back it in place.

Strip the outer layer of plastic insulation off of the cable (at the end of the cable) to expose the different wires inside of the cable – use wire strippers. Twist the light fixture’s black wire and the cable’s black wire together, and twist the light fixture’s white wire and the cable’s white wire together. Use needle-nose pliers, if necessary. Place wire nuts over both the connection point between the black wires (where those wires are twisted together) and the white wires (where they are twisted together). Put the cover on the junction box.

Place the light fixture at the spot on the wall where you’d like the light. Screw it in place. Run the light fixture’s wire along the wall, so it runs straight and looks tidy. Tack the wire in place using cable tacks.

Screw in the light bulb. Unlock the fuse box.