Tag: weekend warrior

DIY lighting projects for the weekend warrior.

Weekend Warrior Recessed Lighting Project, Part Two

Weekend Warrior Series: LED Retrofit Lighting, Part Two

Chris Johnson 4 Comments

During the course of May, our team celebrated National Home Remodeling month by doing some simple lighting projects around the house and sharing them with our readers. We called it our “Weekend Warrior” series because all of the projects can be completed in a weekend (or less!). 

 

Weekend Warrior Retrofit LED Lighting Project

Project Two – The 1-Hour Project

In my last post I shared how we installed recessed lighting in our bonus room. Once I installed the LED retrofits there, I was hooked on the quality and energy-efficiency of the lighting. I decided to change out our seven 75-watt PAR30 halogen recessed lights in our kitchen with seven LED retrofit modules. The 7 halogen recessed lights used 525 total watts of electricity. By switching to LED retrofit modules I would reduce that wattage use to 87.5 watts! HUGE energy savings! In addition to the LED retrofit modules, I also changed out my dimmer switch to a Lutron Maestro C-L dimmer.

This was one project I was able to very easily do myself. In fact, I finished this one in less than an hour. Read More

Weekend Warrior LED Recessed Lighting Project

Weekend Warrior Series: LED Retrofit Lighting, Part One

Chris Johnson 1 Comment

This is the fourth post in our Weekend Warrior blog post series, part of our quest to bring customers unique products and creative ideas for DIY lighting projects around the house. We previously covered how to install security lighting, a custom pantry lighting solution, and creating a kid’s book nook with a wall mounted reading light.

Weekend Warrior LED Recessed Lighting Project

Since moving into my home in 2009 I have completed a number of lighting projects. In fact, I started a New Home Project blog post series documenting them. I am happy to report that a couple of those posts helped others with their own under cabinet and over cabinet lighting projects.

It has been a couple of years, but recently I embarked on two new projects with one overriding theme — Saving money by adding and/or replacing existing lights with LED. The first project that I’d like to share is adding LED recessed lighting to our bonus room to add more general illumination to this room, and the second one switched out our halogen recessed lights to LED. In both projects I installed 6-inch LED retrofits.

Project One – The Weekend Project

My bonus room’s general illumination came only from the lighting on our ceiling fan. For the size of our bonus room this was woefully inadequate. So, jump forward 6 years and we are finally getting around to painting this room and making it more than a “holding area” for random stuff. We decided it was a good time to increase the light level in this room with four LED recessed lights in the 4 corners of the room.

Bonus room with overhead light
Before we installed recessed lighting in our bonus room, our ceiling fan was the only light in the room.

When our house was built in 2009 I used PAR30 halogen light bulbs in our recessed lighting. At the time LED recessed lighting was still a little pricey and there were not many options. Now times have changed. LED recessed lighting, specifically LED retrofits, have come down in price and there a number of options available. Read More

Using a reading light in a kid's book nook

Weekend Warrior Series: A Kid’s Cozy Book Nook

Renee Carlson

This is the latest project in the Weekend Warrior blog post series, part of our quest to bring our customers unique products and offer creative ideas for DIY lighting projects around the house. 

How to create a kid's cozy book nook with reading light

For my Weekend Warrior project, I took a boring, ho-hum playroom corner and created a cozy and private reading area for my 9-year-old son, Max.

Here’s the deal:

I think every kid needs a place to call his own. A place to curl up and read an adventure novel on a rainy day, or just a place to escape pesky brothers. A book nook.

After lots of intense discussion, Max and I decided that his book nook needed a few crucial ingredients to make it the coolest-place-ever:

  • A small, cozy area with a comfy place to sit
  • Tons of interesting books with lots of super-hero action
  • A plug-in nearby for charging his Kindle
  • A reading light so he can read under his many future sheet-forts
  • Some pictures or posters to hang on the wall

Now:

We’ve already got most of the necessary ingredients for the perfect reading nook: a bookshelf full of interesting books, a cozy corner in the sitting area off of his bedroom, and an overstuffed bean bag. All we lacked was a reading light and some wall art.

A Cozy Corner, Before the Book Nook
Corners and closets are prime real estate for a cozy book nook.

How I chose the best reading light for our nook:

Read More

Weekend Warrior | Pantry Lighting Project

Weekend Warrior: Installing a Battery Operated LED Pantry Light

Renee Carlson 3 Comments

When Pegasus Lighting’s President Chris Johnson heard that his neighbor Greg had installed such a unique solution to his dark pantry problem, he knew it was perfect for our Weekend Warrior blog post series. The Weekend Warrior series is part of our quest to bring our customers unique products and offer creative ideas for DIY lighting projects around the house.  

Weekend Warrior blog series | Pantry LIghting

Written by guest blogger Greg Prospero

For years my family has struggled to deal with an unlit kitchen pantry. It was dark and deep leaving its contents shrouded in spooky mystery. You might reach in for a box of Oreo cookies and come out with a bag of dried organic snap peas. To avoid these frustrating mix-ups we resorted to using our iPhone flashlights or a small battery powered LED puck light – neither of which delivered satisfactory illumination of the pantry contents.

This DIY will explain how you can bathe your entire pantry in bright and uniform LED light whenever you open the door. The build is simple and low cost. There are only a few parts and the lighting is powered by 8 AA batteries that should power your lights for more than 15 hours.

Weekend Warrior Pantry lighting project | Before and After Read More

Weekend Warrior: Installing NETBRIGHT™ Wireless Motion Sensor Networked Spotlights

Chris Johnson 3 Comments

Today begins our newest series: Weekend Warrior. It’s part of our quest to bring our customers unique products and offer creative ideas for DIY projects around the house. This week we’re tackling one of our most innovative new products: The NETBRIGHT™ Wireless Motion Sensor Networked Spotlights. 

Weekend Warrior | Security Lighting Project

The Problem – lack of security lighting for rear of home.
The DIY solution I chose – Mr. Beams Netbright Wireless Spotlights.

I recently moved to a part of North Carolina where many of the homes in the area are vacation homes that are vacant throughout much of the year. Unfortunately, during the off-season months break-ins are common and I thought it would be wise to install security lighting around the perimeter of my home.

Currently, we have a fantastic motion sensor floodlight that gradually increases its light level installed at the front of my home. I have gotten into the habit of making excuses to walk near it just because I think it’s so cool.

Front floodlight image
My front entrance with existing floodlight

The back entrance of my home … not so much… Read More

Weekend Warrior Lighting Projects Social

Weekend Warrior – A New Blog Post Series

Renee Carlson

The Weekend Warrior is a nod to DIY'ers everywhere.

May is National Home Remodeling Month, which seemed like the perfect time to dig out our tools and get to work on some helpful new lighting How-To’s for our readers.

What is a Weekend Warrior?

You live for the weekends. Not because you can’t wait to catch up on your favorite TV series or play another round of golf. You spend Monday through Friday longing for the two days a week that you can devote to hammering out yet another home improvement project.

About the Weekend Warrior Blog Post Series:

The Weekend Warrior blog post series is a celebration of the DIY’er. It’s part of the Pegasus Lighting quest to bring our customers unique products and offer creative ideas for Do-It-Yourself projects around the house. Read More