Dimmer Witted
Call it a baby step, but we’ve officially finished our first project in the nursery. And yes, that was a pun back there.
The room has always had a dimmer switch (back from its days as a dining room) but as long as we’ve lived here it hasn’t done a certain thing: dim. Yep, it went on and off, but did nothing in between. So as we brace ourselves for nights of sneaking into a sleeping baby’s room, we figured that being able to find some middle ground between blinded by darkness and blinded by light would be a totally useful thing.
And thanks to our spot on the True Value DIY Blog Squad, we were able to tackle this lighting issue no problem. All we needed was a $14 replacement slide dimmer from True Value and a little bit of electrical know-how. After all, it doesn’t take a degree in electrical engineering to replace a simple switch…
Our technique for most electrical projects is just to carefully watch what we’re undoing and then redo it with the new piece in place. Whether it’s a lighting fixture, ceiling fan or switch we just attentively observe which wires are connected to which wires and then recreate those pairings with the new wires which attach to the new fixture. And since we’re crazy paranoid about shocking ourselves (or worse) we ALWAYS turn off the main breaker to our entire house to be 100% sure that we won’t accidentally electrocute ourselves. You can’t be too careful when it comes to trying not to die.
From there the first step was removing the old switch, which just takes some quick turns of a screwdriver to release the switchplate cover- followed by gently pulling the actual switch box out from inside the wall (don’t pull too hard or you could dislodge something).
What we uncovered was an old switch that was way past its prime. It looked like all the connections were right, though some were so loosely made that they pulled apart when I lifted it away from the wall. Maybe that was why our old dimmer switch wasn’t fully functional. Oh and the only noticeably missing thing was a green grounding wire, but the nice thing about all new switches is that they usually come with those these days so that’s a bit of added security.
After untwisting the old caps to the connections that were still semi-secure-ish, we simply connected the new dimmer switch’s wires the same way. Granted this was all in the hope that the dimming issue was because of the old switch, not a greater wiring issue (which wouldn’t have been solved by a new $14 dimmer). But we crossed our fingers, twisted new wire nuts onto the new connections and even wrapped some black electrical tape around each one to ensure that there were no exposed stripped wires (the stripped parts of the wires are live, and those are connected beneath the nuts so electrical tape keeps them even more secure and safely out of reach).
Before testing it, we actually went ahead and screwed it back onto the wall just to be safe (we didn’t want to be holding the switch when we flipped the breaker and sent electricity surging through our house again).
Lucky for us – it worked! Not only did we have fully on and completely off capabilities, we had everything in between. Woo hoo! Plus our new slide dimmer features a faint red locator light that glows when the light is off. That way we don’t have to fumble for the baby OR the light switch in the middle of the night.
Now, had it not worked so seamlessly, the dimmer came with instructions to help us further diagnose the issue. Plus, there’s always our friend google to turn to for research. But fortunately this was an easy-as-pie start to our nursery transformation. It just took about 15 minutes, a $14 replacement dimmer from True Value and one very good reason to finally fix our broken switch!
But enough about us. What about you guys? Have you tackled any simple projects lately (electrical or otherwise)? Or is there something small that you’ve been putting off that might just make it to the top of your to-do (or honey-do) list this weekend? We of all people know that sometimes the littlest projects are the last to get done…
Psst- Beyond turning off the power to your entire house every time, electrical work definitely calls for extra safety precautions. It’s always smart to take on your first few electrical projects in the company of someone who’s well versed in this area (for us it was having John’s dad around for a couple of light-fixture-switchouts to learn the ropes). Because as good as a new pendant or switch looks, it’s not worth a trip to the ER. Safety first!
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Comments
congrats on the may addition to the household – we had a dimmer in our old house before we moved – we had our baby at that house and have now moved into a new house – gabrielle is now two and we replaced her switch with a dimmer switch – this is the BEST investment you will ever make (well, maybe not BEST, but it’s up there) – esp. with those mid-pm/am diaper changes, feedings, sneaking in to check, etc….you will love it and your new bundle of love :) best wishes!
Congrats, Sara! We’ve got a few ideas up our sleeve for our nursery color but we’re waiting ’til we find out the sex after the new year to make any final decisions. As a sneak preview, we’re thinking something in the green or blue family (even if it’s a girl).
-John
We decided to use what is technically the formal living room in our home (according to the floorplan) as our dining room. We entertain a lot and the actual dining room was just too small. But there was no ceiling fixture in the room, so we had the electrical put in for one…leaving two rectangular holes in our ceiling and wall. Hubby promised that they would be patched before Thanksgiving, because we always host, and I’m happy to say they are!
i’m really glad that the upgrade was not only functional, but improved the safety of that switch by adding a passive light for finding it in the dark (as i mentioned, BIG plus!), adding a grounding wire, and ensuring properly covered and secured wire connections. that’s one thing to be especially careful of in an older house. when i was younger, my dad and i would periodically go throughout the house with a nightlight to test all the outlets. we pulled the non-working ones out of the wall and rewired or replaced as necessary. a nightlight is a cheaper, less technical alternative to the voltage/amperage meters that home inspectors use whenever a house is bought.
can’t wait to see more!
oh, and you mentioned you’re thinking greens or blues for your nursery? i just discovered this studio and thought you might like it, if not for purchases, at least for ideas. i know i certainly got a lot of inspiring ideas!! i recommend these series of prints especially: snowy birds in flight, the forest floor, and maine landscapes.
Great post! I have the exact same problem in my dining room – the dimmer switch just goes from off to on, nothing in between. I thought it must be the wiring, but thanks for the idea – I’ll try replacing the switch before thinking it’s something worse!
I know you said you’re not using a CFL bulb in that room yet, but is the bulb currently there just a normal one? The one on my dimmer switch recently burnt out, and when I went to replace it I noticed it was a 3-way bulb. Can you confirm that I can just use a normal incandescent bulb, if I’m not using a CFL? Thanks! :)
Hey Kerry,
Yup, any old incandescent bulb can work on a dimmer but when it comes to CFLs you have to buy special “dimmable” ones to be sure they function safely and correctly. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Once we remove the old stove and all the boxes (and one ugly switchplate cover) we are tackling our mud room. I have a mud room! Sorry, we just moved into a 40’s bungalow from a 10’s rambling Victorian/Craftsman hybrid, so having any halfway functional space is thrilling. Our ‘new’ home has so much potential! And the mud room is first. We’re creating a stop n drop and a laundry room. It’s a nice large space, so we have room for both. My super-duper handy brother is going to run the water and electrical for the laundry, and we are going to tackle the storage and bench. PLUS, all our rooms are 12 foot tall, so I’m thinking shelf around the entire perimeter at 9 foot will give oodles of storage! That might be further down the road, when we can afford 20 or so matching baskets/boxes whatever along with the shelves.
We try to shut off electricity to the whole block if we’re doing projects – it’s safer that way. :)
Just a note that we have that exact dimmer and if you’re a little too grabby you can accidentally pull out the slider. It snaps back in (at an angle) but you have to make sure you place it back in the right place in order to move the controller up or down. I’m sure you’ll be gentle with it.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I’m grateful for health, wonderful friends (real and imagined), and the fact that my West Elm shelf is still on the wall!
Hey Tiffany S,
Thanks so much for the dimmer tip! We’ll try to be nice to it to avoid “decapitation.”
xo,
s
That’s a great way to go with the lights in your little one’s room. It can avoid disasters and disruption of sleep throughout the night.
We recently installed a programmable thermostat. Pretty easy, much just like installing a dimmer!
Nicely done, and congratulations on Burger’s little sibling! We have a light switch issue that’s not really related to your post, but maybe you can help. We rent our house, which was built about a hundred years ago. There’s a long narrow staircase connecting the upstairs and the downstairs, and there’s a hall light hanging above the stairs. The only problem is that the only light switch is at the top of the stairs. If we’re turning out the lights downstairs, we either have to walk up in the dark or one of us has to go up and turn the light on and then the other has to turn the downstairs lights off. Do you have any ideas about how to install a switch at the bottom of the stairs that’ll also control a staircase light and which won’t require a lot of electrical know-how (but also wouldn’t use up too many batteries)? I don’t know if there is such a thing, but I thought maybe you guys or some of your readers would :).
Thanks!
Hmm, good question! Off the bat we can’t think of anything super simple other than maybe “the clapper.” It sounds kind of funny but if you could add the clapper to the light you could clap it on and off from anywhere nearby. But other than that maybe our brilliant readers have more ideas. Feel free to chime in everyone!
xo,
s
Haha, we talked about that too – maybe we’ll just go ahead and do it! I’ll feel a little silly, but it’s a good solution.
Yes! My dad came over for Thanksgiving and bought me block planer, which we used to scrape down the top of our bathroom door. Now it actually closes. An important thing when it comes to bathroom doors.
This is a link to the diy network for information on switches that answers many of the questions people had in the comment section. I hope it helps.
We used the same dimmer in our baby’s first nursery- it was excellent! We paired it with a super cheap, very simple round hanging pendant light in the room and when the light was halfway dimmed it totally resembled a full moon hanging out over our heads. I miss that light and nursery and am now trying to recreate cool rooms for our toddler and new baby in our new house. It’s like starting over!
Good luck to you!
I had been procrastinating finishing the tile in my bathroom, but I finally broke down and did it. http://hiphousegirl.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/blood-sweat-and-death-to-procrastination/
And thanks to my wonderful brother, a couple of other small things got done recently as well- fixing the GFCI in the bathroom, and hooking up a vent and outlet for my dryer downstairs. I can’t really take credit for either of those, but it sure is nice to have someone to come over and say “Why haven’t you done this yet? Here let me…” and ten minutes later there’s a working outlet! I definitely have a few more that I need to get crackin’ on!
Great idea! That is now on our to-do list for our nursery. We are due 3-1 and our office (that you whipped up the design dilemma for) is getting the nursery makeover. I have to say I am surprised you are repainting the lovely neutral color in your nursery. I have to ask…what colors are you thinking about? I am trying to narrow it down for our baby boy!