The Stairwell Light

When I was fixing up my own 1920s house, there was no light in the staircase. I added a stairwell light and completed the three-way wiring needed for that project. This was work on my own home, not a service I offer customers; for customer projects, I work only with existing wiring and do not do rough-ins or new circuits.

I came up with a way to make this thing that held a smart light. It had to be made at the perfect angle to an angled roof and 90° to the stairs.

Stairwell Before Light

In order to do it, I had a specific group of friends I would call, get pictures to, and get ideas from. They were all female. I called them the "chick convention." Now first of all, for anybody who gets offended hearing that, they all knew exactly what they were referred to, laughed about it, and I must say, they're all quite beautiful as well!

I'd just call them all and say, "Hey, I do cool things as you know, but I don't do pretty. Help! Got any ideas? I'm working on this..." I'd talk to them or I'd send the pictures. Sometimes hand-drawn things to get my ideas across.

Once the collaboration concluded, I'd take the best of everything everyone came up with and make something :) Here are pictures of exactly what was made as I was fabricating it.

Test fitting the custom mount before the finish work started.

Drywall mud. Three coats to make it look like it was always part of the house.

Done. Modern smart light in a 100-year-old stairwell. Level and wired.

And that's the story. I guess you could say this is like a really poor man's version of This Old House!