Magic Light Trick

Have you heard of the Magic Light Trick from Brooke at Nesting With Grace?

It! Is! GENIUS!

Almost every person has, at some point, a need or want for a light in a certain place in their home where they can’t have a light. At least, not without getting an electrician involved.

Maybe there is no outlet.

Maybe the light needs to be hard-wired in an area where there are no wires.

In the case of my Colonial Farmhouse, both of those options are true – at the same time. Throw in some stone walls and it becomes the trifecta of major lighting headaches.

Ibuprofen can’t solve this problem, but the Magic Light Trick will!

In essence, the Magic Light Trick couples a regular light fixture (sconce, lamp, etc.) with a battery-operated puck light.

In our case, we hung two wall sconces in our dining room that were intended to be hard-wired and operated by a light switch. Except the sconces aren’t hardwired to anything since there are no electrical wires in that stone wall.

After we hung the sconces, I used three Command Strips to affix the battery-operated puck light inside the sconce. Brooke uses sticky-backed velcro and hot glue. Alternatively, there are little holes on the back of the puck light that you could, under the right circumstances, use a wire to hold the puck light in place.

If I need to change the batteries in the puck light, I can unscrew the part of the puck light with the batteries without removing the part that is affixed in place with Command Strips.

I need to set proper expectations. Puck lights, at least my particular battery-operated puck lights, are not as bright as a regular 60-watt light bulb.

Consider them accent lighting, not ‘light it up like the sun’ type of lighting.

The battery-operated puck lights are easy to use. You can tap each light off and on manually or you can use a remote. One remote controls all of the lights that come in the pack. Don’t worry though. You won’t be turning six lights off and on all at the same time. The remote has to be pointing directly at the puck light in order for it to turn off or on.

The remote can also dim the lights and set them to turn off after a certain amount of time.

I have not completely solved the lighting situation in our dark dining room, but using the Magic Light Trick with these two sconces has helped tremendously.

Let’s talk a little about that wall though because I’m not done with it yet. Decorating is a slow, but satisfying process for me. Sometimes it takes me a few tries before I get it right.

The carved, wooden horse head is art I found at the Elephant’s Trunk Flea Market in Connecticut. I shared that dramatic ‘will she or won’t she buy it’ story here. I’m so happy the horse has a home now!

As much as I love the horse head, I wanted some flexibility on the art that I use in our dining room. For instance, I’m already planning on hanging my wood dove between the two sconces during the Christmas season. The dove is larger than the horse head. For that reason, I hung the sconces a little wider than I would have if the horse head was the only thing that was ever going to be on that wall.

In these pictures the horse head looks a little on the small side. The wall feels better in person than it looks in the pictures, but I’m still playing around with options for filling out this wall. Maybe with a ledge under the horse or something behind the horse.

I just have to be mindful that whatever I add to the wall doesn’t interfere with us using or accessing the dining table. Practical use of a home really throws a wrench in decorating, doesn’t it?

Now, don’t worry about me and my decorating dilemmas. Those will all work themselves out and you know I’ll happily overshare every angst-ridden decision with you.

Let’s focus on the important part of this story.

Thanks to the Magic Light Trick, when my children complain about what we are having for dinner, they can actually see what they are complaining about now.

Hallelujah.

P.S. I am so enamored with this Magic Light Trick solution that I plan on using this solution for lamps on the nightstands in our master bedroom. There’s only one outlet in our bedroom and it isn’t on the bed wall! My only problem now is finding the right lamps!

These are the puck lights I used. I got them on Amazon in a 6-pack. They were $35 total and included batteries. No complaints so far. Make sure the puck lights will fit in whatever light fixture you want to use though.

These are the wall sconces in my dining room. I didn’t plan it this way, but I also got them on Amazon. They have an adjustable swing arm and come in four different color combinations. My sconces with the black and brass color combination were $54 each.

*There are affiliate links in this post. It doesn’t cost you anything, but I may get credit if you purchase something using one of my links. Thank you! 

Thanks for following along with our journey of fixing up this Colonial Farmhouse! It makes my day when we get to hang out this way. Here are some other posts you might enjoy. 

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