Rustic Custom Workshop Lighting With 2x4s

Moving on to lighting up my new workshop! With the painting finally complete (omg it took forever) there was one major element I had to tackle to make this a truly functional space. Lighting! I chose 2x4s for a slightly more rugged look which I stained in dark walnut to match my wood floors.

I made the ceiling light into an outlet and covered it with a special box cover just for this kind of situation.
(That outlet and cover were ridiculously hard to find!) Then I painted it out in my ceiling paint. From there two black extension cords and five pendant lights gave me just what I needed. I ran one extension cord flat along the ceiling from the outlet to centered between my two workshop tables. (I used regular electrical wire tacks to hold everything down and then just painted it all out with my ceiling paint.)

I hung a 2×4 cut to 36 inches and then wrapped my extension cord and pendants around it. I chose to wrap the pendants so they ended up dropped over either end so they would reach as far across the tables as possible.

The black extension cords had three outlets on each of them so it was exactly the amount I needed for the center of the room.

I used the same idea as I did with the light above the tables. I hung a 2×4 using black wire and wrapped it in the extension cord and all three pendants. I have (oh so many times) smacked into lights in the past with everything from ladders to 2x4s, so I gave myself a lot of overhead space with the lights in the center of the room. I chose 2x4s instead of 4x4s (like in the picture) because of the weight factor. These lights ended up pretty light so all I used in the ceiling were hooks screwed into big sheet rock anchors. I wanted the light to point down so I purchased LED’s specifically that only light downward instead of having to make shades. So far I like it fine but I might end up making shades anyway to bounce even more light downward. I am VERY happy with how they turned out and OMG the difference in the room now is just incredible! The amount of light in here is almost Heaven-like lol I couldn’t believe it when I first turned the light on! Guys, I’m finally there, I can’t wait to show you my workshop complete!